Ballet Lesson 1
12/09/18
Bar Work:
When extending into a développé the knee should stay back while the leg extends to the front.
A glissé must lead with the toes.
Centre Work:
A routine is called an enchainement.
When doing a fouetté sauté make sure the highest point is at the front of the turn. Also make sure to plié when landing.
When doing a pirouette remember to spot and place foot down firmly when landing to avoid loosing your balance.
Singing Lesson 1
13/09/18
In this lesson we did a long warm up consisting of a lot of exercises to improve breath control. We held sustained vowel sounds to see how long we could hold a note for so that we can reflect on this in the future and see our improvements.
We then moved on to learning a song and we sang 'Natural Woman' from Beautiful- the Carole King Musical. Once we had learnt the notes we experimented with singing it straight- so with no vibrato or sliding to access a pure sound in our voices. After this we went round the room and each took a line to sing to improve our confidence of performing in front of others.
Jazz Lesson 1
13/09/18
At the beginning of our lesson we sat down with our note books and we were asked to write 3 things we think we are strong at/can bring to jazz class and 3 things we would like to improve on.
Here's what I wrote:
I would like to improve on my ability to pick up choreography, my jazz technique and my stamina.
In my opinion I am strong in my flexibility (however there is definitely still room for improvement) enthusiasm and willingness to learn.
We also did a mini test and lesson about the different areas of a stage and their names.
Singing Lesson 2
17/09/18
We began to work on our vowel sounds through our warm up and we were told the right shapes to make with our mouths when saying each one. It was evident that making a small change to the shape of your mouth can really change the way a vowel sounds and when singing later on in the lesson I applied the vowel sounds to the song we were working on.
Ballet Lesson 2
19/09/18
We sat down and learnt about the importance of different exercises in ballet, especially barre work. We broke these exercises down into 3 sections:
We then went through the barre exercises we had covered so far:
Corrections:
-When coming up from a plie in 1st, 3rd or 5th position the heels should come down as early as possible to achieve the correct form.
Jazz Lesson 2
20/09/18
In this lesson we didn't have our usual teacher. Instead we had Tracy who took us through a dance fitness class. This helped me improve my stamina which was one of the targets I set in the first lesson.
Singing
We worked on one short day with myself and Ella singing the solos. We also added in the harmonies on the solo lines and made sure we were in time with each other on the lines we sang together.
Ballet Lesson 3
26/09/18
When doing my plies in today's lesson I felt the difference of placing my heels down early and then pushing through the heels to bring myself back up.
Alongside our usual exercises including barre work and port de bras we worked on our spotting which will help us keep our balance when doing pirroutes.
Jazz Lesson 3
27/09/18
We spent a while working on the correct position for a flat back and holding it to strengthen our core. We also did kicks across the room and i noticed while watching others do their kicks how important it is to keep a good posture, even if it means not kicking as high. We also did our par de bourre into jazz 4th across the room.
Ballet Lesson 4
03/09/18
In this video I am practicing my posé turns across the room. I mostly maintained my balance and direction however I noticed when watching this video back that my leg was not turned out whilst turning and I completely lost my balance when coming out of my last turn. Therefore I will keep this in mind as something to improve on in the future.
We took a particular focus on improving our form on arabesques. I took a photo of my progress so far so that I can refer to this in the future.
Looking at this photo, I've noticed that my left leg is far more turned out than my right which slightly ruins the line of the arabesque. also my torso is too far forward so I should raise my leg slightly lower so that my torso can be straighter.
Jazz Lesson 4
04/10/18
We worked again on our flat back and i found it easier to get the position after the practice last week. I remembered that our weight should be on the front of our feet to get the right shape which helped me a lot in finding this position. We did our par de bourre again but this time adding a turn.
Ballet Lesson 5
10/10/18
In this lesson we focused on our sissones. We got into pairs and took turns being each others support for sissones across the room. We then gave each other corrections and my correction was to make sure I didn't turn my leg out when jumping forward which I took on board. This then improves the form of my sissone.
Jazz Lesson 5
11/10/18
In this lesson we did our usual warm up but with an extended time spent on stretching to improve our flexibility. We did a mini exercise including a preparation for a pirroute followed by four springs. We did this from the corner. We learnt a lyrical routine which I found I really enjoyed as it was all about your own interpretation.
