When to ditch the warm up gear

Ok, your dance uniform may not be the most exciting thing to wear. Plain leotard and tights, or black jazz pants. Warm up gear provides a fashionable variety… but dance teachers are not always one hundred percent behind it and inevitably they tell you to take it off long before the warm up is over. What’s the deal? When should it really come off and what kind of gear will teachers accept?

1)   If you are really using the warm up to it’s fullest potential (wink, wink) you should be almost sweating by the end of your plies! I know it sounds like you would have to do killer plies but it’s true. During a plie exercise practically every muscle in your body has to work, so if you put energy and focus into your plies it will warm up your muscles fast and furiously.

2)   That being said… sometimes dance studios are really cold, especially in winter, so it’s best to choose some warm up gear that teachers will accept. The main factor to look for is does it allow the teacher to clearly see what’s going on? The scary thing is that if a teacher cannot see what your muscles are doing you might be doing something that can cause serious harm to your body. So, choose gear that emulates your dance uniform only in heavier or knitted materials. Some classic options are below and often come in fun colours… however; most of your teachers will prefer a colour that matches your uniform.

 

 

Dusk Dances

Meet Ava, our student correspondent extraordinaire! Ava has been a Pegasus student for years and years. She brings joy to each and every dance class and we are so happy that she will be writing for our blog. Ava not only works hard in her dance classes but she is one of our dedicated Pegasus Performance Group dancers as well. Ava has a wonderful attitude and commitment in everything she does and we are excited to read her blog posts.

Dusk Dances 

By: Ava

The weather at Dusk Dances on Saturday night definitely DIDN’T put a damper on things. Even though it rained, many people came out to Withrow Park to watch 5 SPECTACULAR dance pieces.

The night started with music from contemporary string band “Moonshiner’s Daughter”.  The music got everyone on their feet, and grooving along. Lots of the little kids attending were running around, and dancing their hearts out.

After the music had finished up, our host Ryan Egan guided everyone to our first venue in the park to watch the world premiere of the piece “The Horlogium”. It consisted of a woman playing the accordion, dressed in a long, flowing white dress. Under the dress were four dancers who were actually ATTACHED to the dress. The concept of the piece was these four dancers trying to convince a businesswoman to join their dance. The piece had lots of humour, and the movements were staccato and jerky, which made you not know what was going to happen next.

The next piece was called “Strathcona High, Class of ‘56”. This piece was about three girls at their prom. At one point two girls grab two guys from the audience and dance with them as their dates. This leads to the other girl being upset that she doesn’t have a date. Overall, this piece was very comical and entertaining. This dance SCREAMED fun! The dancing and music were perfect! This dance was GREAT!

A piece called “Eugene Walks with Grace” was next. It was a reinvention of a piece from 1995. It was truly a BEAUTIFUL duet. I loved how the two dancers seamlessly moved from fluid to sharp movements. This piece was FANTASTIC!

The next piece was called “BoxSet”, and it was my personal favourite. The three dancers used 5 boxes of different sizes in their routine.  They had lots of acrobatic moves in the dance. For example, jumping off the top of one of the boxes! The thing I loved was that they were so in sync, and so rhythmical. It was WONDERFUL!

Last but not least, was the piece “Bao”. It was an African Rhythm dance that was full of energy. The four dancers were accompanied by African drummers, who were AMAZING! The choreography had lots of intricate hand and foot movements that were very intriguing. This was a GREAT dance to end the night.

Overall, Dusk Dances was FANTASTIC, and I highly recommend that everyone attends next year!

How to Prep for Fall Classes

Haven’t danced all summer? Haven’t used any of those muscles? Does September usually mean more than just going back to dance classes? Sore, tired, achy muscles that seem like they will never go away? Well… you’ve got time to prepare yourself!

September is still a few weeks away, which means this is the perfect time to start doing some exercises and stretching at home to help your body get back into the groove.  Here are some tips for slowly preparing yourself for the fall:

1.     Plies – the first exercise in most Ballet classes for a reason! Plies work all the muscles in the legs, including the muscles you use in dance but not really anywhere else. Do some simple demi-plies and grande-plies in each position and hold your arms in second position to get the arm and back muscles engaged as well.

2.     Stretch! How often we forget to stretch. START SLOW. If you haven’t stretched in a while you will not be as flexible as the last time… that’s the way it should be, so slowly work up to your previous abilities.  Stretching should always be done when the muscles are warm. The best time for this is after you’ve walked home from the subway (or any form of exercise), just had a warm shower or as soon as you wake up (that is unless you like to sleep in a freezer!).

