Question about jazz and tap

[Fiz]

My youngest DD hated tap!

[grumpybearzuk]

At the moment dd dance school don't do exams in tap and jazz I think that is changing as there are a few new teachers it is more focused on ballet .

[Regattah]

Getting back to the OP for a minute - sorry to take the discussion off-track; I should have posted earlier!

 

Grumpybears - I think you're entirely right to give your daughter a break from tap if her heart isn't in at the moment. BUT ... can I just tell you a little of our experience?

 

You say that your daughter would like to go to vocational school. I'm not sure which ones you're thinking of, but if they include Tring and Hammond then this may be relevant.

 

My daughter (the older one) had done hardly any modern and practically no tap before she started at Tring in Year 7. I'm not worried at all about her modern. She seemed to catch up fine within the year. She started at Hammond this year and at our Parents Consultation last term, her modern teacher mentioned that she'd had to clean up a few bad habits in her. I told her that she'd had very little experience of the basics and we agreed that she'd probably picked up a few bad habits as she was rushing through more tricky choreography without the foundation to base it on. Anyway - no probs now, she's absolutely where I'd want her to be and she's managed that in just over a year.

 

Tap, though, I'm a little more concerned about. Both Tring and Hammond have two sets for tap. When she started at Tring, she obviously went into the bottom set. At her Parents Consultation at the end of her first term, the teacher told me how proud of the class she was as they had gone from a standing start to approx Grade 4 standard within the term on 1 lesson a week. She continued progressing through the year and has picked up good technique. But, when she started at Hammond, for setting purposes she was being measured with others who not only had been in the top set for the last year, but also at Hammond they do 2 classes a week, rather than one she'd been doing at Tring. Needless to say, she's in the bottom set.

 

Now she thinks she's bad because she's been in the bottom set for both years. When we had an observation class recently, the top set teacher gave the whole year (top and bottom) a combination to learn. Even whilst she was marking it (and she was doing it perfectly well), she kept looking over to us and mouthing 'help!'. Her teacher pulled her aside fairly recently and told her that she needs to believe in herself, but it's taking a while to gain her confidence and realise that actually she can do it and she does have potential.

 

As I said before, I do think your daughter needs to take a break, and it does sound as if the set up in her current school is absolutely not ideal. I'm just saying that if you are thinking that she may be doing tap again in the future (whether it's at Hammond, Tring or even Laines later on), then I probably wouldn't leave it too long before you try to get her back into it, whether at the current school, or maybe preferably, at a different one.

[aileen]

Regattah, I'm showing my ignorance here but what exactly is "modern" and what "bad habits" can a child pick up? I thought that "modern" didn't involve much technique and was more a question of dancing in a fairly free way to modern music.

[All4dancers]

What I'd like to know is what is the difference between modern and jazz? The jazz my dd does isn't freestyle, it's very syllabus based (BATD). The jazz she does is ISTD. When I ask her the difference she just said "the dances are more weird in modern" !!!

[Regattah]

There's absolutely technique, but I think I should leave it to one of our teacher members to give a better definition than I could!

 

I used to do both jazz and modern (as an adult). They are so different in feel and choreography.

[grumpybearzuk]

Hi regattah, thank you for your advice we have decided to leave it till beginning of next year and that has gave her a break for a while , by then she might have realised she has missed doing it and want to try again. I would like her to try again as she did really enjoy it at one time

[Anna C]

I suspect the "Modern" Regattah is referring to is ISTD Modern Theatre (or Tring's non-Syllabus equivalent). There is certainly technique applied to it, just as there is for tap or ballet, but it's less technical than ballet, in that you don't have quite so much to think about!

 

It's quite an odd syllabus in many ways, being a combination of exercises (foot warm up, leg kicks laying down, back relaxation exercises etc. presented in a dance-y way to music). Then you have amalgamations, a lyrical piece, a dance choreographed by the teacher, and travelling steps across the room.

 

It has its own music, and Vocational exams as well as graded. So because it is a set syllabus and there are techniques to be learned, I assume that one can also pick up incorrect technique.

[2littledancers]

You can indeed pick up incorrect technique , and the examining board (i only have knowledge of ISTD) can be very strict on that . Also they can be very strict on the candidates having enough strength and maturity to perform the exercises. There are no age limit s on taking the modern exams , but as we know 1st hand most teachers will not let you progress to far too soon as you will be marked down in exams if the examiner feels that the strength and maturity is lacking ! ( this will be probably

happen to my daughter age 8 , she has just taken grade 3 but she will be made well aware that she will not progress through grade 4 and 5 quite so quickly for these reasons.

Similar situation applies to the jazz , although ISTD have recently lowered the age you are able to take bronze jazz from 10 to 9 .

The ages are set for a reason in all styles , modern and ballet included, to enable the technique to be adhered to , although not as complex as ballet modern certainly has a technique .