Month: December 2012

Baby Ballerina

The final class has come and gone; Christmas Break is already here! Now, the happenings of yesterday’s classes:

I arrived at the studio early enough to catch the contemporary/jazz Christmas Dance; it was really fun to see!

The “Training Kids” began filing in and I took my place at the barre. Much to my surprise, Miss Sara had us perform our barre combinations in the center, something we have not done since last year. It was so much fun! Each combo was completed to Christmas music, complete with my teacher’s favorite… jingle-bell degeges! 

It was soon time for pointe shoes! It took me a while to put them on, however, because I couldn’t seem to tie my left ribbons. Despite the extra time, I finally got my shoe tied up and it was onto releves, echappes, developpes (this is when my family came to observe), chaines, piques and Mirlitons! The crowd was extremely impressed (No comments Moriah…!)!

And now, I leave you with this word until after break. If something extraordinary takes place before then, you can count on a post! If not, I will talk to you all in the New Year! Happy holidays!

Today was my first official modern performance– what fun! 

Class began with the usual, winter warm up– “circle time!” Miss Sara calls out moves such as chasses, skips, walks, or any of the former backwards and we perform in a large circle that takes up most of the studio space. Once warm, we completed a few plies and tendus and went to work on the dance. Moriah’s parents had another engagement, so they came early to watch one of our rehearsals. They thought it was grand, which lifted my spirits to the sky! Eventually, after making a few minor fix-ups and taking deep breaths, we let the other parents inside. They hurried in and crowded at the front of the room. With that, the dancing began!

We ran the dance two times, both of which were superb! I had to remind myself not to mess around with my costume during the first dance, though– that is so hard for me! Our costumes, by the way, were quite fantastic. We wore red and green shirts (I wore red) and black pants. Simple, but it looked so cool, seeing that we have such a large class.

Miss Sara made some last minute announcements, showed everyone her Christmas-themed fuzzy socks and said a prayer over us. Thank God for my dance teacher– she is so amazing!

I figured that sticking the Monday and Tuesday news into the same post would spare me a bit of time. It also means that this post will be full of details…! Enjoy!

Yes, the past two days have been FULL of Christmas songs (and dances, of course)! Yesterday my parents (and many others) came to view the Training 2 dance. It went beautifully! My parents took videos for me (We always perform our Christmas Dances twice.), but as you know, I cannot post them for lack of space. Despite that sad fact, you can believe me when I say that everything was practically flawless! Next year, I will be dancing on pointe…!

Today in ballet, Miss Sara gave us her favorite Christmas combination of all time– degages  performed to “Jingle Bells!” On regular occasions, this is an easy piece, but during the Christmas season, singing is included. We all sang at the top of our lungs as we degaged; we laughed so hard! We managed to attract the many people in the lobby, who also burst into hysterics.

One of my cherubs gave me a beautiful little jar of chocolate before her performance today– thank you dear! 

We dressed all the little ones in candy-cane shirts, grey tutus, bells and sparkly Santa hats! They were all so cute, and they danced so well! As I demonstrated the dance for the girls to follow, one of the girl’s little brothers began to follow along with me and was extremely proud as he told his big sister all about it. Adorable! <3

Walking out, Emma came up to me and handed me the most wonderful bag of gifts– thank you so much to my beloved dance-sister! <3

Beautiful Blue Pointe Dancer

Emma sent me an e-mail a while ago with an image of a poster labeled, The Gift. Upon closer inspection, I found that the poster was designed to give publicity to a performance, presented (for free!) by Ballet Emmanuel, a Christan company which was founded in 2006. I had thoughts about attending one of the three shows, but naturally, I was in the middle of a homework assignment which caused me to forget everything about the message.

A few days ago I received a call from my dear dance-sister, reminding me of that e-mail sent so long ago. I remembered it instantly! Emma asked me if I would want to attend the Sunday performance with her and her mom (if her mom felt any better by that time– their family has been ill). I decided to talk to my mother about the idea. Naturally, I was in the middle of a homework assignment (darn it all!). Once again, the whole idea slipped my mind.

Finally, yesterday, Emma called me once more. She asked if I had decided to go to the performance and if she could catch a ride with me. This time, I asked my mom right away. At first, she said that it wasn’t going to work out– she had too much shopping to do! Later on, it was decided that, somehow, we’d make it happen. And… we did!

We picked Emma up this afternoon and headed over to the location of the performance. We found some pretty good seats once there.

The performance itself was awesome– so beautiful! I highly recommend Ballet Emmanuel’s The Gift. There was an excellent group of musicians, a harpist, actors and of course, dancers! Every costume was hand-made, which added a special touch to everything. It was truly inspiring and explained the extraordinary Christmas Story in a lovely way.

Just before the final dance, a man explained that Ballet Emmanuel is all over Facebook, Twitter and even Instagram (the only form of “posting” that I possess)! We dropped Emma off at her house and I rushed home to find this professional ballet company on my iPod app. I found Ballet Emmanuel’s page and “followed” it. To my great surprise, their first picture was taken at my home studio!

“The Dancer” Statue

Today has sped by so quickly (as everyday has been lately)! Here are the happenings:

I prepared myself for the nursing home performance around two-thirty this afternoon. Caroline called to inquire upon our ability to drive her to the studio– I didn’t hesitate to say yes! So, in our black leotards, pink tights and ballet buns, we made our journey. Once there, Caroline rushed into her ballet shoes just in time to complete a run-through of her Training 1 dance (Miss Sara allowed us to come early to warm up, but I stretched at home). The Training 2 dance had already be rehearsed, but I was feeling good about it anyway.

