Blog 5

I spent this past week helping the teachers with classes and other small tasks around the studio. On Wednesday, I offered to help with some additional cleaning at the studio. Because the kids frequently place their hands on mirrors, leaving handprints, I thoroughly cleaned all of the mirrors, making sure to remove any handprints. In addition, we had marks of tape down from the pandemic that required dancers to stand six feet apart, so I began removing the tape. Because the tape was two years old, I had to apply Goo Gone, which left the floors extremely sticky and slippery. 

I assisted some classes on Thursday. I started my day with Michelle's jazz red class, which includes dancers aged 10 to 11. To avoid injury, I began by stretching the kids thoroughly with their regular stretch routine, making sure that all of the dancers felt loose and flexible. Then I gave them some across-the-floor combos. They began by doing a kick combo that included two front kicks and two side kicks in relevé. Chaîné (quick turns in fifth position across the floor) and pique turns (quick turns on one foot with the other foot in a turned-out posse) were the next moves. The six-step prep pirouette turns and "lame duck" turns were the following combination. Finally, saut de chats (leaps) and center leaps were the following combinations. Each of the across-the-floor combos is performed on both sides of the floor. I taught the kids a short jazz combo at the end of the class, which they loved! On Thursday, I also assisted in an acro class with Nina. 

On Saturday, I completed various housekeeping tasks, including creating signs for the studio doors with upcoming announcements, advertisements, and other information. For tech rehearsal, I also took more images of the various dances. Finally, I conducted a thorough stretch for my hip hop spice class.