A Work in Progress
Have you ever had a moment in life whether it be in dancing or another hobby that everything begins to fall into place and (sort of) make sense?
I'm happy to say that my post oireachtas resting/recalibrating period has been going great. I've got new steps in 3 of my 4 dances and I'm pretty content with them. By no means are they ready to dance out tomorrow, but I am confident that they will be. It's just a thrill to be attempting and in some cases dancing fulls with these new steps when this time last year I would watch others do them in awe. I am doing steps that girls at my school were doing when they qualified for Prelim. Clicks, doubles, difficult rhythmic pieces, kicks where I practically kick my face, and leaps that make me feel like I'm flying. I feel like I probably sound like a crazy person but sometimes I'm in class and I almost need to pinch myself for what I am learning.
My plan on being disciplined is going pretty well despite my crazy life. This is week three of doing all of this and I'm averaging between 2-3 hours each week beyond class. This week I've only got half an hour but I worked the grocery store and spent the day in Baltimore (Seriously wishing it was while the SRO was going on because I legit would have run away from my boss and hung out with you guys. NOT A GOOD TRIP!) Anyway, I feel like it's paying off. I see improvements and I'm able to learn even more things because I'm prepared for class. I've been focusing on drilling things like everyone mentioned in that tumblr post so we'll see how it all goes in 35 days because I signed up for the Fairfield County Championships and Horgan in January. I will most likely be at O'Rourke and Shamrock in February too. Then nothing in March because of St. Patricks day, etc.
To continue one last point on my whole practice/discipline regiment, I've also been doing a short yoga video each time I practice and doing other various stretches to work on how high I can throw my clicks. It's weird because I was always the girl in ballet that had some of the highest grand battements and even now when I kick in softshoe it's really high. In my clicks I'm lucky if they reach my waist and if they do they don't hit. So...I've been working on my hamstrings and hip flexors. Not sure if it's making a difference yet, but I'm going to keep at it. As well as practicing hitting clicks more too.
Going off of my goals not resolutions post, I had a really great meeting with my TC yesterday. She's been calling everyone's parents to check in and give them a progress report but since that doesn't really apply to me, we just decided to meet because we had stuff to go over about the class that I teach (someday I will post about it!) and how things were going for me so far this year. She's really happy with how things have been going for me and she can't believe how successful I was this past year. She tried to tell me to not be discouraged because sometimes the grades can be a bottle neck and that for my age and other responsiblities she can't believe that I'm right with the other novice and prizewinners that she teaches. In some instances I've even passed them out. We discussed that after seeing how small my trad set competition and the adult competitions were at the Oireachtas that we want me to push and work hard towards qualifying for solos. There were 36 senior ladies this year so there were 18 recallers instead of 4 or 5. That being said, we both discussed that I would potentially be sharing a stage and having rounds with AMAZING dancers and that a recall would probably not happen. I feel like I'd rather know that going in and just try to do my best than think I have a glimmer of a shot because of a small comp...if that makes any sense at all. We're speculating on what the new age group will dance (and honestly I'm wondering how big it will even be. Here's hoping it's decent) but my TC is thinking that it will be reel and hornpipe. I'm sort of hoping that it is because even though I love Treble Jig...my Hornpipe is at a higher level and seems to come easier to me for whatever reason. To sum this very lengthy paragraph up, I told my TC that I want to go to the higher level camp this year, whether it be that I've got my first in hard shoe and soft shoe or that I'm qualified for Prelim all together. I also asked her if I could have a say in what set I learn and she said...maybe. Haha, but we'll cross that path when I get there. All I know is that I love having big scary goals and the fact that my teacher is on board with reaching for insanity and falling somewhere in the middle makes me encouraged. Plus I had a dream that I danced solos and recalled and had to make up a set so we're already more prepared than my dream self. Haha
Finally, one of my few Black Friday purchases this year was buying some crystals for my dress. I did a little work on it today. I filled in anything that was missing and would look obvious and I still had left overs and I started to notice places where the previous owner might have only put a few so I added a bunch here of there and before I knew I was out of my clear crystals and I wanted to add more. I have smaller red ones that I could also add in places but I didn't want to get a headache from the e6000 so I will order a few more clear ones and play another day.
Hope everyone else is having a restful "post season". If you are going to O'Shea Chaplin tomorrow have fun! I won't be there this year as I have so many more local options and really wanted to feis in 2015 once my ban was over last year. See you in Greenwich in 35 days!!!!
