Gabriola Dance and Pilates and The Gabriola Recreation Society are proud to present Miss Mara and 35 local, young dancers in: A Boreal Ballet. This short, fully staged dance performance with children aged 2-16 years old will be held on Feb 20th at 2pm at The Phoenix Auditorium at The Haven. Admission is by cash or fresh vegetable donation to the PHC. Come out and support these young artists.”

Finding balance and New Year’s resolutions
by Mara Brenner
Sunday, January 10 2010, As seen in The Flying Shingle

In sport as in life, overcompensation in one area weakens another; if you eat too much chocolate, you’ll have no room for veggies, for example. Balance is essential, not only for staying upright on a downhill slope, but also for injury-free functioning throughout regular everyday life. At this time of year the New Year’s resolutions are flying and positive attitudes are in the air. These resolutions often involve love, nutrition, and our physical well being. Perhaps a good way to kill a few of these birds with one stone would be to generalize your resolution. You can do this by resolving to create more balance in your life.

As a fitness professional, I wouldn’t attempt to council you about love but here are a few tips that can help you enjoy more physical balance in your life. (Which may very well help in all other areas!)

Simply put, muscular imbalances can directly affect performance and lead to injury. We need to have balance around our joints, balance between the strength in the upper and lower body, and balance between our abdominals and our back. For example, an imbalance between strong quadriceps and weak hamstrings, short adductors (inner thigh muscles) that limit range of motion and tight calf muscles all combine to place strain on the knee joint. Knee joints take a lot of abuse especially this time of year, as they act as shock absorbers on downhill ski runs, so it is not surprising that the knee is the most common site for injuries in this area. In order to improve your muscular balance and reduce your risk of injury to this joint, you need to strengthen muscles and improve the flexibility (lengthen) of the appropriate muscles and ligaments.

You can do this most effectively with the help of a skilled fitness professional; whether it be a kinesiologist, yoga, pilates or dance instructor.

As a teacher of private and group Pilates and Dance classes I focus on the core as the connector or balance point between the upper and lower body. It is your power centre - when it is weak, you lose vital energy in the limbs and also suffer with a sore back. When it’s strong, you redirect weight out of your knees and align your shoulders thus alleviating neck pain.

Practicing Pilates will educate your mind and body on its proper posture, alleviating back pain and literally helping you to balance which becomes more and more important as you age and falls become a concern.

Whether you’re balancing your chequebook, your diet, your outlook on life or your fitness level, remember to set goals that are achievable and find ways to make them as fun as possible. That’s a sure recipe for success.

Good news for the kids and teens - we’re having a show at the Phoenix in February so don’t miss this session of Ballet, Creative dance and Musical theatre. New for the Adults - Pilates Circuit Training!

If you’re interested in learning more about Pilates and Dance for all ages, check out my web site at www.maragoldtheatre.com or call Gabriola Dance and Pilates at 8538.

          Winter Dance Performance Info Sheet

                                January, 2010

Dear Parents,

Welcome to the Winter dance session.  As you may already have heard from your child, this is a special session as it will be our first performance session as a dance school on Gabriola.  During the first half of our class time the children will be working on improving their technique during centre time and at the barre and for the second half of the class we will be focusing on their performance piece.  As we only have 6 more classes before the show it is important that all classes are attended.

Mark your calendars.  February 20^th at 2pm is the performance and it will be at The Phoenix Auditorium at The Haven.  Other than their regular class times, extra rehearsals are minimal; there will be a run through on Friday the 19th at 3pm in the multi-purpose room (music room) at The Gabriola Elementary School and there will be a dress rehearsal at 11:00 at The Phoenix Auditorium on Saturday the 20^th.  After the dress rehearsal, kids can go home for lunch and should be back at the theatre at 1:15.

Luckily, costumes are being rented for a minimal fee of $15 a child.  This money will be collected at the run through on Feb 19^th. These costumes are precious and the replacement fee if damaged beyond repair or lost is $200.  Other than that, your child will need to wear their pink dance tights, body suit and most importantly, their pink dance slippers for the show. Hair needs to be tied off their face in a pony tail and all kids should bring their own make up…eye liner, blue shadow and red lip stick with them to the dress rehearsal.  You will be taught how to apply it for stage dance before the dress rehearsal.

Here is the breakdown of the classes for our Winter themed show:

Pre-School dancers will be snowflakes

Kinderdancers will be Puddle Jumpers

Grade 1-2’s will be split between Penguins and Mice

Grade 3-4 will be Skaters

Teens will be Snow Fairies

Finally, the good news is that admission will be a donation of a non-perishable food item to the food bank.  Also, the show will be very short….maybe half an hour.  (It’s a small school!)

If any parents are interested in helping out, I will need a hand at 10am on the day of the show setting up the theatre and again after the dress rehearsal re-setting and again after the show.

Thanks so much!  Miss Mara  250-247-8538  www.maragoldtheatre.com

Here it is folks, the Jan/Feb schedule is out.  It is similar to December but with a Pilates circuit class for int/adv added on Tuesday nights at 6:30

Monday

: Beginner Pilates 10am

: Adult Ballet 11:00-12:15

Tuesday

: Ballet 6-8 yrs 3:00 (full)

Wed

: Ballet 8-10 yrs 3:00

: Ballet adult beginner 4:30-5:45

: Pilates beginner 6:15-7:15

Thurs

: Pilates beginner 9:30-10:30

: Adult Ballet 11:00-12:15

Friday

: Pre-school dance 10:00-10:30

: Kinderdance 11:30-1

: Pilates Beginner 1:45-2:45 @ Gabriola Elementary School

: Pilates beginner 5:30-6:30

january-calendar-email.doc

The January calendar is out and you can click on the link above to view it or give me a call or an email if you didn’t get one.  New this session are Pilates Circuit training on Tuesdays at 6:30, Boys dance for ages 6-10 on Saturdays at 1:30 and Musical theatre for grades 5-7 of Fridays at GES at 2:00.

Also, I am very excited to announce that Gabriola Dance students, of whom there are 40 plus, will be performing in their own show at The Phoenix Auditorium on February 20th. Expect full lights and costumes to help stage this winter/spring themed show.

      The 6-12 year old Musical Theatre Class has been asked to perform as “Mudgekins” in The Community Theatre’s production of The Wizard of Oz.  The kids will do a preview at the GES assembly on Monday Nov. 23rd at 9am-ish and the community is invited to watch for free.

The Wizard of Oz opens at The Community Hall on Nov. 27th at 7:00 and continues all weekend; At 1:30 and 7pm on Saturday the 28th and at 1:30 on Sunday the 29th.  Tickets at Artworks.

The photo below is from the last performance class in September which was part of the Take Five Cabaret.  Great job Swans!!!

Monday

10am Beginner Pilates

11am Adult Ballet

4:30 Adult Ballet

6:00 Intermediate Pilates

Tuesday

3-4:30 6-9 yrs Ballet

Wednesday

11:30 Kinderdance

3-4:30 8-11yrs Ballet

5:00 Teen Ballet

6:15 Beginner Pilates (just started!)

Thursday

9:30 Beginner Pilates

11:00 Adult Ballet

Friday

10:00 Pre-school dance

5:30 Beginner Pilates

Saturday

9:30 Intermediate Pilates

10:30 Musical theatre ages 6-11

1:00 Intermediate Pilates

**Some beginners may need one or more private session before beginning group classes. Please phone in advance.