Once rehearsal was over, I announced four extra seats in my car. Everyone seemed to have a ride, so Caroline and I packed up once again. On our way out, April arrived, and she joined us in our car.

Once at the home, Miss Tina gave us the run-down. Training 2 would be performing first! We slipped on our white tutus, tied our Christmas-colored ribbons around our waists and waited as Miss Tina introduced herself to the elderly people. She then explained exactly what the “Training Division” is, and what we would be performing. Then, she exited, and we set ourselves up. The first thing we noticed was that the designated area was extremely small— ah! Would we all fit? Barely. My mom, who was watching, said that we looked fantastic, even in the small amount of space that we had. I, too, feel as if we did a nice job, despite a few spacing issues (due to the size of the room). We were able to make many people smile, wish them a merry Christmas and give them cards, tissue packets, etc.

My mom drove April and I back to the studio and proceeded to drop Caroline off at her house. April was soon picked up, so I was left with Moriah and a few other girls. Emma also showed and we gave her huge hugs (She has been gone all week with the flu.)! We chatted as we put on our pointe shoes and Miss Sara came in to proclaim that we would be beginning class early (we were quite early in returning to the studio). We did releves, echappes, chaines turns, our first arabesques and Mirlitons (from the Nutcracker)! We were very surprised on hearing that we would perform such a dance so early in our training, but Miss Sara seems extremely confident in us. Next week, we may show the parents our Mirlitons. 

Another abnormal Thursday has passed, complete with my last make-up class. Here are your beloved details…! Just for the record, I decided to skip the Training 1 class and use the Training 2 class (after modern) as my make-up instead (so that I could practice the Christmas Dance with everyone). So, let us begin with modern class…

I arrived early and waited a little impatiently for Training 1 to end. I had some questions for Miss Sara. Finally, we came face-to-face, and I asked her about our modern Christmas Dance costumes (to be revealed at a later date). Secondly, I asked my teacher a few questions concerning the nursing home event later today and pointe shoes. No one will be wearing their shoes to the home, and the beginning pointe girls will not be en pointe for the parents (during ballet) to prevent “AH!” moments. 

Speaking of Christmas Dances, the parents will come to watch Training 2 on Monday, cherubs on Tuesday, modern on Thursday and pointe on Friday. All of the dances are looking incredible, and the parents should have plenty to observe during pointe.

We worked a bit on our Christmas Dance but seeing that it looked just about perfect, we moved onto the fun combination that we learned last week. Miss Sara misplaced her Dancer of the Month papers, so we’ll have to wait until next week to see who the much-wanted award will be handed to.

The bulk of my news comes with the Thursday Twos filing in. I quickly put on my ballet shoes and took to the barre. Miss Sara gave us three combinations and let us take a quick stretch. We proceeded to practice our Christmas Dance, Miss Sara cheering us on. “That was SO MUCH BETTER!” she cried. That said, the dance looks way better than it used to and is ready for the nursing home this evening. Dressed in our black leotards, pink tights, white tutus and Christmas ribbon, everything should be perfect. I have also collected a Christmas card and a small package of tissues to give to one of the elderly ladies (Miss Tina recommended it).

The dance looking great, we practiced the jumping combination that we have been working on for a week. It is a lot easier than when we started…! Next, we threw on our pointe shoes (as Thursday is pointe day for the Twos). I expected to be performing releves and echappes for the whole of the class, but I was gladly mistaken! Our first assignment was to pique turn across the floor. At first, I was a bit frightened– the Christmas tune on the iPad was so fast! However, I took a deep breath and at exactly the same pace as April (who is at the intermediate level), pique turned across the floor! I didn’t fall. I didn’t even pause. I was all the way over my arches! I truly felt like a professional dancer. 

As Miss Sara choreographed more complicated combinations, I practiced my left pique turns. Tired, I tried my right side, which is significantly better. My teacher came over to say something to the extent of, “You could do a double!” so I tried. My efforts were to no avail, but I will continue practicing.

Random Picture of Me After Nutcracker Performance #2

I can’t help myself; none of my news is in proper order anyway, so why not have another random post? Besides, they’re more fun to read…

First off, I have managed to save an exciting piece of information for you. I don’t know how I held myself back from speaking of this event yesterday– so hard! Now, without further ado, my story:

Every month at my studio, a “Dancer of the Month” award is given to a dancer who has shown improvement over the course of a month. This award was given to me yesterday, specifically for my “triple turns” (which is kind of ironic, considering that I did another quadruple this morning)! I am so glad to know that I have grown– what an accomplishment!

Ballet class today was cool (literally!). The heat wouldn’t turn on fast enough, so we all bundled up in jackets, sweatpants and legwarmers. Miss Sara gave us many warm-up combinations, but we did not do much in center, as we were still ice-pops (or ice-dancers, depending on how you look at it)…!

After a series of odd events, we ended up having a conversation about “flying cats.” It was awesome.

Miss Holly and I had a small class today– not very many cherubs showed up! The girls who did were having quite a time fooling around. My correction was being ignored, so as Miss Holly found some Christmas music, I practiced my pirouettes. Miss Holly commented, “Girls, if you sit and be quiet, Miss Aquinnah will show you some pirouettes.” They calmed down quickly and watched with wide eyes as I performed a triple, a few doubles and many singles. Every time a turn was completed, the girls screamed, “Again! Again!” I felt like a professional.

That seems to be all of my news… well… then again… Christmas is in two weeks, dancer-people…