Quiero Bailar

Soy ensenando un baile por un groupo de competicion.
I am teaching a dancer for a competition group.
And I know some Spanish, Olay!

The song I'm using is the Glee Kate Hudson mash-up of Americano and Dance Again.  I'm loving it.  And the girls think it's cool that I can translate the Spanish in Americano for them.

It's jazz piece.  All of my Jazz 3 (the highest level) class is in it and some of my Jazz 2 dancers.  I really didn't want to put the Jazz two girls in it, but I didn't have a choice in the matter.  Oh well, I'm making it work. 

The piece is really coming along!  The girls are working really hard and I think it looks great.  So far what I've done is I started them dancing in unison as a group and then I split them into different lines based on their class levels.  Then I kind of dedicated the Dance Again portion of the song to the 2's and the Americano portion to the 3's.  So far it's working.

My biggest frustration is the lack of effort.  And I know I should complain because they are working really hard for me, but I still need a whole lot more from them if they're going to do well in competitions.  I try to get them to ask intelligent questions but also to figure things out for themselves, but so far that hasn't happened.  Then again, they are between 9 and 12 years old sooo...

When I say lack of effort I guess I really mean their reliance on me.  For example, if the choreo is to do an axle turn with the right arm in the air, I'll have a student say that every time the do it their left arm goes in the air.  What am I supposed to say to that?  They expect me to have an answer and somethings just take practice...if your right arm is supposed to be up but you put the left one up instead just keep practicing.  There's nothing I can do for that!  I also always have one or two of the Jazz 2 girls telling me that the music is too fast.  The music is the music and I can't change that, and I'm not going to give them wimpy choreography because a) it's an advanced level piece and b) it takes strong choreo to win.  So there.  One more frustration is when I introduce a new move or something and they just look at me like I'm crazy.  Uhh, hello, please practice what's going on.  They don't try it and then they can't get it in the dance and they tell me they can't do it and that the music is too fast...it's a viscous cycle.  I know what they're capable of and I'm not getting it from the so far.

But these things take time.  I'll whip 'em into shape by the time the first competition rolls around.