Caledonian society dinner

 What a start to 2015! Five of the girls from our studio and their teacher danced at the local Caledonian society dinner. And what a gorgeous sunset we had that day too!

 Due to school holidays their was only time for one short rehearsal beforehand. Luckily Miss E had those hours of Christmas holiday practice behind her. It was good for her to see that all the work was worth it.

 The night commenced with a Strathspey and Highland Reel.

 E and her friends then performed the seann truibhas.  She then managed a short break before finishing with the highland fling while the other students danced the sword dance.

It was wonderful to get back into performing. Here's to a busy dance year!

2014 begins - Competition practise and private lessons

E loves her highland classes. They are a HEAP of fun!

Problem is - sometimes I think they are too much fun, and of course, they leave very little time for her to work on small improvements and changes that will make her dancing better.

We have been doing private lessons once a week before school and I really think it is helping. E of course loves another chance to dance, and it gives her time to think about her steps and what she needs to work on in practise.

And speaking of practise ...

Practise is a funny thing.
Some days she is desperate to do it.
Other days it is all out war.

Some things that are helping ...

Making a tally board and letting her see how many times she can dance each dance in a week ...

Letting her watch champion dancers on you tube.

Letting her dance her fling to pop songs ...

and

especially

Letting her do her practice after she should be in bed! Cheating bedtime seems to be a particularly big incentive!

She knows practice helps her dancing. And she wants to be a better dancer. But let's face it - we ALL try to avoid practise when we can!

Somehow I think I am going to have to keep being creative to keep the practise up!

Do you have any tricks you use?