Jazz Lesson
01/11/18
In today's lesson we began with our usual warm up, then learnt a count of 8 with a spring and lean which we repeated several times to help us get to grips with these moves.
We learnt a par de bourre across the floor with a big swing at the end.
Our jazz teacher took a particular focus on preparing us to learn dances in audition style therefore we learnt a dance to from now on in a short amount of time and then performed it in small groups.
Ballet Lesson
31/10/18
In today's lesson we started by warming up our bodies before moving to the barre. When doing my developpes i was told to make sure i kept my knee back to maintain my turn out throughout the developpe.
When we moved on to port de bras we added 3rd position and 4th position of the arms to our exercise.
Ballet Lesson
14/11/18
In today's lesson we did our usual barre excercises, we focused on our preparation for battement frappes and holding the leg out when we do our glisces. Our word of the day was jete which means to jump. We practised our jetes in a short combination which consisted of a glissard, a jete ordinare behind side front and then a changement. When performing this combination I learnt about how to accent the more important moves which in this case were the jete and the changement. I stayed on the jete for half a beat longer and sped up the behind side front movement.
Jazz Lesson
15/11/18
In todays lesson we began with a warm up and learnt how to do hitch kicks. We also did normal kicks from the corner and I focused on keeping my upper body still whilst getting good height with my leg. We did a pile when kicking to the back however I need to remember to keep my head in line with my body. We also carried on learning choreography for 'from now on' from The Greatest Showman. We did a range of centre work including a sequence consisting of a developpe, rond de jambe, tondue and plie. We did this sequence dedong and devant.
Singing Lesson
12/11/18
In this lesson we did our usual warm ups however we focused on discovering our current range at the end of the warm up. I found that my range was from the A note just below middle C to a D note two octaves above middle C.
Singing Lesson
15/11/18
In this lesson we started focusing on different Christmas songs as we are planning to record something to send out on the college Christmas E-card. First we sang through silent night and focused on producing a pure sound which we decided we might later add harmonies to. We also sang through 'The 12 days of Christmas' and 'Jingle Bell Rock' both of which we thought we might be able to record as a video with movement.
Ballet Lesson
09/01/19
In todays lesson we focused on allegro and what it means within ballet. Allegro can either be a grand allegro which involves big and slower jumps or petit allegro which involves smaller and much faster jumps. We ran through various exercises at the bar including plies, tondues, battement frappes and grand battement. when doing the grand battement exercise I felt that I had more strength and height than I did in previous lessons.
We practised a petit allegro we had previously learnt which involved a glissando, petit jete, pas de bourre and a changement ready to repeat the sequence on the other side.
Our move go the day what a pas de chat which translates to the step of a cat. Below is what my pas de chat currently looks like however my second foot tends to turn in before I bring it up so I will take this as something I can improve on.
Jazz Lesson
17/01/19
In todays lesson we began with a student led warm up where I led the flexibility section. We did some arm and leg co ordination exercises walking down the room where we slowly increased the speed each time. We also did triple runs from the corner with pirouettes and double pirouettes. We then learnt a jazz funk routine and learnt hoe to make different styles suit us.
Singing Lesson
24/01/19
In todays lesson we went over little shop of horrors prologue and skid row again and began allocating solos to fit with the staging and choreography. We clarified certain notes that we were not sure on and all began to work as an ensemble more when singing the song.
Ballet Lesson
30/01/19
Today we began with some exercises to help us with our turnout. One of these was lying on our side against the wall with our legs bent, we then opened one leg- but only to the point where we are using our inner thigh muscles to lift it as this is what were aiming to stregnthen. We learnt a new ballet move today called petit pas de basque.
Jazz Lesson
31/01/19
Today we started with a fitness regime including holding the plank and doing sets of push-ups. nWe then did a long stretch to help us with our flexibility and to release any tension from the previous exercises. Next we did a pas de bourre exercise with a balance that had one leg in fondue.
We also did an open pas de bourre with single then double pirouettes across the floor. We did kicks across the floor front side and back with a bent leg when kicking to the back. We then moved onto leaps and did a sequence with swish and flick leaps on both sides. I was given feedback to make sure my legs go out at the same time and to think more upwards when doing my leaps.
Finally we attempted turning leaps with an attitude on the back leg and we did these continuously across the room.
