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My Son Can Dance

One Mom's Musings About Boys in the Dance World

Be Careful What You Ask For…

November 14, 2008 by ninaamir Leave a Comment

First, let me comment on the comment from last post concerning competition. This is a hot topic. Competitions have so much going for them, and so much going against them. I want to say one thing: They shouldn’t be about how many rhinestones are on the costume. They should be about technique and performance. Period. Even Julian said that he didn’t understand why you even got judged on your costume. He’s right. I’ve seen some of the best senior performers compete in simple dance clothes that showed of their body and their lines. And that’s what competition should be about. Lines, bodies moving correctly. Technique. Of course, you have to be a good performer. If you get up on stage and fall to pieces, no one will notice your excellent technique. The two go together. But who cares about the costume. And those booty shaking numbers and skimpy, lingerie outfits on 6 year olds…give me a break. That’s not dancing. And, as far as I’m concerned, it’s far from technique.

Okay, onto today’s real message: At Julian’s performance review we asked that he get to work on the “boy stuff.” Well, be careful what you ask for; you just might get it. He’s been working not only on Thursday’s with Mark Foehringer in the advanced ballet class ( just Julian and Mark while the girls get on their pointe shoes and then with the girls while they are doing pointe class) but also on Tuesdays in the advanced ballet class on jumps and tours and that sort of thing. On those nights, Julian comes home exhausted and the next day he can hardly walk when he gets out of bed! He’s working so hard.

Yesterday, Mark showed him some videos of a guy doing some really hard moves during a ballet (Swan Lake maybe) and told him that this was something he’d seen Ramon Moreno, principle dancer at Ballet San Jose (who Julian has danced with and taken lessons from) perform. Then he asked Julian to do it. All the while as Julian jumped, Marke yelled, “Higher! Higher!”

Julian smiled as he told me all of this. He isn’t unhappy that he has gotten what he asked for.  And I guess Mark isn’t unhappy with Julian’s performance to date either. Or at least that’s Julian’s assessment of the lessons.

Unfortunately, between hip hop choreographers coming in, Thanksgiving break, and a tech week for Nutcracker, he won’t be doing the “guy stuff” with Mark (at least not on Thursdays) for almost a month. I guess his body gets a rest.

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Filed Under: competitions, Doing "boy stuff" Tagged With: competitions, costumes, doing boy stuff in dance class, doing guy stuff, getting judged on costumes, jumps, Mark Foehringer, performance, Ramon Moreno, technique

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