Month: January 2015

French twist to keep headpiece on

This past week, Bluebird and I were asked to debut our variations for the pre-show of Anne of Green Gables, as performed by the studio’s theater company. She and I were able to dance before two of the three shows, and I’m honored to have been able to participate!

Fiery makeup and costume (feat. my jacket)

One of the longest, best Saturdays of my life began with a short rehearsal at the studio. Bluebird and I ran our variations in costume for the very first time. Everything felt a little wonky, with the headpiece and the heavy tutu and all, but generally speaking, no one fell down, and that’s always a good sign.

After rehearsal, Valerie and I warmed up in company class and then headed over to the high school. Bumping into Josie Pye, Anne Shirley, Jane Andrews, Jimmy Glover, Mini May Barry, Rev. Allan, Gilbert Blithe and the other residents of Avonlea was just one of so many reasons to smile yesterday. Besides that, my first performance was absolutely exhilarating!

Bluebird and I before the show

This week’s “costume party” was in full effect when I arrived back at the studio. Everything is looking great! In the next two hours, we ran the show twice— bam. Accomplished.

And then my parents and I went to Jamba Juice because who could possibly go an entire weekend without that?

Anne of Green Gables and Firebird mashup

By the second show, I was totally exhausted and was loosing feeling in my feet, but performing usually causes me to forget about little things like that. I felt so blessed, not only to be performing again, but because I was able to stay for the final showing of Anne of Green Gables. It was spectacular!– so incredibly well done. Anne Shirley is one of those characters that unfailingly reminds her audience to enjoy every day to the fullest; you only live once.

“There’s such a lot of different Annes in me. I sometimes think that is why I’m such a troublesome person. If I was just the one Anne it would be ever so much more comfortable, but then it wouldn’t be half so interesting.” – Anne Shirley

Because, basically, I have broken my streak; I do NOT know the titles of all of my Recital songs for 2015. I would wait to post this until I DO know them, but, due to the snow, I haven’t been to dance in three days, and I’m starting to feel a little claustrophobic.

Training 3 piece: is currently nameless. I had it!– and then didn’t write it down. It’s a prelude to something or other, but the important thing is that it’s beautiful. The polar opposite of our Christmas dance, it’s a relatively slow, dramatic piece. It’s going to be great.

Combined piece: Miss Sara choreographed our combined piece this year, so we’ll be learning off of her video in the Monday Training classes. Super excited!

Bible Book Bop: Look!– a name! Let me be honest here: The last time that I was enrolled in a tap class, I was six years old, and the steps that I was doing were not nearly as complex as Miss Bethanny’s. Usually, the girls have it down better than I do. It’s a learning experience for everyone, I guess. Besides, those kiddos invented the word “cute.”

Arise: Another name! This has got to be my favorite modern piece of all time. It involves a ten-foot-long sheet of purple lace, which is destined to be suspended in the air, in one manner or another, for most of the song. Adysen and I have a running joke near the beginning, when the fabric is covering all but a few, that “We know how this ends. We’ve watched enough White Collar to know how this ends.” But please, do ignore us.

Intermediate Pointe 1: Oh, hey. Look at that– nameless French song from old French movie. It’s really fun, and with the costumes that Miss Mimi picked out, it’s going to be adorable.

In other news, I’m thinking about designing a line of dance apparel. You know, with all that free time. 🙂

Whatever happened to September? Heck, what happened to August? I feel as though FYB has only just launched, and obviously (Aren’t the flyers AMAZING?), that isn’t the case.

It has been nearly six months since I became the Firebird, and I’ve learned so much since then, so much that I can’t even begin to write it all out.

On Monday, the following went down in my diary: “…we’re all just people, and we’re all a little awkward, and we’re all a lot weird, and we’re never as cool as we think we are.” It just… showed up on the page. It wasn’t until today that I realized, that’s it! That’s one of the major things that I’ve taken from this experience.

The entry went on to say that we’re all people. Beautiful, talented people, each and every one unique. We all have our quirks, and that’s okay. We’re extraordinary. That’s extra + ordinary which = extra beautiful and talented. And we all have a little bit of Firebird in all of us– a little spunk, confidence and a whole lot of room to learn.

My dad once told me, “You’re never as cool as you think you are.” I haven’t forgotten that, and I’m glad; it keeps my head up, and my ego down. My fellow dancers, though, with all the effort they’ve shown these last five months, are cooler than they know. I appreciate them more and more every single week.

Today, Miss Mia completed the choreography of our finale. The show is complete! I can hardly believe it.

Five weeks and counting. It’s creeping up on me.

To read the rest of this story, follow me on Steller: @breearoo

Happy New Year!

I would like to dedicate the following to Moriah, Adysen and Amy because… well, they know why. 🙂

My fourth playlist is a crazy mishmash that I haven’t bothered to organize. It’s my favorite yet.

1. The Miracle (Of Joey Ramone) – U2 – Songs of Innocence
2. Every Breaking Wave – U2 – Songs of Innocence
3. California – U2 – Songs of Innocence
4. Volcano – U2 – Songs of Innocence
5. Closer to Your Heart (feat. Bri Giles) [Live] – Desperation Band – Banner (Deluxe Version)
6. Am I Ever Gonna Change – Extreme – III Sides To Every Story
7. How to Believe (From “Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue”) – Bridgit Mendler – Disney Fairies: Faith, Trust and Pixie Dust
8. The Middle of Starting Over – Sabrina Carpenter – Can’t Blame a Girl for Trying
9. The Hanging Tree – James Newton Howard – The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Pt. 1 (Original Motion Picture Score)
10. All The Rowboats – Regina Spektor – What We Saw from the Cheap Seats
11. Don’t Leave Me (Ne me quitte pas) – Regina Spektor – What We Saw from the Cheap Seats
12. Breathe You In – Thousand Foot Krutch – The Art Of Breaking
13. Top of the World – Greek Fire – Single

In other news, Miss Bethanny and I began teaching “Bible Book Bop” by Go Fish, the ballet/tap kiddos’ recital piece, this afternoon, and in modern, Miss Sara surprised us all by beginning our own piece, “Arise” by E.S. Posthumus. Listening to the song, you lovelies will be perfectly able to get a feel for the dance, but as a side note, our class is calling this a Pirates of the Caribbean skeletons and Egyptian princess mashup. It’s going to be epic.

*Songs of Innocence – is a great album in general
*”Am I Ever Gonna Change” – gotta admit, I listen to it for the chorus… and sometimes ONLY the chorus
*”The Hanging Tree” – you’ll have to watch the movie to understand my obsession over this song