3.     Once you start classes, if you’re muscles are sore, try an Epsom salt bath. It is the tried and true remedy for those achy muscles. 

Summer Camp

Meet one of our new student correspondents: Dryden!

Dryden is a 9 year old dedicated to his ballet, art and writing. Dryden has been at Pegasus from Kindermusik age (baby) and is a very hard working student of various art forms... and school of course! This summer, Dryden came to the last two weeks of our summer dance camp. Here is his blog post on the experience. Enjoy.

Summer Camp

By Dryden

　

I thought Pegasus summer camp was absolutely incredible, because I met new friend’s, I loved dancing, and thought art was great! My favourite class was drama, because I really had fun making up our own skit! Lyrical was fun too! We also had Jazz, Music, Modern, Ballet, Choreography, sports games and we went to the park. Friday was the best day of the week because we had pizza lunch and open house. I can’t wait for next year! 

We’ve been busy! Plus… win a pocket camera!

If you are coming back to Pegasus in September you might have noticed the addition of a new studio, the Stage Studio, on our schedule. June was a busy, busy month getting the new space ready for summer camp. At the back of Studio A was a stage that used to host the Pegasus recitals, but the floor was a bit run down and the backstage space was rather small for us, so we moved our recitals to an outside venue a few years back. In the mean time the stage became our costume storage space. We packed it full of racks and bins with over 20 years worth of costumes, props and accessories! It was full! What was also full last year was our schedule… so we moved the costumes to a new home and turned the stage into a shinny new studio! The space feels very new but our summer campers are working it in for us.

But that’s not all we’re doing… Right behind the new studio is a pocket of outside space that has been overgrown bushes for years. We’ve cleared it out and are in the process of turning it into a magical garden for our pre-school program to play, learn and create in! We have grand plans that may not get finished by September but the garden will be started and ready for some outdoor fun… with the finishing touches arriving in due course.

We’re saving the grand reveal for September… that is if you aren’t a summer camper, but we do have one problem that needs some help… we don’t know what to call these two new spaces. For now “Stage Studio” has been the name, but I’m sure with all the creativity at Pegasus we can find something more fun, and our magical, enchanted garden is in dire need of a fantastic title. So we’re holding a contest!!! The winner of the best name for one of the two spaces will win a Samsung Digital Camera so small it fits in your pocket!!! *  

To enter, write your suggestion in our comment section of this blog and make sure to include your name in the body of the comment (these comments will not get posted online). Then we will choose our top three and post them for everyone to vote on!

*Or a gift card for equivalent value

Congrats to our students!



Pegasus Performance Group

To begin our summer blogs we wanted to take one post to say congratulations to our dancers from 2010/2011! We are so proud of all of them for the hard work they put into to each and every dance class. We also are very proud of our dancers who participated in our annual benefit show, Dances of Offering, the RAD ballet exams, all of our recitals and the Pegasus Performance Group. This year the Pegasus Performance Group attended the Kiwanis Festival and yet again came out shinning! The piece “Between Lungs” choreographed by Sheri Kimura won a scholarship in the Lyrical Jazz category!

Pegasus Performance Group

Although we can never thank or acknowledge our fabulous faculty and staff enough for their commitment and talent, this month we want to send out a special thanks to the dancers at Pegasus. It is through the spirit that our students bring to the studio everyday that makes Pegasus the place it is. Thank you for your joy and dedication and congratulations on all that you’ve achieved this year!

 









Performance as an important learning tool

Every year at Pegasus we do a recital to finish off our season. It is a big event for us with hundreds of costumes, professional photographers and lots of parents, grandparents, friends and family in the audience watching out talented students showcase the choreography they have been preparing in the previous months. It is an exciting time but it can also be rather stressful, which may raise the question; what is this experience giving to my child?
Pegasus is built on careful philosophies that are focused on encouraging each student's self-esteem and developing life skills through the tools of dance arts. We strive for this everyday in our classes and the recitals are no different. To us a recital is a chance to celebrate (and show off a bit) the amazing progress that students have made during the year. It is also a time to develop the skills needed to stand in front of a group of people and perform, present, demonstrate, etc. What we hope our students take from recitals is the feeling that they should take pride in their hard work and feel confident to show it to a large group of people.
We know that this task is a hard one to achieve in our society that is continuously judging even our youth, so we appreciate all the work that our faculty, staff, volunteers and, of course, parents contribute to endorsing these lessons. Recital is our time to celebrate the Pegasus community! We can't wait to see you all in the next weeks as we prepare for our Junior and Senior Recitals.