It’s May already!
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
June Exams
Mock exams are officially underway for our upcoming June exams. Participating dancers, make sure to double check the exam website for the latest information and timetables. All exam dancers require uniform for their mock exams and on exam day.
Announcing our Christmas Musical
These December holidays, we’ll be putting on High School Musical JR. in a high-energy, intensive two-week musical theatre workshop. All dancers aged 10-18 are eligible to apply when registrations open next term.
For now, save the dates!
Monday 11 to Friday 22 December
Winter Holiday Workshops
We had so much fun at our Easter holiday workshops, we’ll be back again these June/July holidays. Bookings will open soon but save the dates for some Wintery fun!
5 July: Disco Party (5-10 years)
6 July: Christmas in July (5-10 years)
7 July: Magical Wonderland (3-6 years)
Special Project!
Did you know this year marks Bayside Dance’s 10th concert season? For this year’s concerts, we’ll be celebrating nearly 10 years of dancing by remembering the best of Bayside Dance and we need your help for a special project!
We’re putting together a slideshow featuring memories from our nearly ten years of dance together and you can help by emailing your favourite dance memory photos to hello@baysidedance.com.au
We want to see photos of your first day of dance, your concert or performance memories, recent photos and more!
Please note:
– maximum 5 photos per dancer/family
– photos must be original and not from Facebook/Instagram
We can’t wait to revisit our dance memories with you!
From Miss Kaitlin
Why is my dancer doing squats in ballet class?
In 2022, Miss Kate and I attended the Queensland Dance Educators Conference produced by Ausdance Qld (I was lucky enough to be presenting about my PhD topic). Several dance specific physios at the conference spoke about how, as dancers, we’re working in planes of movement that are abnormal, or beyond normal, for what the human body was designed for. As such, often dancers are overdeveloped in some of their musculature and underdeveloped in others. Particularly post-Covid lockdowns, dancers were anecdotally becoming prone to injury.
In order to combat this, we devised a studio-wide Fundamental Movement Skills program that teachers have implemented in most lessons, across styles, from around age 10 and up. The program is approximately 5 minutes long, is tailored slightly toward differing dance styles and is performed by teachers at the start or conclusion of class, or sometimes in the middle as a “brain break”.
Fundamental movement skills are basic motor abilities that form the foundation for more complex movements. These skills include running, jumping, hopping, skipping, throwing, and catching. For dancers, having a solid foundation in these skills can help prevent injury by improving their balance, coordination, and overall body control. By mastering these fundamental skills, dancers can execute more complex dance movements with greater ease and precision. It also allows them to better adapt to different choreography and styles of dance. Ultimately, developing fundamental movement skills helps dancers build a strong and healthy foundation for their dance practice.
Since implementing our program, we have seen a reduction in overuse injuries to almost zero (despite having an increase in hours of training on average across the studio), and we are seeing an overall improvement in core and gross motor control, flowing through to things like improved balance in pirouettes and more powerful jumps. It has certainly been effective and we can’t wait to continue our work in this area!
Miss Kaitlin
What’s Been Happening?
Wynnum/Manly Eisteddfod
Congratulations to our Performance Team dancers who competed in their first competition of 2023! Our seven teams performed 17 routines over an incredible two days of dance and we couldn’t be prouder of them. Special shout-out to those dancers for whom this marked their first ever dance competition!
Mock Exams
We hosted the first of our many mock exams over the weekend. For dancers that complete SFD exams in ballet, tap and jazz, mock exams with our qualified teaching team are an invaluable learning tool which we are so proud to offer.
Coming Up
Mock Exams (see full schedule here) Various Weekends, May and June- Evolution Dance Competition Friday 19 to Sunday 21 May
- SFD Ballet, Tap and Jazz Exams (see full schedule here) Monday 12 to Saturday 24 June
- Pyjama Week! Monday 19 to Saturday 24 June
- Last Day of Term 2 Saturday 24 June
- Frozen JR (Musical Theatre and TDP dancers) Saturday 26 August
- Preschool Concert Saturday 4 November (PM)
- Rehearsal Day (Juniors and Big Kids dancers) Sunday 5 November
- Concert Day (Juniors and Big Kids) Sunday 12 November
