I received my exam results on Saturday and today. The first set of results were for jig. We've only been doing jig for a few months and had practiced in the shoes 4 times before the exams. We were all nervous about this exam and during the mock exams we all choked to some extent. The actual exam was much better. For the pre-bronze jig, with a result continuum of pass, pass plus, commended, commended plus and highly commended, I scored.... commended plus! I was so shocked. I have a lot to work on but I am grateful that the work that I did on the dance at home resulted in a good result.
As for the Gold Highland exam, I scored a commended. I knew this one would be harder to do well and on the day my Seann Truibhas sucked. The comments didn't surprise me and I know I have made a lot of progress in these core dances. As for the Gold Scottish National exam.... highly commended!!! You could have knocked me over with a feather. I was so stunned! We weren't even graded for this exam for our mock exam because we did not know one of the three dances at that point. Since we worked so much on these dances during the time between the mock and actual exams, our teacher believes it may have made our highland dancing suffer in the Gold Highland exam. I am just so grateful. Yes, I do have things to work on but I am feeling so much better about those dances! And I really do like the new one that we learned for the exam.
As for the Associates exam - my teacher's exam - I passed and my paperwork is being mailed to Scotland tomorrow. I found out that I passed on the night of the exam (I posted that shortly thereafter). I cried - I was so overwhelmed because the whole process was insane. I am grateful that I was able to dance because if I couldn't (as was a possibility after surgery) I would have had to explain a lot more in the exam. The exam took about 1.5 hours and I was a mess during a good part of it. Trying to calm myself down in order to speak was difficult. Thankfully, I used the method of demonstrate, count and describe when asked a question. I could usually calm down during the demonstrate part. In the end, I had to perform a dance - one I had learned on the Saturday before the exam,. Thankfully, I didn't forget most of it. I screwed up one step but the rest was ok.
So now that I am a teacher, I cannot take the medal tests anymore. I am planning to do my member's exam in 1-2 years and then I may pursue the Scottish National Associate exam after that. And I am happy to say that our students did well. All passed, most at the commended level!!!
7 comments:
You GO girl!
Congratulations!
You should be VERY proud of yourself!
Isn't it wonderful when your hard work pays off in a big way? I had no idea that this segment of the dance world even existed, with different levels of exams and a governing body in Scotland. I would love to hear what you are going to do with the qualification.
Are you going to open your own school, or compete? Congratulations on your achievement.
Lisa (ICLW #65 - your great life)
Thanks so much!!!
I didn't either until about 2 years ago. Theree had been highland dancing on the Island for almost 50 years but we never knew we could take exams - we only hears about competitions and that isn't useful for us since we'd have to travel overseas for all of them in order to progress.
We've done the exam to try to keep the dance knowledge on the Island as we rely mostly on people with work permits who come with experience. Now, when our current teacher leaves, we'll be able to keep up the standard of dance and continue to progress. I'd like to turn our little volunteer organization into a proper school over time - particularly as we grew from 16 students last year to almost 50 this year. We're working with the Pipe Band to form a charity to help with fundraising currently.
Congratulations
~Stopping by for ICLW #126
That is amazing!! Congratulations!!!
P.S. Thanks for your comment on my blog :)
ICLW
CONGRATS!
Post a Comment