My best friend/teacher/dancer is having a baby in a week!!! I wanted an irish themed gift so decided to sew this little things. I think they look adorable!
23.7.12
Update on my assistan teaching class!
Since one of my students is studying we decided to have only one class. per week. That left me with one hour free on thursdays in the studio. So this idea came to my mind. I wanted to include my son in my classes so he could have some time with me doing what I love. I decided then to open a class for little kids. From 3 to 6 years old. Thats an age group neither my teacher or I have experience with. Since classes will be until December It would be a "test" group and we will see how it goes.
So This are some of the activities
I have thought for them:
Mimics
Simon says (let's see if a celtic name can occur to me haha)
Doing rounds
Jumping
The statue game
I want to do little skirts and vests, so they play to dress up and dance.
Storytelling (wanting to find some celtic stories nice for kids) and roleplaying with dance characters we choose from the story.
Dance freestyle
Dance in the mood of the music (listen to a song and dance depending how it makes you feel)
The train (one kid leads the train and the other follow, trying to go in skip 123), or the teacher leads and all kids grab their hands.
Make little cloth clovers so they put in a pot , but to get there they need to move in a special way (like sidestep or jumping with one leg, with two, skip 2,3)
Listen to music and clap.
Put marks on the floor and make each kid go to an assigned mark.
Things I'll try to encourage:
Good posture
Streching after class
Learning to have conscience of legs and arms and to move in a "Stage"(aka marked place)
Start to develop core strength
Teach them to wait for turns
My objectives are:
Teach them sidestep and skip 2 3.
They have fun!!! It's a recreational class, if they want their kids to be in the ultimate dance lessons they should sign them for ballet, this is playing and dancing to one of the most beautiful music and introduce them to one of the richest cultures.
Oh well that is what I have now, I think that the more I am with the kids the more activities will go through my mind.
Also I thought a nice Idea to atract young kids is whenever we do a performance include a slip jig or a jig and dress as a fairy,
PD: I love doing lists, it just keeps me organized!
12.7.12
Update...
So I haven't updated lately because I got sick, then my baby got sick, then I had an allergy and I just couldn't focus on anything. Actually I was feeling a little depressed after all this. But this tuesday I had this little revelation. I didn't do any physical activity during this sickness period so I was feeling like a real lazy ass. That afternoon I went to my mom's house earlier and I was feeling very hungy, as if I hadn't eaten in the hole day (but I did). So I pretty much emptied my mom's fridge and I still felt so hungry. We had to go and look for some papers in town and I felt I had this huge belly and still hungry and I was really freaked out haha. I also felt so tired.
I went to my Irish Dance class. I started dancing and I felt I was so light, I jumped so high, and when I saw my reflex I saw me being so graceful. Something inside me changed.
I finished the class as if I had just woke up from the most refreshing nap. I felt my body again and my hunger actually dissapeared, I felt satisfied and happy. I came to my house at night and felt like it was the early morning.
Dancing is one of the best things I have. And when I don't dance I am not me anymore.
I went to my Irish Dance class. I started dancing and I felt I was so light, I jumped so high, and when I saw my reflex I saw me being so graceful. Something inside me changed.
I finished the class as if I had just woke up from the most refreshing nap. I felt my body again and my hunger actually dissapeared, I felt satisfied and happy. I came to my house at night and felt like it was the early morning.
Dancing is one of the best things I have. And when I don't dance I am not me anymore.
22.6.12
Making up a dance
So I spent 2 days (as much as I could dedicate to it taking care of my 2 kids) making a three hand reel for my classes.
The reason behind is because we have work more on confidence and need at least a dance to dance in front of public. So a three hand reel is perfect. I can dance with them and that will give them an extra confidence factor. Plus if they forget something they just follow. I also made it lovely to watch and easy to dance, the dance includes 32 bars of teapot, and two different kind of rounds, also sidesteps and 1,2,3 without looking too simple, I love it!!
this is the first dance I coreographed and I hope It looks nice, I can't wait to teach it!
The reason behind is because we have work more on confidence and need at least a dance to dance in front of public. So a three hand reel is perfect. I can dance with them and that will give them an extra confidence factor. Plus if they forget something they just follow. I also made it lovely to watch and easy to dance, the dance includes 32 bars of teapot, and two different kind of rounds, also sidesteps and 1,2,3 without looking too simple, I love it!!
this is the first dance I coreographed and I hope It looks nice, I can't wait to teach it!
11.6.12
The leap pictureee
Of course after seeing everyone has their leap picture I want one aswell.
Yesterday we did the try but... I guess I didn't hold it as much as I should for the "perfect picture".
Plus my husband was in bad mood because he had a headache. So he took some photos and looked me with his bad mood face so that's all haha.
