Salsa Performance for Parents

    Our Salsa Dance Recital for the Parents in SPS hall in Thursday 17 September 2015.
Salsa Dance formation with Partners moving through the middle and outwards while doing the Merengue and Salsa steps.

We made pathways by separating ourselves from our partners and walking down the line through the middle and converging at the beginning of the lines until we met up again with our partners to do the Salsa steps. We loved doing the crazy cross-steps with our partners at the centre of our dance lines.

We enjoyed shimmering and shaking our shoulders with our partners.
 "I liked it when we were whirled or twirled around. At first I felt quite dizzy but then I learnt to focus on a specific spot on the wall after I was spun around, then I didn't feel dizzy," said Teavali.

All the parents cheered for us as we shimmered down the aisles to meet our dance partners. We felt so glad that we could make our Mums and Dads proud of us.

Thereafter we did our awesome Samoan Sasa which the sasa tutors taught us last week. We tried hard to sync all our percussion moves so that they blended in nicely. We felt proud that we had worked hard to listen carefully to the beat of the drums and do all the clapping and slapping in unison.

We ended our Salsa dance by sitting on our partners left knee with wide stretched arms  and we waved our hands out to greet our parents.
 "Ula !" the girls screamed together.

Our parents were amazed and fully engaged in our performance from wow to go! They were surprised at the things that we were able to do in Salsa dancing. "My Mum said that she was so proud of the way we danced all by ourselves," reported Daina, the following day in class.

Our Samoan sasa practice in our classroom

Our Samoan sasa recital in our classroom. 

Our Rock 'n Roll Dance in class

 We were learning the complicated steps of rock and roll to share with others for our assembly presentation in our hall, on the 12 of September 2014.

 Alexis and Darryn from the middle school also joined us in our practise sessions at lunch time.

We were rocking to the beat of the "School Days" song and Mrs S. Naidoo was our dance coach. We had to learn to cross over with a partner and spin around 3 times without stopping. I'm sure you know what all this spiralling around would do to our heads. "I feel a little dizzy" said Chloe.

We also created a star step to make out rock dance interesting for the audience to enjoy. We practised a few times after lunch until we were ready to perform our rock dance at 1.30 that afternoon. "It will be fun sharing our old-fashion high energy dance with SPS" we all cried.

Come on! Put on your dancing shoes.

This time we're 4 real at SPS!

On afternoon we were really lucky to have a parent from the community volunteer to coach us on Latin American Salsa. Yes that's you, Helle. There you go again Emma and David, just keep on stepping up!

Off course the staff at SPS were all 4 it from start to end. Ariana, Dagmar and Glenis very quickly picked up the beat and stepped it out with guidance from Helle.
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Just as well we have the photos to prove this spectacular moment in time or who will believe us?
Even our principal, Barbs and teacher aide,E from room 15, joined in the fun of stepping out. And what of Oriana and Maxx?  It seems that they have given themselves wholeheartedly to the sensational salsa beat. Way to go, gals!

As we let our feet find the rhythm of the Salsa beat in the heat of the afternoon sun, we could faintly hear the  1, 2, 3 pause 5, 6, 7 pause from Helle. What great stepping out on the side from Ambrose and Bron.

There is never a dull moment for the little dancers in room 15, who constantly surprise their teachers with their creative moves. 

Here the children are salsa dancing with a partner. The bar is set very high and children are expected to rise to the next level. The girls are quite taken up with their partners' support, when they are being twirled around. "Whatever you do just Don't let us fall."

The boys are becoming more confident at bringing their partners in and twirling them out cross-armed. "You make us feel so proud of you, guys.That looks so pretty," cry Helle and the teacher in unison.

Sharing our moves with the Pacific Dance troupe and learning some new ones from them.

Today we had the most awesome people called the Pacific Dance group, visit our class to teach us cool dance moves 

Sifa introduced the 2 teachers whose names were Nicky and Faloy. Faloy taught us how to do the Samoan Sasa in unison, using body percussion movements. We all got into the beat very quickly. It was so awesome!

Thereafter we learnt other hand moves in which we were asked us to make our eyes follow our hands. That was a great experience for most of us. Even William was able to keep to the pace. 

All of us enjoyed the hip hop that Nicky taught us. We had to make some definite and sharp explosive moves. Our arms felt very sore after a while. We had a fantastic time!

We showed them some of the dance moves we had created for our class dance. We whirled and twirled like the morning mist.

We made some interesting travel pathways across the floor as we flocked back to our positions.
They liked our graceful body movements.

We even shared our sculptures in which we touched one another lightly and froze into a statue. We all focused on an image around the class.

