The life of a Novice level dancer

Super excited to post my book highlight today after receiving notice from Amazon that we're seeing some sales! Whoot!

Time for the Novice level book! By Novice, your dancer is likely developing quite a bit of autonomy along their Highland dance journey. But organizational and inspirational tools are a benefit for any age dancer!
In the Novice level, dancers have progressed to studying at least 6-8 dances, some still overlapping from the earlier levels, like the Flora and Sean Triubhas. Some new dances for this level include the Strathspey and Highland Reel, and the Half Tulloch which are partner dances involving four dancers (they are really cool to watch!).

My daughter reached the novice level at about age 11, and this was the year the practice charts (with a prize incentive) really made a difference. She had a year long goal to reach the next level and did so within two weeks of her hoped-for date (which I thought was just great!).

I hope that My Highland Dance Notebook for the Novice level will be just as helpful to your dancer as it was for mine!

Take a closer look at the Beginner Level Notebook

Once your little one is ready to move past primary (at age 7), their first truly competitive level is Beginner. Now they will have their dance card (registered with your national dance organization; for us this is http://scotdance.ca/ ) stamped at competition, if they place first, second or third. When the card is full of six stamps, they move to the next level. 

In the Beginner level, dancers will continue with the Highland Fling and The Sword dance, but Pas de basques and Pas de basques with highcuts are not seen in competition, except as a foundation step for other dances. A Beginner dancer will likely start to learn the Seann Triubhas (pronounced shawn trues), the Flora MacDonald's Fancy and the Scottish Lilt, both usually shortened to "Flora" and "Lilt". This is when you'll have to invest in a new costume beyond the kilt as the Flora and the Lilt require the National outfit, or also called the Aboyne. It's a pretty, flared skirt with a large sash that attaches at the shoulder and drapes down the dancers back. 

My Highland Dance Notebook for Beginners will look quite similar to the Primary, but it will now include the new dances in the notes section, practice chart, and in the competition log. The competition checklist will include the new costume requirements because trust me, you don't want to have to buy an Aboyne underskirt from a vendor at competition when you forget it at home! ($$$$)

Here is my older daughter in her first competition! She didn't start dancing until past Primary age so her first competitive experience was as a Beginner. We didn't have a full costume yet, and her kilt and ghillies (shoes) were borrowed from her teacher. I'll never forget how excited we all were when she placed second in her Highland Fling and obtained her first stamp!

Spotlight on...The Primary Notebook

Over the next number of weeks, I will be focusing on each of the notebooks. Let's start with the Primary level.

Highland dancers in the primary level can be as little as four or five years old (omgoodness they are SO cute!) so they definitely need mommy's help at home to keep practicing. My Highland Dance Notebook will be a great help to moms and their wee primary level dancers. In the primary level, dancers will show off their Pas de Basques (lovingly pronounced Paddy-bahs) which are one of the foundational jumping steps in Highland dance. After they are doing well with these, their teacher will add in Highcuts, which is another foundational move where the dancers tap their toes against the back of their calves (one side at a time). Then either the famous Sword Dance or the Highland Fling will be learned during the rest of the primary year. The Fling and the Sword will continue to be danced throughout the majority of the dancers career, but the Pas de Basques and Highcuts are only practiced as an isolated move during the primary time. 

These four dances are listed in My Highland Dance Notebook for primary level with plenty of room to write down teacher's instructions, and then a practice chart with the dances already listed. The squares for each day of the week are large enough for a sticker, which we all know is a great motivator for little ones! Then at the end of the Notes and Charts section, certificate pages with a badge graphic will make your little dancer smile when they've mastered each dance. If your dancer competes this year, you'll find a checklist with all the important items you'll need to remember to bring, and a competition log to keep track of where, when and how your dancer performed. Lastly, mommy might need to help with the journaling, but trust me when I say you won't regret having yours or your little ones thoughts and memories documented in black and white about these wonderful years of Highland Dancing!

Here is a sample of one of the badge pages.

And here is a bit of one of the journal pages.

This is a segment of the notes section:

And here is my own little Primary dancer, on her very first dance exam day!

Words from one who knows

My Highland Dance Notebooks have Arrived!

Almost a week ago, I received the final email from Amazon, announcing that all five levels of My Highland Dance Notebook were finally available. Very exciting!

My Highland Dance Notebook is a project I conceptualized about six to seven years ago, when my daughter was actively dancing. Once she was old enough to attend classes on her own, I was finding that she needed a tool to keep track of her teacher's instructions. At that time, I made up a simple template and had it printed at the local copy store. I imagined being able to have it professionally printed, and distributing it through the Highland dance vendors I often saw at competitions and festivals.

As it was just one of many projects and ideas I tend to come up with, I did a bit of research into how one gets a book printed for distribution (without it being published...I've done some research on that and once submitted a query to a publisher. It feels like a very difficult "world" to break into) and didn't get very far, and the idea was pushed to one of the many back burners I apparently have in my brain.

I've been challenged recently (3 guesses why!) to try and find some extra income so I was scrolling through a Facebook post of ideas from other moms. Years ago, I helped my kids publish some short and sweet e-books on Amazon Kindle as a school project. I learned from that Facebook post that you can publish more than e-books. With Kindle Direct Publishing, you can publish books that customers can order, and they are printed on demand.

I was so excited! I immediately remembered my project idea and decided that even though my imagined version of this book would be spiral bound and have tabs to separate the sections, I could be happy without those.  It took me a little longer than I thought it would to get all five levels complete and submitted but after a few re-submissions for errors and such, they are finally all set to go. (I hope! A friend sent me a typo on the back cover of two of the books just last night--oops!)

So before I go, I'll just briefly describe the books, and then my plan is to focus in on each individual book over the next few weeks.  In each book, you'll find 52 sets of pages that have what I call the "note" section on one page, and a practice chart on the other. The notes and the charts have all the dances for each level already printed in place. That section closes with certificate pages that have a badge logo, congratulating the dancer on mastering each dance. The next section has 6 sets of facing pages with competitions checklists, and logs to keep track of competitions competed in and the results of those. Finally, the notebooks have a journal section, meant for the dancer to write down some thoughts and memories about their year in that level.  

Please see the links in the sidebar if you'd like more details about My Highland Dance Notebooks!