Author: Aquinnah

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.

Happy July, lovely dancers! I had the most wonderful day, to start this glorious month off right! To my immense surprise, due to the fact that my sisters are all away, I had a private two hours with Miss Sara this evening. SO much fun!

We began the class off with barre, as usual. My teacher complimented me on my plies, for which I am very proud. We moved on to tendus and degages, both combinations presenting as quite a challenge at first. Our ronds de jambes were entertaining, though they left my hips in quite a state….

After a lovely stretch, Miss Sara helped me work on my arabesque, as my back has been pinching lately. We soon found the perfect solution and cheered as my leg flew past 90 degrees!

At this point in time, Miss Sara inquired what I would enjoy most: “normal class” or a new variation. It did not take long (comparatively) for me to decide on variations, but then, of course, there was the question of WHAT dance to learn. I do love The Sleeping Beauty ballet, so my teacher and I concluded that we would attempt Aurora’s “moment” together (see the link under “Variations”). In comparison to the other variations which I have practiced recently, this one was a tad challenging, but I eventually caught onto the movements. With the last fifteen minutes of my time (we kind of lost track), after a lengthy talk about airports, I tried the choreography on pointe. This was my toughest challenge yet, but I don’t think that it was too terribly bad….

And that, dears, was my two hour class today. And it was just awesome. <3

Prepare for your daily dose of Randomness!

As many of you lovely dancers are aware of, Instagram produced a major update for their app on Thursday. As soon as I heard that I can now post videos to my beloved homepage, I was working out a dance-oriented film! One lyrical costume, what seemed like hundreds of run-throughs and two dirty feet later, my mom and I created this: (enjoy!)

^ I think that pretty much covers today’s introduction.

Barre was fantastic today! We did many exciting combinations to start off the evening; I especially enjoyed ronds de jambes. Placed at the end of this ballerina-like amalgamation was an elonge for which I received much applause from Miss Sara. “Did you practice those over break?” she inquired.

I had to admit that I did not, but I did mention my constant state of stretching…!

We did a quick adage combination in the center of the room and then moved on to across-the-floor. After performing a lovely waltz, the class practiced emboite turns– so fun!

My dance-week has officially ended, as sad as I am to admit it. Of course, there is always next week…!