Acting Lesson
05/02/19
Today we were working on the acting scenes in 'Little Shop of Horrors'. We began by reading through and staging these scenes before going more in depth about how we could personalise our lines to our characters. We decided to add some clicks in our lines as the doo wop girls as we wanted our physicality to show our sassy nature. After working on the actual line we did some characterisation work by each being put into the hot seat and being asked questions by our teachers. Through doing this I decided my character (Ronette) was 13, left school because she decided it was boring, had been in trouble with the policefor causing trouble and disturbance on the streets and her usual place to hang out would be on the side of the street.
Ballet Lesson
06/02/19
Today we began again with our turnout exercises before moving on to our usual barre exercises. We did rond de jambe a l'air all the way round starting fromna developee. We learnt about using our head when doing plies and we did this by following the hand and tilting the head to the side. This addition of head movements helps us to enhance our dancing and add more dynamic into our movements. When moving to the center we practised our pirroutes en dedong. We got into pairs and had our partner support us while we went into the preparation and held the pirroutte position for 4 beats. This helped me to then have the correct allignment when we later started turning.
Jazz Lesson
07/02/19
Today we began with our usual warm up encorporating a hardcore stregthening routine like last week. We then moed on to swings forward and sideways with a jump to help us free up our bodies and get more comfortable doing this kind of movement. We also learnt a Y balance which is when you hold your leg in the air by grabbing the inside of the foot and extending out the arm. When doing this I discovered I was particularly good at this and was able to hold my leg by my ear. I was given the correction to sit into it more to get my body in the right position. We focused on travelling in today's class and did exercises such as a pas de bourre turning and straight, circular springs with side ways step ball change and jump, triple runs with arms throwing in retiré, step kicks with hitch kick and pas de bourre turning and triple runs with single and double pirouettes. Our teacher gave us each a goal to work towards over the half term and mine was to work on stregnthening.
Singing Lesson
07/02/19
Today we learnt 'Anything Goes' and sung it through as a class in order to add it to our group repatoire. We also sung the full version of 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow' which is very useful for improving and expanding our range as it has quite big jumps in the melodic line. In addition to these we also run through our songs for 'Little Shop of Horrors' again and included some more backing vocals along with seymours solo part in 'Skid Row'.
Ballet Lesson
27/02/19
Today we had a student led session, we did our usual Barre exercises - turns on dedon. We did jumps in first and third position finishing with changement, then Grand Allegro where we practiced our leaps.
Singing Lesson
28/02/19
We began by rehearsing ‘Skid Row’ and making sure that everything we sung fitted with the backing track. We also rehearsed “Prologue’ and recapped our harmonies for ‘Dadoo’.
Jazz Lesson
28/02/19
We did our usual warm up and them moved onto kicks in the centre, both on a flat foot and a rise. We did five combinations across the floor which included:
- Pas de bourre
- Pirroutes
- Back bends
- Leaps
- Floor
- Changes of direction
- Different speeds
Singing Lesson
07/03/19
Today we ran through Addams family with the second years to consolidate the vocals however we haven't quite sorted out our backing track yet, so we will make sure we allocate extra time to rehearse with the right backing track. We also went through Skid Row and Prologue and fixed some timing issues. Me and Alex rehearsed our duet for the upcoming performance which Charlie (our singing teacher) gave us notes for. I was told to make sure my projection was still good on the lower notes so this is something I will be practising.
Jazz Lesson
07/03/19
Ballet Lesson
20/03/19
Today we began with a cardio boxing exercise which we did in pairs to help warm our bodies up. We then did our turnout exercises against the wall then laid on our backs and released our hips my circling our legs. We did our normal barre exercises then moved on to jumps and turns, I was given the correction to make sure my hips are square when turning my legs out.
We started learning a sequence of moves consisting of sissones, pas de chats and changements. We were all told to think about keeping our eye level up and our arm strong. We should also try to point our feet.
20/03/19
Today we began with a cardio boxing exercise which we did in pairs to help warm our bodies up. We then did our turnout exercises against the wall then laid on our backs and released our hips my circling our legs. We did our normal barre exercises then moved on to jumps and turns, I was given the correction to make sure my hips are square when turning my legs out.
We started learning a sequence of moves consisting of sissones, pas de chats and changements. We were all told to think about keeping our eye level up and our arm strong. We should also try to point our feet.
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