Author: Aquinnah

Today’s modern class was quite eventful, beginning with Emma handing to me a sheet of paper, on which she had written a story. It is composed on the topic of her new pointe shoes– so fun! I have decided to post a copy of the tale this weekend– look out, Dancers!

Miss Sara began the class with our regular warm-up, starting on the floor. From there, we did plies and releves. My teacher walked by as I rose to the releve position, exclaiming happily, “Huh…! You have monkey feet!” To be perfectly honest, I have no idea as to what that means, but she seemed to be pretty pleased with me. As Miss Sara walked away, Emma turned to me and commented that my releve was considerably higher than usual– YES! Now, to find that “happy place” in my ballet shoes…

After some tricky across-the-floor combinations, we began our… RECITAL DANCE, just as I predicted! It will be done to a song titled, “Arc Angel (Angels?),” though I do not know who the artist is. It is a very dramatic song; it will be a great dancing experience, I do believe.

For your own personal record, Miss Sara is still not positive about the starting time for the Training 2 recital dance, but she’s getting there. Miss Jennifer said something about starting the Cherubs dance within the next few weeks…! Pointe tomorrow…?

Ballet Dancer

Wow, I sure had a wake-up call on this lovely Tuesday! 

I rushed home from school this morning, jumped into one of my new leotards and headed off to class! Once there, we began our plies, wherein I realized that I am extremely sore! Everything hurt at that moment in time– my arms, legs… even my neck! That’s what I get for only stretching a little over break…. However, Miss Sara did comment, as Emma and I found that our bodies feel like “Jello” today, that it is good to have a nice break once in a while. According to the physical therapist, it gives ourselves a chance to get everything lined up where it should be.

Now, being me, I have two bits of randomness for you. I know you won’t mind.

Walking into the cherubs’ class today, one of the little girls screamed, “My daddy took me to ‘Starberry!'”

I laughed as Miss Jennifer replied, “Oh, he took you to Starbucks?”

“Yes!” she cried. “And I ‘drinked’ the whole thing!”

As for my other news, Emma just purchased her second pair of pointe shoes and has posted a picture of them on her blog! Be sure to check it out!

I figure I might as well post this picture before winter is completely over…!

Lovely dancers! How I have missed you! I do hope that you all had a fantastic holiday season– I know that I did! However, I was SO glad to be back at the studio today, decked out in my newest dance attire, with my favorite people.

I arrived ten minutes early and spoke with a few of the Training 2 girls. I then pranced into Studio C, happily as ever! We did some warm-up, had a wonderful stretch and… BEGAN OUR RECITAL DANCE!

Yes, today, our first day back from Christmas Break, Miss Sara began the choreography of the Training 1 and 2 recital dance. It is so much fun– my first dance which will be completed with tambourines in hand! Yay!

Looking at the evidence, I am quite certain that we will begin our modern recital dance on Thursday. Speaking of which, you must remember when I spoke about a group of “little children” dancing with us– do you not? Well, in the end, it was decided that the entire class (of three girls) would be closed down. Despite that sad fact, the dance will still be awesome, I’m sure. Anyway, I do hope that we do some pointe choreography on Friday…! As for the Training 2 dance, well… I just don’t know when we’ll begin.

Baby Ballerina

The final class has come and gone; Christmas Break is already here! Now, the happenings of yesterday’s classes:

I arrived at the studio early enough to catch the contemporary/jazz Christmas Dance; it was really fun to see!

The “Training Kids” began filing in and I took my place at the barre. Much to my surprise, Miss Sara had us perform our barre combinations in the center, something we have not done since last year. It was so much fun! Each combo was completed to Christmas music, complete with my teacher’s favorite… jingle-bell degeges! 

It was soon time for pointe shoes! It took me a while to put them on, however, because I couldn’t seem to tie my left ribbons. Despite the extra time, I finally got my shoe tied up and it was onto releves, echappes, developpes (this is when my family came to observe), chaines, piques and Mirlitons! The crowd was extremely impressed (No comments Moriah…!)!

And now, I leave you with this word until after break. If something extraordinary takes place before then, you can count on a post! If not, I will talk to you all in the New Year! Happy holidays!