Kay
I'm happy to say that my post oireachtas resting/recalibrating period has been going great. I've got new steps in 3 of my 4 dances and I'm pretty content with them. By no means are they ready to dance out tomorrow, but I am confident that they will be. It's just a thrill to be attempting and in some cases dancing fulls with these new steps when this time last year I would watch others do them in awe. I am doing steps that girls at my school were doing when they qualified for Prelim. Clicks, doubles, difficult rhythmic pieces, kicks where I practically kick my face, and leaps that make me feel like I'm flying. I feel like I probably sound like a crazy person but sometimes I'm in class and I almost need to pinch myself for what I am learning.
My plan on being disciplined is going pretty well despite my crazy life. This is week three of doing all of this and I'm averaging between 2-3 hours each week beyond class. This week I've only got half an hour but I worked the grocery store and spent the day in Baltimore (Seriously wishing it was while the SRO was going on because I legit would have run away from my boss and hung out with you guys. NOT A GOOD TRIP!) Anyway, I feel like it's paying off. I see improvements and I'm able to learn even more things because I'm prepared for class. I've been focusing on drilling things like everyone mentioned in that tumblr post so we'll see how it all goes in 35 days because I signed up for the Fairfield County Championships and Horgan in January. I will most likely be at O'Rourke and Shamrock in February too. Then nothing in March because of St. Patricks day, etc.
To continue one last point on my whole practice/discipline regiment, I've also been doing a short yoga video each time I practice and doing other various stretches to work on how high I can throw my clicks. It's weird because I was always the girl in ballet that had some of the highest grand battements and even now when I kick in softshoe it's really high. In my clicks I'm lucky if they reach my waist and if they do they don't hit. So...I've been working on my hamstrings and hip flexors. Not sure if it's making a difference yet, but I'm going to keep at it. As well as practicing hitting clicks more too.
Going off of my goals not resolutions post, I had a really great meeting with my TC yesterday. She's been calling everyone's parents to check in and give them a progress report but since that doesn't really apply to me, we just decided to meet because we had stuff to go over about the class that I teach (someday I will post about it!) and how things were going for me so far this year. She's really happy with how things have been going for me and she can't believe how successful I was this past year. She tried to tell me to not be discouraged because sometimes the grades can be a bottle neck and that for my age and other responsiblities she can't believe that I'm right with the other novice and prizewinners that she teaches. In some instances I've even passed them out. We discussed that after seeing how small my trad set competition and the adult competitions were at the Oireachtas that we want me to push and work hard towards qualifying for solos. There were 36 senior ladies this year so there were 18 recallers instead of 4 or 5. That being said, we both discussed that I would potentially be sharing a stage and having rounds with AMAZING dancers and that a recall would probably not happen. I feel like I'd rather know that going in and just try to do my best than think I have a glimmer of a shot because of a small comp...if that makes any sense at all. We're speculating on what the new age group will dance (and honestly I'm wondering how big it will even be. Here's hoping it's decent) but my TC is thinking that it will be reel and hornpipe. I'm sort of hoping that it is because even though I love Treble Jig...my Hornpipe is at a higher level and seems to come easier to me for whatever reason. To sum this very lengthy paragraph up, I told my TC that I want to go to the higher level camp this year, whether it be that I've got my first in hard shoe and soft shoe or that I'm qualified for Prelim all together. I also asked her if I could have a say in what set I learn and she said...maybe. Haha, but we'll cross that path when I get there. All I know is that I love having big scary goals and the fact that my teacher is on board with reaching for insanity and falling somewhere in the middle makes me encouraged. Plus I had a dream that I danced solos and recalled and had to make up a set so we're already more prepared than my dream self. Haha
Finally, one of my few Black Friday purchases this year was buying some crystals for my dress. I did a little work on it today. I filled in anything that was missing and would look obvious and I still had left overs and I started to notice places where the previous owner might have only put a few so I added a bunch here of there and before I knew I was out of my clear crystals and I wanted to add more. I have smaller red ones that I could also add in places but I didn't want to get a headache from the e6000 so I will order a few more clear ones and play another day.
Hope everyone else is having a restful "post season". If you are going to O'Shea Chaplin tomorrow have fun! I won't be there this year as I have so many more local options and really wanted to feis in 2015 once my ban was over last year. See you in Greenwich in 35 days!!!!
Kay
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