Well Done Everyone!
Thank you for joining me today!
I hope you feel fantastic and have enjoyed the class!
Hope to see you back very soon!
Stay Well, Stay Safe!
Class Payment:
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This can be done quickly and easily by the PayPal or bank transfer links shown below.
Thank You So Much!
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Angela Routledge Pilates acc 73811599 | 60-16-03
We would like to offer our dancers the opportunity to take an exam at
Last years exams were great fun and the dancers achieved fantastic results!
Taking an Exam is an excellent way of allowing our dancers to recognise their recent hard work in class and to feel a sense of achievement.
We also feel they will enjoy the excitement of the exam day with their class mates and that the experience will help prepare them for success in their future lives.
Groups of around 6 dancers at a time are expected to line up outside the classroom door, and wait to be welcomed in by the facilitator.
Dancers should greet the examiner and the facilitator at the beginning of the exam.
During the exam, students can expect a class setting with the facilitator directing the class and the examiner making notes throughout.
Dancers should perform the skills asked of them while remaining respectful throughout the exam.
Following the exam, dancers should thank the examiner and the facilitator before leaving the classroom.
Girls: Students are required to attend examinations in LA Dance Acro set uniform (black leotard, shorts and black footless tights. Hair must be neatly tied back in a low bun or french braid, no fringe.
Boys: Students are required to attend examinations in LA Dance Acro T-shirt black shorts or tights. Hair must be neat and out of the face.
*Dancers should be free of all jewellery (necessary medical jewellery permitted)
*Dancers should appear neat and tidy
The dancer will have an opportunity to demonstrate one Bonus Skill.
This should be a skill that is safe for the dancer to perform, and shows off the dancer’s unique or advanced abilities in a particular skill area.
This skill is worth 5 additional points on the exam.
The 28 required elements, exam etiquette and grooming will be marked as either 'Incomplete', 'Fair', 'Good', or 'Excellent'. The exam will be graded as 'Retry', 'Pass', 'Commended', ‘Highly Commended', 'Excellent' or ‘Distinction'.
Successful students will receive a certificate to commemorate their achievement. Students who receive the grade 'Distinction' will also receive a custom Acrobatic Arts medal.
All students will receive a report card complementing areas of excellence and suggesting areas for improvement.
All exams are marked against the standard for the level and skill being performed.
Acrobatic Arts Adjudicators receive extensive training and are required to attend update courses to ensure consistency throughout the program. The Adjudicator’s mark is final.
Each skill is marked out of 5 points:
Incomplete 0 Fair 1-3 Good 4 Excellent 5
Retry 0-75 Pass 75-96 Commended 97-107 Highly Commended 108-118 Excellent 119-129 Distinction 130-150
The accumulation of all points determines the grade:
It was such a pleasure to completing our first set of Acrobatic Arts exams at the end of July, we had a really enjoyable couple of days with all the dancers that took part and were over the moon with the results!!
Out of 76 exams, the dancers received 61 Distinctions and the rest were all Highly Commended or Excellent! We could not be prouder!!
Adult Ballet Returning Very Soon!
From 3rd September - 15th October
(No classes on 3rd October)
Please note, there is a small price increase... I am afraid that after 5 years I am finally going to have to up the price of my fees a little due to all the constant increases in my outgoings, I do hope you understand.😬
Classes will now work out as £9 per class paid in advance or £10 pay as you go and only subject to availability.
There is Good News however…. I will be offering you a little more for your extra £1...
When you sign up for a block of classes. Over the 7 weeks, you will be given access to 3 unique
Bitesized Daily Pilates Workouts,
Each less than 5 mins long that you can practice daily or whenever you have the opportunity, designed by me to help keep you supple, mobile and core strong. I really hope you will enjoy this new service and that it you see even more improvement in your Pilates technique over the coming weeks.
Taking an Exam is an excellent way of allowing our dancers to recognise their recent hard work in class and to feel a sense of achievement.
We also hope they will enjoy the excitement of the exam day with their class mates and that the experience will help prepare them for success in their future lives.
Girls: Students are required to attend examinations in LA Dance Acro set uniform (black leotard, shorts and black or tan footless tights. Hair must be neatly tied back in a low bun or french braid, no fringe, no wisps.
Boys: Students are required to attend examinations in LA Dance Acro T-shirt black shorts or tights.
*Dancers should be free of all jewellery (necessary medical jewellery permitted)
*Dancers should appear neat and tidy
If you need any new uniform please order as soon as possible by filling in the following form.
