Acro

Tinsky or front walkover

Round off backflip

Browny or aerial cartwheel

Front Handspring

Elbow Stand

Yep, these are terms I never heard off before, but now my Miss 9 and Miss 11 girls are learning and doing them in their acro dance class.

And it’s SCARY!

I mean, I go to their acro dance about 5 minutes early so I can watch Miss 11 practise her aerial cartwheel – basically a no-hands cartwheel.

I see her get ready to do her run up.   I don’t know whether she’s more nervous or I am – that she’ll be turning her whole body 360 degrees in the air while trying to defy gravity.   It’s not natural right?  Humans weren’t made to fly.

She turns over but she can’t resist touching the floor when upside down.  I don’t blame her!!  If I was trying it I would think “OK gravity – you win”!

She tries a few more times.  She nearly gets there.  Luckily her instructor knows how to spot her correctly and even catches her once when her approach isn’t quite straight.   Should I be worried?  I mean, if I had boys, they’d be playing footy or soccer..  and they don’t get hurt in that right?  HA!

A bad dance

Have you had a bad dance?  You know, one of those ones that just don’t work.

At the DJ Battle on last weekend, I got knocked out early so took the opportunity have a few dances. 

And so the DJ put on a song, one I’ve never heard or danced to before.  The rhythm was a bit uncomfortable – it “sounded” slow, but it was not.   I think it was because it had more of a half time feel to it.

I asked a follow to dance – an advanced dancer.  Like many dances, I first like to get “in tune” with my follow – almost like “calibrating” myself to them, as every follow is different.  We did a few rocks to the music.

And then a few swingouts.

And then crap.

Nothing seemed to work at all!  Not that we didn’t “dance”.  But our dance forms and frame was totally not connecting. I wasn’t able to play and connect with the music and give us both room to improvise with each other and the music.  

And being the lead, it’s really all my fault.  Aargghhh!!!  I tried to get back to basics, but I was probably so frustrated by then, it just didn’t work.  Maybe I started thinking too hard…

We continued dancing to the end of the song, and I said a big “sorry” afterwards when leading her off the floor.  We’ve had better dances before, and I had some really good dances that night, but this particular combination of song, partner and my frame of mind and (bad :)) technique just didn’t gel this time.

I felt embarrassed.  I felt disappointed. 

How can I make sure this doesn’t happen again?

Painting dance shoes

Each year the kids take part in some dancing exams for jazz and tap.  As usual, we’re slack parents and we suddenly realised that the exam is this Monday.   And…  the dance costume and shoes aren’t done yet!

I’m not sure how it happened, but a few years ago, I became the allocated shoe painter.

So, while the kids were watching their movie on Friday’s movie night, I started the ritual again…  anticipating the smell of newspaper, the blackness of my hands when I’m done, the smell of the paint, the joy of finding a corner of newspaper I can hold to turn the shoe upside down…

Painting dance shoes

Dad duty at dancing

Last one standing

At the kids’ dancing school, parents are invited to watch their kids, in class, at the end of each term.   It’s a wonderful opportunity to see how they’re going, whether they’re enjoying that dance style, struggling, excelling..

Wifey and I tag teamed on Friday to watch the kids’ back to back acrobat classes.  It’s great to see kids pushing themselves physically, but in acro, it’s also paining to see weird contortions – how can one’s backs and bodies bend that way and not hurt?  I also like going because I’m usually one of the only Dads – makes me popular with the Mums 😉  hahahaha

Anyway, I knew my daughter loved acro, and even though she’s pint-sized and doesn’t “seem” strong but she has pretty good balance.   She was the last one standing in a little balance exercise and I quickly snapped this shot.   I have previously taken zoom lenses to the classes, but it usually has pretty poor lighting in there, so this time I took the trustworthy 85mm f1.8.  Not being able to physically move around to compose a shot makes it hard, but I like how this one turned out.

Amazon Order actually here!!

OMG!! This morning I started to get really anxious.. I had ordered Frankie’s book like a whole calendar month ago, and still it hadn’t turned up at work.  I started scouring the Amazon site for policies on not receiving packages and all.  Anyway, took a trip to the stores here at work, walked through the Goods Inwards log book and saw that something from Amazon did come in for me, like on the 11th of June – 2 weeks ago!!  It was my books!!! aargghghhhhh I could’ve been reading it all now!!!

Anyway, I’ll be busy reading tonight.  I had ordered Frankie Manning’s biography, as well as “Jazz Dance – The Story of American Vernacular Dance” – which may be quite useful for Su too (she’s writing a book on Musical Theatre).