What a group!

I started my day by welcoming our 29 eager and talented (!) students to class this morning and had a chance to meet with them this afternoon in my first conditioning session.  The New York State Summer School of the Arts school of modern dance has begun its 24th season in Saratoga Springs and I am delighted -- as always -- to be here.

After several computer glitches today, I am glad to finally have internet so I can share what our first day was all about.... self identification, knowledge acknowledgement, and assessment.  We began with a questionnaire regarding who the students are, what their backgrounds include, and how they see themselves... some visioning questions to help me get to know them.  This year as I'll again be working with the entire group of students (and for several of them this will be their second or third year working with me) I created a pre-test including questions about:

1. Core strength
2. Plyometric training
3. Identification of bones on a skeletal diagram
4. Identification of muscles and their actions
5. Ligaments
6. Hydration

And other topics which we'll get to this summer.  The questionnaire, the pre-test and along with their ASSESSMENTS, which I'll describe tomorrow with some photos and video clips, will help to shape the groupings of our work together the rest of the summer. 

I am looking forward to reading their responses and to help them to determine goals for this summer and beyond... and the strategic plan for geting there.