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| MHSB Pointe of View - Issue 2009-2010 Volume 1 |
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In This Issue: Director's Letter Greetings and news from Martha Hicks. Read Dress Code Everything you need - and need to know - when dressing for dance classes. More Uniform Days Prepare You Sooner Beat the rush and get fitted on a Uniform Day of your choice! Dates MHSB Company Auditions Experience a real audition process and prepare yourself for the upcoming dance season. More Your Child's Personalized Schedule Information on where to find your child's schedule. More Parking Explained Parking is never easy in North Toronto but we've tried to simplify it with these maps and parking guides. View Safety Arrival Drop-off and pick-up your child safely without having to park. More Reception Hours Over The Next Few Weeks Our reception hours are posted for your convenience.View Life Lessons From Performance The MHSB has always known performing is more about self-discovery than doing a routine.More |
Director's Letter Summer Programs were a huge success. Our young dancers aged 4-10 experimented with many different dance forms in a slightly less conventional atmosphere. Just imagine classical ballet performance on pajama day! Many students are already looking forward to next summer. Yonge Street road improvements continue as part of the Capital Works Program, making traffic a challenge. According to the city’s official website, completion is scheduled for November 2009. MHSB continues to provide its Safety Arrival Program despite the interruptions. Consider leaving a few minutes earlier for drop-off and pick-up this autumn. Online improvements at MHSB continue too. You may have noticed this Pointe of View newsletter is in a new simpler format. We also continue to do our bit for the environment, offering your 2009 MHSB Handbook as a pdf (available online from our website). However if you prefer a hardcopy please call 416.484.4731 any time and we’ll mail you one. A second season commences for the MHSB at the Koffler Centre of the Arts, at the Bathurst Jewish Community Centre. We’re expanding our offering of ballet, jazz and hip hop classes on Wednesdays and Sundays in Donald Gales Family Pavilion’s professional and spacious studios. These unique classes are specifically tailored to accommodate the needs of families at the BJCC. Learn more at mhsbatthekoffler.ca MHSB offers a beautiful line of dance attire for its students at the mhsb shop, but has also permitted its students to wear other brands of dancewear if they wish to. This flexible policy has worked in the past, but over the last few dance seasons, some dancers have become overly casual and relaxed with their dancewear. Unfortunately, this has lead to some inappropriate dance attire that looks unpolished and takes away from the technique and skill of the dancer and breaks the unified feeling of the class.Over the next few dance seasons, MHSB is transitioning to a required uniform line. For the 2009-2010 season, dancers will be expected to wear black attire to jazz, tap, modern, hip hop, and musical theatre classes and special attention will be paid to monitoring these standards. Older ballet and pointe students will continue to wear black bodysuits and pink tights. The younger ballet students – Pre-Ballet, Pre-Primary, Primary 1 and Primary 2 – will continue to wear pink bodysuits. Hip hop students will still be permitted to wear clean running shoes, but careful attention will be paid to the black attire of the dress code. Students will be expected to come to class with neat and tidy hair and no jewelry or accessories. Please feel free to contact Martha at 416.484.4731, ext. 222, with any concerns or suggestions as we move towards an exciting and professional uniform at MHSB. Uniform Days at our 2345 Yonge Street Location Things get hectic on the first day of class. Beat the rush and get fitted during any of these convenient Uniform Days:
So you think you can audition? It’s among the most important experiences in a dancer’s career. MHSB students aged 12 and over are invited to audition for the MHSB Company. Those selected will hone their dance skills weekly with a guest teacher, then participate in unique dance experiences and competitions. But for all students, it’s a great way to experience the audition process and prepare for this year’s dance season. Audition for Ballet, Jazz, Hip Hop – or all three! There’s a $5 administration fee per Audition Form.
Your Child's Personalized Schedule Attached to this email you will find your child's personalized class schedule for Fall 2009. This schedule shows start dates, holidays, and other exceptions to the normal class schedule. Our December Pointe of View will come with a personalized schedule for Winter 2010. Start Dates Once again, beginning classes are staggered in September so that every class receives the same weeks of instruction throughout the year. This summarizes who starts when – your child’s personalized schedule lists their level.
Parking Explained Parking is never easy in North Toronto but we’ve tried to simplify it! You’ll find detailed maps and parking guides for each of our locations in the MHSB Handbook. Free but BRIEF underground parking is available at our 2345 Yonge St. East location. You must be in and out within 15 minutes, to avoid being charged!
S.A.A.s are special pick-up and drop-off helpers at our Yonge St. East and West locations who guide your child safely from designated drop-off points to inside MHSB doors. Your child may also wait with an S.A.A. after class to be picked up. Hours vary depending on the day. Please see the “safety arrival attendants” section in the MHSB Handbook for details. Reception Hours Like you, the MHSB is re-jigging its schedule to prepare for all the changes coming in September. If you have any questions, please call 416.484.4731 and we’ll get back to you promptly with answers. Special Fall Reception Hours
Regular Fall Reception HoursBeginning Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009
Life Lessons From Performance At the Martha Hicks School of Ballet we’re perpetually impressed with how much our students gain from performing. On the surface, they’ve learned new dance steps at a given level, ordered into a routine. But there are far deeper lessons they take with them for life: lessons that only come through performance. Facing an audience. Even the most extroverted child gets butterflies before taking the stage. Facing that anxiety and ‘putting it out there’ is an experience they thrill to on performance day but relive for the rest of their lives. Once they’ve been in front of audience and tasted that joy that comes from well deserved applause, they’re changed for good. Deportment before adults, school presentations – indeed boardroom presentations 15 years down the road – benefit from the lasting effects. Teamwork. Business articles and management books may be full of the necessity of teamwork, but our world still places too much emphasis on individual performance. Working together in dance, children learn the give and take necessary to succeed together. Our students often learn as much from each other as they do from our teachers. And we the teachers continue to learn from all of them. Exercise and Health. Remember Newton’s First Law: An object at rest tends to stay at rest and an object in motion tends to stay in motion. By giving children these regular structured dance lessons, you’re inculcating good habits at a crucial stage of their character development. Chances are excellent they’ll continue exercising – being in motion – for a long, healthy life. And of course there’s the sheer joy that comes with movement. Fitness promotes excellent mental health too. Something to think about next spring when your child is beaming and taking a bow after a brilliant performance. |
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walk-in address: 2345 Yonge St. East Side, Toronto, ON mailing address: 2384 Yonge St. 2nd Floor, Toronto ON M4P 2E0 telephone: 416.484.4731 email: office@mhsb.ca family ID:<%FAMID%> Copyright (C) 2009 The Martha Hicks School of Ballet Inc. | All rights reserved. |
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