Next time I'm taking the pictures in the daylight!
Yesterday we did the try but... I guess I didn't hold it as much as I should for the "perfect picture".
Plus my husband was in bad mood because he had a headache. So he took some photos and looked me with his bad mood face so that's all haha.
Fairly decent photo
This one is closer so it has more flash.
8.6.12
Let's go to the Eisteddfod!
Sooo, after talking with my students well, I'm not reaaaally their teacher, (but for this year I am muehehee). I asked them what did they thought of live performances.
First they were like "oh haha you are joking, I would go to the stage but only with my face covered up"
"I am no joking guys, interested or not?"
Well they were. This is nice because it is a competition but the category is foreign folk dance. So our competitors will probably do some other dance like Arab, Greek or whatever you can think of. No one will be comparing us to other Irish Dancers ;-). I still want them to do a good job though.
First they were like "oh haha you are joking, I would go to the stage but only with my face covered up"
"I am no joking guys, interested or not?"
Well they were. This is nice because it is a competition but the category is foreign folk dance. So our competitors will probably do some other dance like Arab, Greek or whatever you can think of. No one will be comparing us to other Irish Dancers ;-). I still want them to do a good job though.
Maybe this is what they got in their mind?
The Eisteddfod is on October , so we have plenty of time to prepare ourselves! (plus it's a 4 minutes dance only)
PD: If you wanna know what on earth is a Eisteddfod go here.
Singers performing in the Eisteddfod!
7.6.12
My students finally got the jig!
So after some weeks of trying and trying my students finally learned the complete steps of our beginner light jig.
The timing made it harder, those fast little steps in the end were very hard to get. (they are even hard for me when there is slippery floor).
So after a "we are stuck" class I came home with one thing in my mind: They are learning this dance next class. So I watched a video of myself and my teacher dancing the jig to have it super incorporated. Next I looked through all of my music to a more "slow" light jig. Seriously I only could find one song that is slightly more slow.
It seems that more determination payed well. Not only they learned the last step, they performed the full dance in time with no mistakes!
This is a caption of the video:
The timing made it harder, those fast little steps in the end were very hard to get. (they are even hard for me when there is slippery floor).
So after a "we are stuck" class I came home with one thing in my mind: They are learning this dance next class. So I watched a video of myself and my teacher dancing the jig to have it super incorporated. Next I looked through all of my music to a more "slow" light jig. Seriously I only could find one song that is slightly more slow.
It seems that more determination payed well. Not only they learned the last step, they performed the full dance in time with no mistakes!
This is a caption of the video:
I'm the one on the left. YES I KNOW MY ARMS !!!
aw I didn't even have my ghillies <3
I need to take more actual pictures.
Note: the skirt of the picture doesn't fit me yet :-(
5.6.12
Dancing to not traditional music.
I love celtic music, I really do. And Irish folk music... I love it more.
But sometimes it's refreshing to watch Irish Dancing to other kind of music.
Here are some pop songs danced by irish dancers!
Hardshoe to a Maroon 5 song (I don't know who is the dancer so I can't say anything about her!)
Soft Shoe Dance from NAIDF dancers Shakira, Waka Waka
But sometimes it's refreshing to watch Irish Dancing to other kind of music.
Here are some pop songs danced by irish dancers!
The Nashville Irish step Dancers dancing Black Eyed Peas (Hardshoe mainly)
Nora Pickett Irish Dance Academy dancing to Katy Perry, Fireworks. (SoftShoe)
Hardshoe to a Maroon 5 song (I don't know who is the dancer so I can't say anything about her!)
Soft Shoe Dance from NAIDF dancers Shakira, Waka Waka
28.5.12
Some funny irish dance pictures and memes
I took all of them from pinterest, some of the sources it quoted were these:
Omg!! I found this picture around the web and couldn't help laughing!!
Dealing with ankle pain!!
Well I do not like dealing with pain in my ankles, who does ? This Saturday after practise I was feeling lots of pain and used this method to reduce pain that my orthopedic gave me:
Ice
(15 mins approx, or less if you can't deal with it)
Yeah, well you could put ice directly on the area or just put cold water with some ice in a pail.. I personally put some ice inside a fabric tissue and put it over the treated area.
Hot Water + Salt
Same amount of time of ice
+
I surprised you! I know you already knew about Ice, but this treatment goes like this: 15 minutes cold, 15 minutes hot and it will have more inflammatory results. You should add some salt to the water to have an even better result. Do it as many times a day you can and try to take a rest from dancing for at least one day
This is a good thing to do after a long practise, or before a competition. There is no contradiction to this though always see a doctor if your pain is persistent.
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