Floor Barre, Straddles and Fairy-Tales; A Typical Dance Class

Hello everyone! It's Melodie, finally able to blog. I have been so busy with school and other activities that I have left the blogging responsibilities to Morgan. Now, I have some time to post, so I decided I would do one. As you can tell by the title, I chose to blog about dance class. I have shown one of our performances here on the blog, and I have mentioned taking class, but I have never actually shown it. So, here is a look into our dance class.

It was a usual Friday at our house, which meant that Ella had gymnastics, and Morgan and I had ballet class. Ariana usually goes with Mom to Ella's practice, and Lexi usually is at track with a friend. Today Mom came to take pictures for the blog, while Ariana had a playdate at a frends' house. Ella had ridden with her friends, so it was just us and Mom. Morgan and I went into the studio and started to stretch. We were the only ones in the room, and it was pretty quiet.

Then Briana got there. She put on her ballet shoes while we kept stretching. After she was done, Briana joined us in stretching, Sam soon came in to join us. She had borrowed a pair of my ballet shoes on Wednesday, so she brought them for me to use. As Sam began stretching, Charlotte and Hazel arrived. We all stretched until it was time to start class. Here are the photos. Sorry for the odd arrangement.

This week, our teacher said we would be doing floor barre. In a regular ballet class, we have barre at the barre, a long metal/wood pole that can either be free-standing or attached to the wall. Floor barre is different. It is regularly called "barre" at gyms, and it is just executing the steps/stretches that we usually do at barre while lying on the floor.

We did floor barre. Mom took some good photos from some different angles. My teacher directed us, and barre passed quickly.

After barre, we paired off and stretched. We did our straddle splits against the wall. One partner would lie down with their bottom against the wall, and the other partner would press their legs down to stretch them farther. It hurts, but it's good for us. We get into the best straddle possible. I was partners with Briana, Morgan and Hazel were together, and Sam and Charlotte worked together.
Sam had been working really hard on her straddle, and Charlotte just looked when Sam got into hers. Then, we straddled on the floor. Not as exciting, but definitely picture-worthy.

After we finished stretching, our teacher assigned partners for duets. We are going to have a Spring Recital at the end of the year, and my teacher wanted us to start working on dance concepts. The theme of the Spring Recital is "Fairy-Tale", and that gives a lot of room for imagination. Briana and I are partners, and we had a few ideas, but nothing is final yet. Charlotte and Hazel are also in the process of thinking, but they both want to do something related to animals. Morgan and Sam want to do a twisted fairy-tale, but they can't decide which one. After we discussed for a bit, we tried working on a few steps we could use. We are allowed to have our dance in any style we want, Briana and I think we want to do a ballet/lyrical dance. Charlotte and Hazel are thinking more contemporary, with acro steps. Sam and Morgan think contemporary or modern would be fun, but they are waiting until they decide on a theme before choosing their dance style.

Like always, class went by way to quickly. Before we left, Mom had us get a photo together. It is at the top of the post, in case you missed it.

I love dance, and I always enjoy class. I'm even more excited to be in a duet with my cousin Briana. Do you have any ideas for fairy-tale dances?

Do you enjoy dancing, and what do you think of the ideas for our Spring Recital?

~Melodie