Newsletter – October 2023

Welcome Back to Term 4!

Welcome to your monthly Bayside Dance newsletter! Read on to find out all about what’s been happening at dance and what’s coming up next. Our monthly newsletters are a great way to share information so we encourage you to take a few minutes to read it through.

Notices

Important Info: Enrolment Changes

ENROLMENT IN 2024
Enrolling for classes in 2024 will look different to years previous. Why? Because we’re going to do it for you! We’re moving from a “re-enrolment” system to a “rollover” system so later in Term 4, we won’t be asking you to enrol, we’ll do all the hard work and will just give you your timetable. As always, there will be time after the concerts for dancers to try new classes and let us know any changes that you’d like to make. See the August newsletter for more information.

From Miss Kaitlin

No two bodies are exactly alike. We all come to dance training bringing a host of differences in our bodies. These might be genetic, such as our morphology (body type) and bone structure, or they could be movement patterns from prior training or cross training, or even previous injuries.Different bodies require different strategies to achieve our dance goals. That’s why you don’t see us posting thousands of pictures of students in unsafe stretches or positions like over splits. While these extreme positions might be ok for SOME bodies, they might not be ok for others – and that’s ok! (And just because you CAN bend your leg behind your head doesn’t necessarily mean you SHOULD either!).

It is sadly becoming almost commonplace for teachers without a solid understanding of anatomy and who don’t even know their students prior history to ask for dancers to push themselves far beyond the limits of normal human mobility. It baffles me that young dancers are being pressured to move in such a way from a young age, and I have heard many horror stories of barely teenage dancers being treated for stress fractures in their spines because of continuously pushing into extreme ranges of motion before their young bodies are capable. Often focus on these “tricks” takes up time that should be spent on foundational skills like solid footwork, musicality and performance skills.

What is even more baffling is that as a professional dancer, you’re actually pretty unlikely to use these “tricks”. My good friend, Mark Hill (who starred in Mary Poppins, West Side Story and more), famously says the most he’s ever asked to do in a show is a high kick or a double turn. Miss Kate tells the story of how she could never do the splits yet danced for over 10 years professionally, while I myself pushed into extreme range as a teenager and am looking at a partial hip replacement at 36!

Testing dancers’ flexibility and for hyper-mobility forms part of our pre-pointe and pointe assessments to help students become aware of their individual strengths and challenges, assisting them on the road to becoming the best dancer they can be! Just like these Barbies, we’re all different and that’s what makes us unique and amazing human beings and dancers.

Miss Kaitlin

What’s Been Happening?

Crazy Hair Week

We had so much fun celebrating the last week of Term 3 with Crazy Hair Week! From our youngest to our oldest dancers, it was so wonderful seeing everyone join in the fun.

Coming Up