Groups of around 6 dancers at a time are expected to line up outside the classroom door, and wait to be welcomed in by the facilitator.
Dancers should greet the examiner and the facilitator at the beginning of the exam.
During the exam, students can expect a class setting with the facilitator directing the class and the examiner making notes throughout.
Dancers should perform the skills asked of them while remaining respectful throughout the exam.
Following the exam, dancers should thank the examiner and the facilitator before leaving the classroom.
The dancer will have an opportunity to demonstrate one Bonus Skill.
This should be a skill that is safe for the dancer to perform, and shows off the dancer’s unique or advanced abilities in a particular skill area.
This skill is worth 5 additional points on the exam.
The 28 required elements, exam etiquette and grooming will be marked as either 'Incomplete', 'Fair', 'Good', or 'Excellent'. The exam will be graded as 'Retry', 'Pass', 'Commended', ‘Highly Commended', 'Excellent' or ‘Distinction'.
Successful students will receive a certificate to commemorate their achievement. Students who receive the grade 'Superior' will also receive a custom Acrobatic Arts medal.
All students will receive a report card complementing areas of excellence and suggesting areas for improvement.
All exams are marked against the standard for the level and skill being performed.
Acrobatic Arts Adjudicators receive extensive training and are required to attend update courses to ensure consistency throughout the program. The Adjudicator’s mark is final.
Each skill is marked out of 5 points:
Incomplete 0 Fair 1-3 Good 4 Excellent 5
Retry 0-75 Pass 75-96 Commended 97-107 Highly Commended 108-118 Excellent 119-129 Distinction 130-150
The accumulation of all points determines the grade:
Hi Everyone,
I know how hard you all work throughout the year coming to your weekly Pilates classes and I really don't want you to have to stop the good work during the Summer so I will be running a few classes throughout the summer holidays to help keep you going.
Please take a look and let me know the classes and times that you would like to book, it doesn't have to be your usual days and times you are welcome to any.
Please bring your favourite candle to Pilates this Tuesday for our midsummers night candlelit class!!
We are running a few workshops over the summer, please register your interest here….
10:30-11:30am | Adult Ballet | The Royal British Legion,
8:00-9:00pm | Adult Ballet | The G.E.A Hall, Woodhurst Avenue,
7:30-8:30pm | Adult Beginners Ballet | The G.E.A Hall, Woodhurst Avenue,
8:30-9:30am | Adult Ballet | The Royal British Legion,
CONTACT
WWW.ANGELAROUTLEDGEPILATES.COM
info@arpilates.co.uk
Taking an Exam is an excellent way of allowing our dancers to recognise their recent hard work in class and to feel a sense of achievement.
We also hope they will enjoy the excitement of the exam day with their class mates and that the experience will help prepare them for success in their future lives.
Groups of around 6 dancers at a time are expected to line up outside the classroom door, and wait to be welcomed in by the facilitator.
Dancers should greet the examiner and the facilitator at the beginning of the exam.
During the exam, students can expect a class setting with the facilitator directing the class and the examiner making notes throughout.
Dancers should perform the skills asked of them while remaining respectful throughout the exam.
Following the exam, dancers should thank the examiner and the facilitator before leaving the classroom.
Girls: Students are required to attend examinations in LA Dance Acro set uniform (black leotard, shorts and black or tan footless tights. Hair must be neatly tied back in a low bun or french braid, no fringe.
Boys: Students are required to attend examinations in LA Dance Acro T-shirt black shorts or tights. Hair must be neat and out of the face.
*Dancers should be free of all jewellery (necessary medical jewellery permitted)
*Dancers should appear neat and tidy
The dancer will have an opportunity to demonstrate one Bonus Skill.
This should be a skill that is safe for the dancer to perform, and shows off the dancer’s unique or advanced abilities in a particular skill area.
This skill is worth 5 additional points on the exam.
The 28 required elements, exam etiquette and grooming will be marked as either 'Incomplete', 'Fair', 'Good', or 'Excellent'. The exam will be graded as 'Retry', 'Pass', 'Commended', ‘Highly Commended', 'Excellent' or ‘Distinction'.
Successful students will receive a certificate to commemorate their achievement. Students who receive the grade 'Superior' will also receive a custom Acrobatic Arts medal.
All students will receive a report card complementing areas of excellence and suggesting areas for improvement.
All exams are marked against the standard for the level and skill being performed.
Acrobatic Arts Adjudicators receive extensive training and are required to attend update courses to ensure consistency throughout the program. The Adjudicator’s mark is final.
