These past two week were some of the hardest weeks I have faced as a dancer and dance teacher. We had many hours of practices over the past weeks in preparation for Nationals. We had practice everyday of the week allowing us to work on dances and run them full out as if we were at nationals. Thankfully, one of the parents from the tap class that I assistant teach video the kids performances at recital. Lindsay and I showed the kids the video and talked about they did well and what needed to be worked on in order to have a chance at making it to finals. When looking at the younger kids some of the aspects that went well included their tap sounds and staying together; however, they needed to work on spacing and facial expressions. For my older group, they needed to work on making it to the center in the beginning and making load tap sounds. Although practicing the dance was important, we also had to spend time reviewing what nationals means. As teachers we sent home a check list with the students of everything that they need to make sure they have packed for finals. This list included
their costume, shoes, earnings, hair clips, make-up and more. When you are traveling all the way down south the kids are out of luck if they forget something important. While practice was hard this week it ended tonight with the nationals Kick off party. This party gave the entire team a chance to hang out, tell dance stories, and eat a great dinner before headed on the road to nationals. The party was completed with the teachers handing out our awards that they assigned each student for the year. This year I was happy to receive the tap award for being such an inspirational and advanced tap dancer at the studio. The kids also had the opportunity to present the teachers with a gift as a thank you for everything they did throughout the season, as well as, a farewell gift to the seniors. While this last week was hard and fun I look forward to this years national competition.