Author: Aquinnah

I honestly cannot believe that fall semester begins in a week! How am I to balance my all-new school schedule AND dance classes? That’s what I’d like to know.

School is proving to be much more time-consuming than I had originally planned; I can be doing course-work up until dinner time (on a not-so-great day). Oh, well. It’ll all work out…

After all, I have found time in my weekdays to stretch and work on pilates. I’ve actually been enjoying myself quite a bit.

My Birthday

I can honestly say that time flies on hot, swift wings during the summer (as Shannon Hale put it). So far, I am simply unable to believe that it is truly over. It’s tragic, really, as summer is my absolute favorite time of year. But a lovely thing took place before the season could officially end…. Would you care to know what it was?

Ten years ago, I turned four years old. I started dance lessons that year! Two days ago, however, I was forced to take a step back and realize that that was ten years ago. TEN years ago. That’s an entire decade. That’s unbelievable.

Now would be a good time for me to breathe. When so many unbelievable things take place, you start to question what it is that you believed in the first place…. But I really am 14 years old. And that’s pretty cool, I think.

And I’m a freshman this year (I began classes yesterday).

And I can drive next year.

And I’ll be 18 in four years.

And… yeah. Other than that, nothing’s new… nothing at all.

I would like to thank my family, for being the best five in the universe and for supporting me and my dreams. I would also like to thank my grandparents, who are a constant source of uplifting wishes and hugs. Also my world-wide circle of friends and sisters— you all are the best! I also want to thank Sophie, for braving our first dance class, ten years ago. <3 Thank you to all of my teachers– Mrs. R., Mrs. T., Miss Kristi, Miss Sara, Miss Alyssa, Miss Bethanny, Ms. Jennifer and Ms. Tina— for teaching me something new everyday. And thank you, Jesus, for being my best friend. <3

The Second Pair: Bloch European Balance

I’m home, lovely dancers! After the most wonderful vacation, I have returned to tell you of…:

My Second Pointe Shoe Fitting (yet another holiday of mine)!

It was absolutely fabulous! The fitting took about 40 minutes, and I enjoyed that time immensely. My fitter, Mimi, was extremely lively and enthusiastic, which made me smile. 🙂 (<— This is new!)

Moriah’s Russian Pointes

I tried on two different brand-names during my fitting– Capezio and Bloch. I have come to the sad conclusion that I truly dislike Capezios, despite the number of pairs which I was given to test. So, when I tried on my first pair of Blochs and felt that glorious gel beneath my toes, I was ecstatic, to say the least. Miss Sara was also pleased [to say the very least] when she found that I was completely over my arches. After trying on a few other styles which were not appealing at all, I left the store with that beautiful pair of European Balances. <3 Praise God, I didn’t have to go with that stinking pair of Capezio Tendu IIs that I was told to wear… I dislike them with a firey passion.

Caroline En Pointe

Congratulations to Moriah, who looks absolutely lovely in her all-new pair of Russian Pointes! Also a HUGE congratulations to Caroline, Abby, Amy and Jenna, who had their first fittings today. You all looked fantastic!

Sometimes, all you need to do is change your perspective.

Come one, come all, for today’s…

Updated mini-mester information: Today was, in fact, the last day of my mini-mester at the studio— crazy. And so incredibly saddening. The past seven weeks have been an amazing learning experience for me, especially in the areas of adage and allegro. A special thanks to Miss Sara, for being such an incredible teacher– you’re amazing and I love being your student!

Updated pointe shoe information: Due to the fact that our week-long vacation begins on the seventh and ends on the 13th, I will be perfectly able to go on the pointe shoe excursion on the 14th of the month— yay! I am so excited to finally set foot in my second pair of pointes.

More information: The 2013-2014 Assistant Training Meeting will take place this Sunday (the fourth). I can’t wait! Classes will be held this coming Thursday to make up for Independence Day; however, I will be unable to attend with Vacation keeping me away…. Fall semester begins on September third (Ah! So far away!).

Random information: Who would’ve thought it? Surely not I. But it’s happened all the same. I’m skipping eighth grade… and going straight into Freshman year… online… and I couldn’t be happier!

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!