Month: December 2012

If the title hasn’t said it all, I have decided to make this one of my more random blog posts. For starters, here is a video of my pointe shoes that my little brother so kindly took for me this afternoon. I do hope it makes up for the lack of Christmas Dance videos…!

It has been a fairly uneventful weekend without Nutcracker Rehearsals– weird!

Today was ballet class, which went well. We worked a bit on our Christmas Dance, but it was difficult, as two people were missing. In this dance, even the absence of one person can throw the whole of us off track! Emma was one of these two people, I am sorry to say. Feel better soon, Dear. <3

It is highly important that we practice the Training 2 dance at home; come this Friday, we will be performing it at a nursing home close by. I am super excited but also a bit nervous. I pray that everything goes well…

In class today, after working on the dance, Miss Sara came up with a fun jumping combination for us to complete across the floor. It was a lot of fun! As my teacher choreographed, I messed around next to the mirror. I thought to myself, “Why not try a triple turn?” So… I did! I thought to myself, “Think quadruple, and you will land a triple,” as this usually works for me. So… I did! With quadruples in mind, I turned one, two, three… no way… FOUR TIMES? YES! I did a quadruple pirouette today, although no one saw me. When I returned home, I attempted another. My first try was a fairly good triple and the second was… a QUADRUPLE! I am SO pleased!

So, anyway, I have the nursing home event on Friday and Christmas Dances (for family) are next week. I feel good about the modern dance, but the Training 2 dance is going to take some practicing…. Here we go!

Abnormal.

What a great word to describe me.

And this blog.

Smiles. 

Yesterday was a slightly abnormal (lovin’ this word today) Thursday. I began my dancing by using the Training 1 class (before modern) as a make-up class (One down, one to go!). We spent quite a bit of time at the barre, where Miss Sara told me that I have TONS of turn-out— I just have to use it. We did a bit of adagio and moved onto the Training 1 Christmas Dance. I filled in for Anna, a Training 1 who was missing. I was more of a distraction than a fill-in, but I tried my best to catch on quickly.

Modern came soon after, and I was able to redeem myself. We focused on our Christmas Dance, made it all the way through the Stop Game and had 15 minutes to spare! That said, Miss Sara gave us a fun combination to remember for next week.

Guess what my awesome dad found for me? That’s right– the Christmas Dance videos of 2011! However, they are massive files and no matter how I try, they will not upload. I am dreadfully sorry; maybe this year’s will be smaller…?

The Cherubs’ Recital Costume

My busiest day of the week has sped right by, complete with the finding of the picture above! I will take a picture of the modern costume for you all on Thursday and continue to track down the Christmas Dance videos from last year.

Ballet this morning was great; I had a lot of fun! Miss Sara, like Bethany, is focusing much of her attention on our “Look at me!” (a.k.a. our “pizazz”) lately. Our smiles, the movement of our hands, the continuous motion– it all counts. Personally, I am really enjoying learning about performance. It is something that I truly admire in professional dancers.

Then, it was onto the cherubs’ class! Miss Holly is the main teacher at the time, as Miss Jennifer is off being married (Congratulations, Miss Jennifer!)! When Miss Holly excitedly told the girls that I had recovered from my illness and had returned to them, a little girl commented, “Oh, she gotted married?” I couldn’t help but laugh at the mix-up… haha!

The girls made a virtual mud puddle today to practice their leaps. “Don’t get any mud on your tutu!” Miss Holly told them. Of course, the puddle had to be made first. “Throw your ideas into the puddle!” said Miss Holly. Girls starting yelping, “Dirt!” “Leaves!” “Water!” which was quite amusing. Finally, our newest student said calmly, “Puppies and cookies.”

At the end of class, Miss Holly handed out sparkly, Tinkerbell stickers to the lil’ gals. No tears today– phew!

Yet another Monday has passed– wow! Here are the happenings of yesterday:

I arrived at the studio a whole, whopping 15 minutes early! I was so proud. The first thing I noticed as I walked into the lobby of Studio C was a group of poster boards taped to the window. Upon closer inspection, I found pictures of all my recital costumes. I was so pleased! I have pictured my Beginning Pointe/Training 1 and 2 costume in a previous post (“Vacation”), but I have yet to tell you of the rest! So…

For the Training 2 dance, my costume is simply a navy blue leotard with a black wrap skirt, pink tights and ballet shoes (of course!). I saw my modern costume for the first time yesterday– it is beautiful (though I do not have a picture for you yet)! It will be a black leotard with black jazz pants and a blue/brown tie-dye dress on top (it has SPARKLES!).

Into the studio with me, where we began barre and stretching. When complete, we moved onto our Christmas Dance. Our first run-through was pitiful, so we went straight to the Stop Game. The dance looks much better now.

As for last year’s dance videos, I have not yet located them. I’m still on the lookout! I did, however, find my hip-hop dance from the beginning of last year (the end of my semester-long class) that I may post sometime…

Pointe Shoe in a Wreath

I had to do it– I just had to! Being the first day of December, I couldn’t help the post title or the picture above. My family is going to finish off the decorating of our house today, and I plan to make Christmas cards as well.

Speaking of Christmas… what about the dances? Well, I’ll have you know that the ballet, modern and cherub Christmas Dances are coming along smoothly, now that Stop Game season has ensued! As I have said in a previous post, I promise to show videos of both the ballet and modern dances once my parents are able to record them. However, I may wait until Christmas Day to post them…! Do not fear; in the meantime, I will try to post my ballet and lyrical dances from last year. Now… to locate them…

Yesterday was my final ballet class with Bethany until January. It has been a fantastic month of learning! Every combination taught yesterday was done to Christmas music (imagine that!) which was so much fun. At the end of class, Bethany gave us some improv time. She put her iPod on shuffle and whatever song came up, came up! I ended up with quite a beautiful song, while others had a bit more difficulty (“I’m a Little Teapot” was one of those harder songs.). Bottom line: Bethany’s teaching is SO different, but SO enjoyable at the same time.

In pointe, I gave Miss Sara her birthday gift which she adored– yay! We did some releves, echappes, piques (which we learned last week) and… PIQUE TURNS! Yes, we did pique turns across the floor! I was so excited, although my face probably didn’t show it. I was only able to try the turns on my right side, however, because I found a large blister on my left foot, and I was in too much pain to attempt anything else… darn.