Today was my first official modern performance– what fun! 

Class began with the usual, winter warm up– “circle time!” Miss Sara calls out moves such as chasses, skips, walks, or any of the former backwards and we perform in a large circle that takes up most of the studio space. Once warm, we completed a few plies and tendus and went to work on the dance. Moriah’s parents had another engagement, so they came early to watch one of our rehearsals. They thought it was grand, which lifted my spirits to the sky! Eventually, after making a few minor fix-ups and taking deep breaths, we let the other parents inside. They hurried in and crowded at the front of the room. With that, the dancing began!

We ran the dance two times, both of which were superb! I had to remind myself not to mess around with my costume during the first dance, though– that is so hard for me! Our costumes, by the way, were quite fantastic. We wore red and green shirts (I wore red) and black pants. Simple, but it looked so cool, seeing that we have such a large class.

Miss Sara made some last minute announcements, showed everyone her Christmas-themed fuzzy socks and said a prayer over us. Thank God for my dance teacher– she is so amazing!

I figured that sticking the Monday and Tuesday news into the same post would spare me a bit of time. It also means that this post will be full of details…! Enjoy!

Yes, the past two days have been FULL of Christmas songs (and dances, of course)! Yesterday my parents (and many others) came to view the Training 2 dance. It went beautifully! My parents took videos for me (We always perform our Christmas Dances twice.), but as you know, I cannot post them for lack of space. Despite that sad fact, you can believe me when I say that everything was practically flawless! Next year, I will be dancing on pointe…!

Today in ballet, Miss Sara gave us her favorite Christmas combination of all time– degages  performed to “Jingle Bells!” On regular occasions, this is an easy piece, but during the Christmas season, singing is included. We all sang at the top of our lungs as we degaged; we laughed so hard! We managed to attract the many people in the lobby, who also burst into hysterics.

One of my cherubs gave me a beautiful little jar of chocolate before her performance today– thank you dear! 

We dressed all the little ones in candy-cane shirts, grey tutus, bells and sparkly Santa hats! They were all so cute, and they danced so well! As I demonstrated the dance for the girls to follow, one of the girl’s little brothers began to follow along with me and was extremely proud as he told his big sister all about it. Adorable! <3

Walking out, Emma came up to me and handed me the most wonderful bag of gifts– thank you so much to my beloved dance-sister! <3

Beautiful Blue Pointe Dancer

Emma sent me an e-mail a while ago with an image of a poster labeled, The Gift. Upon closer inspection, I found that the poster was designed to give publicity to a performance, presented (for free!) by Ballet Emmanuel, a Christan company which was founded in 2006. I had thoughts about attending one of the three shows, but naturally, I was in the middle of a homework assignment which caused me to forget everything about the message.

A few days ago I received a call from my dear dance-sister, reminding me of that e-mail sent so long ago. I remembered it instantly! Emma asked me if I would want to attend the Sunday performance with her and her mom (if her mom felt any better by that time– their family has been ill). I decided to talk to my mother about the idea. Naturally, I was in the middle of a homework assignment (darn it all!). Once again, the whole idea slipped my mind.

Finally, yesterday, Emma called me once more. She asked if I had decided to go to the performance and if she could catch a ride with me. This time, I asked my mom right away. At first, she said that it wasn’t going to work out– she had too much shopping to do! Later on, it was decided that, somehow, we’d make it happen. And… we did!

We picked Emma up this afternoon and headed over to the location of the performance. We found some pretty good seats once there.

The performance itself was awesome– so beautiful! I highly recommend Ballet Emmanuel’s The Gift. There was an excellent group of musicians, a harpist, actors and of course, dancers! Every costume was hand-made, which added a special touch to everything. It was truly inspiring and explained the extraordinary Christmas Story in a lovely way.

Just before the final dance, a man explained that Ballet Emmanuel is all over Facebook, Twitter and even Instagram (the only form of “posting” that I possess)! We dropped Emma off at her house and I rushed home to find this professional ballet company on my iPod app. I found Ballet Emmanuel’s page and “followed” it. To my great surprise, their first picture was taken at my home studio!