Month: July 2013

Miss Sara and I are starting to contemplate new pointe shoes, lovely dancers! My thoughts on the pair that I currently have (which are important in the new shoe process)…:

• I like the color. Yes, my shoes are perfectly pink and lovely. I couldn’t have asked for more style points!
• After wearing the shoes a few times, I noticed that some adjustments would need to be made. I couldn’t get out of pinky-toe blisters without tape, so that was added.
• My shoes got progressively wider. They widened to the point where I needed to add a pair of nylon socks to my gear. They filled the space, but made it that much harder for me to make the shoes bend, which brings me to my next point…
• The Capezio Tendu IIs are absolutely unbreakable. Indestructible. Invincible. And occasionally I feel very restricted, as if I could be over my arches, but the shoes just won’t allow me to get there. 
• However, when my shoes began dying outwardly, they really started to die. One scuff lead to many scuffs and color changes. 
• On top of it all, my feet grew, leading to the expansion of my laces. Despite the growth, my feet are still not big enough to fill the gap without my nylons. 

Strange– how much you can love your first pair of pointe shoes, yet want a new pair so terribly much.

So, Miss Sara has come to the conclusion that, while my shoes may last me a few months more, they will never make it through this coming year. That stated, I could break in a new pair while killing the other (just as many dancers do). This seems like a good idea to the two of us.

The problem: I’m going on vacation. I am SO excited to travel; however, I will miss out on Miss Sara’s planned “pointe shoe trip.” While working out the details, I found this:

A pointe shoe chart– a graph which tells dancers what pointe shoes they are likely to fit into (no guarantees), based on foot shape. Nice! Thanks to my “Greek-type foot with a wide toe,” here are some styles that the chart recommended:

• Capezio Infinita, Plie I, Tendu I, Odette, Plie II and Tendu II (<— Interesting…)
• Bloch Serenade 
• Chacott Velloneze 2
• Repetto 207
• INNOVATION
• Gumba 93 and 97
• Sansha 202
• Grishko Elite

This picture… <3

Bear with me, lovely dancers. I’ve been feeling so incredibly bloggish lately, I haven’t been able to help writing up to two posts per day. Funny– what summer does to you.

I feel that my life will not be complete until I share the following scene with all of you. It was one of those “you had to be there” moments, so prepare to be weirded out by my randomness.

Miss Sara: *gives fondue combination* “Oh, and it’s the drunken cow song.”

Students: *burst out laughing*

Anna: I don’t think I’ve heard this song.

Miss Sara: Okay, well, after the combination, you have to decide whether it’s a drunken ballerina, a drunken cow, or a drunken cowboy… I really think it’s a drunken cowboy.”

Anna: *laughs throughout combination* “I’m thinking it’s the cowboy.”

Kristen: How about a yodeler?

Miss Sara: Oh, that’s a good one! *picks up four safety pins* “Who wants these safety pins? They’ve been laying here for days, and no one has claimed them.”

Students: *both speechless and motionless*

Miss Sara: How about this? *gives each girl a safety pin* “Now they can multiply in your bags instead of on my desk.”

Anna: Oh my goodness! Safety pins that have babies! I can’t wait to tell my mom…

Miss Sara: *turns music on for other side* “Ah! My ear itches!”

Students: *rolling on floor laughing*

Miss Sara: Why are we laughing in ballet class? Nobody should laugh in ballet class!

Anna: Miss Sara, I think this song has strange effects on you.

Miss Sara: Yeah, I think it does.

I promise that my hair is not purple (and that it won’t be anytime soon!). I promise.

Today, the closing of the Dance Me a Story mini camp, has been spectacular. Our happenings centered around Coppelia, our theme of the morning. And these “happenings” of ours were as follows…:

Coppelia Day,  of course, required that each girl bring her favorite doll to class. We began, therefore, by allowing each little princess to share a few lines about her special friend. Afterwards, Ms. Tina read to them the Coppelia story. During this time, Sophie, one of the swans, came and sat on my lap. Turning around, she pointed to my purple shirt. “This is the color” she told me, “that I want my hair to be when I’m a grown-up.” Haha, we’ll see about that, Cutie…

We split up into our three groups, Ms. Tina taking the swans to dance and Ms. Jennifer and I taking the fairies and dolls to the craft room. While the dolls decorated their white pillow cases of late, the fairies completed today’s craft project: crepe-paper streamers (The title is pretty self explanitory.)!

All three groups then met in the lobby. We passed out some “special snacks” from Gabriella’s mom and sat the girls down in front of the Coppelia DVD.

Group swap! It was the swans turn to create their rainbow-colored streamers. Once completed, Ms. Jennifer and I dressed the girls in grey tutus and hurried them down to the Training Center (a.k.a. Studio C). There, we practiced their dance (Ms. Jennifer’s version of the cygnet variation from Swan Lake), along with the fairies’ (Ms. Jennifer’s version of the garland dance from The Sleeping Beauty) and the dolls’ (the Little Red Riding Hood variation from Sleeping Beauty).

