We have had a great start to the new school year, welcoming many new faces to our dance family. Our new pointe class has been an exciting addition, giving those on pointe more time to progress and also a group of girls working hard on demi pointe with the aim of working towards their 1st shoes at Christmas
We also introduced a brand new beginners Tap class for little ones on a Saturday morning at 10am, and they have delighted in learning to make a noise with their feet. We are even now getting some actual Tap steps with hopefully some well mastered Step ball Changes by the end of 2025!
As always within our little ones classes, there are seniors to help out and the little ones really look up to them. Having started as little ones on their very own dance journeys, in what feels like yesterday, they have grown to become accomplished dancers. Helping out in class also brings many benefits for them. They have a greater understanding of how to break down steps to achieve a better technique, and appreciating an increased knowledge of the time it takes for our bodies to learn new things, and creating muscle memory. They also have an increased confidence through having the opportunity to lead and assist, giving a greater confidence in their own abilities and accomplishments.
Its been a very busy time for Melody Bear celebrating everything Autumn, swishing and blowing in the leaves, rain dances, galloping on our ponies and ending term with mixing spells. Our Saturday morning class is now full, but we are hoping to add an afternoon class very soon, so please do register your interest or join the waiting list.
There was a lot of spooky goings on the last week of term, including some scary musical bumps, mixing potions, and balancing bats, rats and spiders on our heads to end a very long and busy term.
During half term we held one of our fun dance and craft workshops, where 10 children came together to choreograph 2 spooky themed dances, along with crafting 2 props to use within these dances.
We began by creating a day of the dead inspired dance, breaking up into smaller groups to choreograph, using the ideas of different levels when travelling and freezing in a spikey shape. Some really beautiful masks were made to use for this dance.
We then crafted a witches brooms to use in a Hocus Pocus inspired dance. A more upbeat, musical theatre inspired dance where again we then broke into sub groups to choreograph dances using the brooms and partner work. We learned its not always easy to use large props, but worked together to make a really fun.
Again lots of fun together.
We are all looking forward now to getting back to dance and working on our syllabus work, with the aim of a bbodance exam session in the new year.
Dare I also mention the Christmas word? Lots of excitement brewing, and we are very much looking forward to Christmas fun week from the 15th December onwards. Not forgetting watching week for parents from the 8th December. We have a particularly lovely Contemporary dance to perform for you that week!