Each skill is marked out of 5 points:
Incomplete 0 Fair 1-3 Good 4 Excellent 5
Retry 0-75 Pass 75-96 Commended 97-107 Highly Commended 108-118 Excellent 119-129 Distinction 130-150
The accumulation of all points determines the grade:
Taking an Exam is an excellent way of allowing our dancers to recognise their recent hard work in class and to feel a sense of achievement.
We also hope they will enjoy the excitement of the exam day with their class mates and that the experience will help prepare them for success in their future lives.
Groups of around 6 dancers at a time are expected to line up outside the classroom door, and wait to be welcomed in by the facilitator.
Dancers should greet the examiner and the facilitator at the beginning of the exam.
During the exam, students can expect a class setting with the facilitator directing the class and the examiner making notes throughout.
Dancers should perform the skills asked of them while remaining respectful throughout the exam.
Following the exam, dancers should thank the examiner and the facilitator before leaving the classroom.
Girls: Students are required to attend examinations in LA Dance Acro set uniform (black leotard, shorts and black or tan footless tights. Hair must be neatly tied back in a low bun or french braid, no fringe.
Boys: Students are required to attend examinations in LA Dance Acro T-shirt black shorts or tights. Hair must be neat and out of the face.
*Dancers should be free of all jewellery (necessary medical jewellery permitted)
*Dancers should appear neat and tidy
The dancer will have an opportunity to demonstrate one Bonus Skill.
This should be a skill that is safe for the dancer to perform, and shows off the dancer’s unique or advanced abilities in a particular skill area.
This skill is worth 5 additional points on the exam.
The 28 required elements, exam etiquette and grooming will be marked as either 'Incomplete', 'Fair', 'Good', or 'Excellent'. The exam will be graded as 'Retry', 'Pass', 'Commended', ‘Highly Commended', 'Excellent' or ‘Distinction'.
Successful students will receive a certificate to commemorate their achievement. Students who receive the grade 'Superior' will also receive a custom Acrobatic Arts medal.
All students will receive a report card complementing areas of excellence and suggesting areas for improvement.
All exams are marked against the standard for the level and skill being performed.
Acrobatic Arts Adjudicators receive extensive training and are required to attend update courses to ensure consistency throughout the program. The Adjudicator’s mark is final.
Each skill is marked out of 5 points:
Incomplete 0 Fair 1-3 Good 4 Excellent 5
Retry 0-75 Pass 75-96 Commended 97-107 Highly Commended 108-118 Excellent 119-129 Distinction 130-150
The accumulation of all points determines the grade:
We completed our Acro training in April 2018 and received expert tuition from both Jen and Sandra. We both loved the training and got high scores in our exams, Lisa particularly well... 100%!! Very impressive!👌🏻 I am so pleased that we picked the Acrobatic Arts curriculum.
The Acrobatic Arts programme is so much fun for the Dancers, we had the pleasure of taking a handful of our own dancers along to help us learn spotting techniques etc. They had a fabulous time but they also learned such a lot. We could see that after just a few days, their strength and flexibility had already improved and we know that if they carry on with this programme, their dance ability will go from strength to strength but what has impressed us most of all about the curriculum, is how safety conscious it is towards the dancers.
The programmes huge success is progression. Simply, if the dancer is coached correctly through each and every progression at their own individual pace, they will be able to achieve their goals without the risk of injury.
All dancers begin at primary level and work through the levels at a pace suitable to them. It depends a little on age but more so on ability as to how quickly they work through the levels. Once they can perform a progression perfectly and for the required amount of time, it is added to their achievement card and at that point, they are able to attempt the next progression. The dancer themselves will, by then, feel confident and strong enough to move on as well as having a great sense of achievement.
Once the dancer has found their suitable level, they will normally spend around year or so working at it, with every small achievement recorded along the way. Ultimately, they will be offered the option to take an exam in that level.
There is also a great deal of care taken in the teaching of Acro that both sides of the body are worked evenly, which as a Pilates and Ballet teacher, this really does please me! So often I come across dancers with notable misalignments in their posture due to overwork on their 'favourite high kicking leg' or they may have a best side for a cartwheel for another example. Dancers studying the Acrobatic Arts programme will be required to display their work on both sides of the body equally before progressing to the next level. By emphasising this even way of working, the Acrobatic Arts programme is excellently designed to give the dancers, grace, strength, flexibility and a beautifully, even aligned posture that they will be able to carry through to adult life.