Ah– the parental units! It was quite a show, indeed. The girls were simply beautiful, each and every one of them.

Once the performance was over, I gave lots of hugs, took lots of pictures and rushed back to the main studio. After taking care of the trash, it was back home with me!

Hangin’ with ma girl, Emma and friends!

Ooh!–an e-mail from Ms. Jennifer! I had  best open that…

Assistants… dance team… meeting… ah! This is it! It’s come at last!

“You will be assisting in…” Yes, yes?

Wednesday: Ballet/Tap Combo ages 4-6 with Miss Bethanny (YES! My first choice!)
Thursday:  Ballet 2A ages 8-10 with Ms. Tina (Wait, wait, wait. Hold up a second! A second class? Not to mention my second choice…)

And there you have it, lovelies. To my complete and total surprise, I’ve been given two classes to assist with during the fall semester– wow!

Another day of dancing stories has come and gone! Your details await you…:

Miss Tina started off the morning with the reading of The Sleeping Beauty story, our theme today. The girls, decked out in pajamas, enjoyed it immensely!

Upon splitting up into our three different groups, Miss Lauren and I took the fairies into the craft room. There, they completed…

Today’s craft project:

1. Take your Sleeping Beauty crown (light pink, hot pink, lavender or purple).
2. Punch out the necessary holes in your crown.
3. Stick a few large jewels onto your crown.
4. Stick smaller jewels and letters onto your crown.
5. Once your crown is finished, begin working on your Sleeping Beauty coloring page.

We then met in the lobby, handed out some snacks and watched Act One and Act Three of The Sleeping Beauty ballet— really beautiful.

After that, it was the little swans turn to make their princess crowns. During this period, Miss Jennifer asked me to keep an eye on the fairies as they danced, while she made a phone call. They were stunning– simply stunning!

To finished off the class, we took the swan and fairy groups down to Studio C to watch the dolls perform their variation of the day. The younger groups then showed off their “garland dance” which they had been practicing.

All in all, a wonderful morning with a group of wonderful princesses! Our last day is tomorrow… sad face…

Honestly, lovely dancers… what am I to do with myself? July is almost over. How? When did this happen?

Why, oh, why!

*Take a deep breath. No more whining, Aquinnah. People are wondering why you chose that title for this post. Stop thinking aloud. That’s weird. And people are waiting.*

Today was, in fact, the first day of the Dance Me a Story mini camp. There were so many princesses (enough to need doubles of both teachers and assistants)–yikes!– but we had a blast. Today’s lesson revolved around the Swan Lake ballet…

To begin, Miss Jennifer played a round of Name Game with the girls. Afterwards, Miss Tina took over, reading the Swan Lake story aloud (though she changed the ending to make it a little more “princess appropriate”). The girls were then split up into three groups: the swans (from Swan Lake), the fairies (from The Sleeping Beauty) and the dolls (from Coppelia). Miss Lauren and I took the the fairies to the craft station while Miss Jennifer danced with the swans, and Miss Tina taught the dolls an actual variation in Studio C.

Today’s craft project:

1. Take a headband (white plastic) and choose your feathers (white, colored or both).
2. Put a line of craft glue on your headband.
3. Glue your feathers to your headband.
4. While your Swan Lake headband dries, begin working on your Swan Lake coloring page.

Thirty minutes later, all three groups met in the lobby. After passing out some snacks, Miss Tina popped in her Swan Lake DVD and chose a couple of scenes for the girls to watch. During the first scene, a fairy commented, “Look! The king!”

“That’s the prince,” another corrected.

Stations were then switched; the swans came to create their headbands. Upon their leave to Studio C to watch the dolls perform their variation, Miss Lauren and I cleaned up the craft room (“Ah! Feathers!”).

And THAT, lovely dancers, is how I spent my morning. Hectic, to be sure, but so much fun.

This picture has summer written all over it.

It is truly hard to believe, lovely dancers, how quickly my seven-week-mini-mester is passing. Would you believe me if I told you that I have only two weeks left of practice? No, I wouldn’t either.

We have been working on several new things with Miss Sara over the past five weeks. She has choreographed multiple new plie, tendu, degage, ronds de jambe, frappe and grand battement combinations for us. Our center pieces are becoming progressively more difficult (“Welcome to Training 3!”) as well. Jumping has wiggled its way into our curriculum once again, our latest terror coming in the form of the following light-speed combination: entrechat, royale, entrechat, royale, entrechat trois, assemble, entrechat trois, assemble. We have also been focusing a great deal on brises.

With my stretching time, I focus mainly on my calf muscles, which have been giving me some trouble; however, they are beginning to feel much better.

Additionally, all of Training 3 has begun learning the Aurora variation from The Sleeping Beauty on pointe. Though it’s quite complex and takes a lot of “brain muscles” to untangle, I really enjoy this part of class.

The Dance Me a Story mini camp begins on Tuesday— I’m so excited! It’s going to be a great week.