Look at this! I wonder what this sculpture might be? I'll let you have a guess.

Finally at the end of a tiring Monday afternoon we all assembled out on the senior courtyard and shared the awesome Samoan Sasa that we all had learnt that day. What fun we had- and it's all in a day's work!

All in a day's work for us in room 15

Indoor golf started on Thursday afternoon in the hall with our coach Larissa. She gave us clear instructions on how to hit the ball very gently so that it lands just  inside the hoop which was placed in the front of the hall.

We thought that nothing could be as easy as this. But later we found out how wrong we were in thinking that. Although we had followed all the steps to the T, yet we either hit too hard or too soft.

 Then Larissa demonstrated how we needed to give the stick a tiny little push and "Wow!" it was in the hoop. "You can have a try now" she said, and then we took turns and just tipped the ball with our sticks and Yeh! we managed to get three in.

After each point we had to pick up a letter that was placed in the ring which would make up the week's Value Word . "O! there are so many letters in this word, I don't think I will be able to make this word" said Kanye to Khobie. 

Then Larissa said "Okay guys, I'll help you- It starts with a 'c'." 

So my teacher helped us unscramble the word.  At last we got it- It's COURTESY.

At Maths time the next day we were learning about fractions. We had to find half of a whole number by using real wafers as materials.

First we measured the length of our pink wafer biscuit and then found the middle, on which we ruled a line from top to bottom. "How many halves in one whole wafer biscuit?" asked Mrs Naidoo.  "Two" we whispered quietly to our buddies. 

Thereafter we were instructed to work out how to make quarters of the whole wafer.
"This is a bit tricky for me" said Delta. "Just measure the width from top to bottom to find the centre. Now rule a straight line from the centre with a ruler. " said Maedana.
 "Wow! now I have 4 equal parts or shares and each one is a quarter of the whole?" 
"That's right!" replied everyone. The best part of the lesson was when we got to eat our fraction wafers. Mmmm!

At 11.30 while some of us were finishing off the publishing of our persuasive writing, the rest were "giving it a go!" with our parent coach, Helle. We learnt the Latin Amercan dance steps called the Salsa and Bachata . 

 "Kanye, you take a step back, as I take a step forward"instructs Maedana. 
"Step to the right side 1,2, 3 and then to the left" counts Tufele with his dance partner Ananiel while dancing to the Salsa beat.

Now here we go again with our favourite Merengue. "I like this the best, because its the easiest of all dances." smiles Kapriyani.

"Watch me now!" calls out William to all his friends. 

We even had Mrs Hart trying out the steps with her partner from room 9. 

"Way to go Miss Leona - give it a go!" we all cheered.

Most of all we are very thankful for parents like Helle who goes out of her way to come and coach us every Fridays. Helle also brings along her own Music Box and teaches us to take steps at our own pace  and she does this all for free. "Thank you Helle, you're very kind to us," says JT.

First steps in Latin American dancing with a parent namely Salsa and Merengue

 Guess who coached us on Latin American dancing? That's right Helle, Daina's Mum.
On Fabulous Friday, the 1st of August 2014 Helle demonstrated how to step out gracefully, the Latin American way.

 First she taught us the Merengue where we learnt to "press nails" with our feet and hold our elbows bent close to the front. That felt wonderful for our first steps. "I get this move, its so cool!" cried the boys.

 Then we learnt the Salsa steps- left foot forward 1 ,2,3. Then right foot back 5,6,7. We had to stay focused, pace ourselves and keep to the beat . "That was awesome" said the girls.

 Then we practised those steps by ourselves a few times so everyone got it spot on.

After we did the sequence several times we manage to fall in step with the Latin American music and finally we all managed to get the hang of it. "I am beginning to enjoy this" said Cortez with a smile on his face.

"We were having a fabulous time trying out with our buddies!" exclaimed Teavali. Even Delta was having a ball of a time on the classroom floor.

Then it was time for another new move. "I wonder what we might try next" asked Lizzie excitedly. 

We all gave it a go, even Mrs Naidoo was on the dance floor stepping it up with us. It was as if our ordinary class had turned into a real dance class with a coach and all. 
By this time Helle was looking all flushed and pink and my teacher told her "Sit and have a rest, Helle. "But to all of us she said "Do we give up, that easily, guys?" "No, we keep on trying till we get it!" all of us cried out as we usually do.

It was like we were in a ballet or formal dance class. All of us were focused on getting our balance and footwork perfect.

In the end Helle allowed us to do a quick cool down sequence and I heard her say to my teacher that all this exercise was good in helping her lose some weigh and that she would be happy to return next Friday. "Hurray! See ya next week, then Helle" all of us exclaimed together.