As a Pilates teacher, I can not recommend this programme highly enough! It is so incredibly well researched and designed and is one of the best exercise programs for children and young adults that I have come across!
Over the half term Angela went to Cambridge to attend another 'Back Handspring and Aerial' workshop with Acrobatic Arts and also completed her 'Module 2' Acrobatic Arts certification.
This means that LA Dance Acro can now teach and enter dancers for exams at all levels from Primary to level 8and Pre Professional 1-3.
Angela was required to take two level 6 dancers to help with her assessment. We would like to say a special thank you to Amy Watt and Lily Routledge for giving up their time and working so hard, they did us proud!!
Here they are with Sandra, Katie and Vicky, Examiners and Instructors from Canadian Acrobatic Arts.
💜💜💜💜
We had a great time in all our classes in the week leading up to Valentines day.
We gave the dancers 10 minutes to come up with a way to make the shape of a heart with their bodies. On Valentines day we posted the best hearts on our Facebook page.
Our winner with the most likes was this one.
In December some of our gold class were invited to do a small display of their work at Rivermere Care Home in Sevenoaks.
I'm not sure who enjoyed it more... the residents or our dancers! It was such a lovely thing to do and the good news is they have asked us to go back in the Summer!
We will have to get cracking on some more routines!
At LA Dance Acro, building a “Foundation of Technique” really means: establishing a baseline of strength, flexibility, and motor skill development that will allow us to safely and effectively start introducing basic acrobatic tricks. The amount of time this takes, and the difficulty of this process, is different for each dancer.
Each of our dancers has been issued with their own appropriate level of progress card to work on.
There are 12 levels of progress cards and it is possible to take an ‘Acrobatic Arts’ examination at each level if the dancer wishes. Each card has up to 30 skills to achieve before the dancer is ready to move on to the next level.
Some of the skills on cards may look easy to the dancers but to receive a star for a skill, it needs to be performed to technical perfection to prove that as well as achieving the skill, they have also acquired an appropriate level of strength and control performing that skill.
For example a technically correct bridge, should have straight arms, flat parallel feet with shoulders placed over the wrists.
A handstand against the wall for 25 seconds must be unassisted, with correct alignment and not loose postural form.
Cartwheels must have stretched knees and pointed feet that start and finish with control and be performed in both directions.
It takes a lot of hard work, strength, discipline and dedication to be a skilled acrobatic dancer! Cardiovascular fitness is required, core strength and balanced flexibility.
We try and make this body conditioning as much fun as possible but it is tough work!
While bodies are getting into top acro shape, wrists may get sore from increased pressure on the hands (while upside down); necks may feel tight as the weaker muscles are gaining strength and sometimes bumps and bruises may appear while stumbling through the process of muscle memory development. In fact, the simple act of falling and getting right back up, trains the body to move more smoothly and efficiently!
So when a dancer finally gets a star for a single skill on their progress chart, there is a real sense of achievement and when their charts are completely filled with stars they get to celebrate their success by taking their completed charts home and moving on to the next level.
(We will make allowances if a dancer is finding the odd skill unachievable allowing them to move on but carry the particular skill with them over to the next level).
We understand that our dancers can’t wait to get cracking on the exciting stuff like back handsprings and aerials and honestly, that is exactly what we want them to eventually achieve but to acquire these skills safely, it is necessary to build up a strong foundation of technique in the first few years of their training.
Aches, pains, bumps and bruises are to be expected, it actually takes a huge amount or hard work to be strong enough to hold just a hand stand or bridge but the process of building a slow, steady and safe foundation of technique results in long-term success with healthy, strong, balanced bodies that are able to perform exciting Acrobatic tricks and skills safely and with ease!
Once a dancer has completed all the progress cards up to level 6, this will have safely conditioned their bodies to easily achieve aerials and back hand springs with grace and control.
It will be worth it!
We can understand dancers may feel a little impatient, wanting these “fun tricks” to come quickly and easily, maybe a little fed up with regularly feeling sore and tired with the amount of conditioning we do in our classes.
We have been so impressed with all the dancers, they have worked really hard and are achieving so much, so very fast! We really hope that they are having lots of fun but at the same time, learning how to be focused and disciplined in the art of Acrobatic Dance.
We feel that the addition of the progress cards will be encouraging for the dancers, help them understand the process and allow them to celebrate their efforts along the way!
If you would like to see a copy of your dancers card to find out what level they are and how they are getting on at any time during the term, please just enter your details and click on the link below and we will send you an update as soon as possible.
If you have any questions, comments or suggestions please contact us at…
