Author: Aquinnah

“What is dance?” Bethany questioned during ballet this afternoon.

These words forced my mind to think. What is dance? The truth is, the answer was not in my head but in my heart. The minute I stopped thinking and started feeling, I knew exactly how to answer (although I did not speak my thoughts out-loud).

Dance. A gift straight from God. My sixth and favorite sense of all. A very special part of every ballerina, or any kind of dancer at all. It is the sensation of being who you are– of moving with music and making it beautiful. Not just an art– a performing art. Not just a hobby or sport– a special one. It is connecting to a sixth sense, one that only a dancer possesses. It is not an act. It is not a game. It just… is. Dance.

What a fantastic ballet class today, to walk out with much more than choreography, but a feeling of life; I am a dancer. And as every dancer knows, dance is just… more.

Ballerinas

Well, beautiful dancers, I have just returned from modern and am ready to tell all about what has gone on so far this week– mostly news about recital-time.

To mention something quickly, we have completed the ballet, cherubs and modern Christmas dances (all)– yay! It is such an accomplishment to have everything choreographed before Thanksgiving Break (which begins on Wednesday). I can, “right this very one minute,” promise videos of both the ballet and modern dances when my family comes to view them.

Now, onto the bulk of my new news: our conundrum has been resolved! Miss Sara has decided that our best bet for the ballet recital dance would be to stick me and my in-between-dance-sisters into the Training 2 dance (in our flats)— phew! We will split up the choreography so that everyone can learn at the same pace. CASE SOLVED!

On Tuesday, Miss Sara showed a few of us some of our recital music. I now know what I will be dancing to for pointe and ballet! They are very pretty songs; I like them. Being me, I have no idea what the songs are, but I still like them… haha!

Finally, I have seen my pointe, combined (Training 1 and 2 dance) and ballet recital costumes! I also have the hint that our modern costume is very “modern.” Pictures will be posted closer to May (recital month)…!

Rehearsal nine? It just cannot be…!

Today was, in fact, Nutcracker Rehearsal Nine. Crazy! We ran through the dances a few times and ran the entire scene with both casts. Everything is looking great! Along with dancing, we had a hair, leotard, tights and shoes check for the Party Crew during practice. Things seem to be fine on my part– yay!

 Next week, the Ballet Master from Ballet Idaho (a.k.a. Alex) is coming to watch us, as Ballet Idaho partners with this large production. Hopefully he approves of everything; if we “stick it,” we will not have to have an extra rehearsal on Monday. “Production Week” begins on Monday (if we do have a rehearsal)…!

That’s right, dancers– my pointe shoe photo shoot was this afternoon! The curls in my hair are one of my required Nutcracker items (which I now have all of), and my attire is my recital costume from May. Thank you to my mom and dad who spent quite a while taking these pictures for me; I love you both!

Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Guys, guess what? I figured out that my purpose in life is to drink coffee and to eat potato soup!” –Bethany

Haha, Bethany had quite an amazing entrance into Studio A yesterday…!

We started out the Friday ballet class with “cardio” as my newest teacher is all about a good warm-up. Next, we worked on “abs.” Bethany has some spectacular workouts when it comes to strengthening our core. After that, we proceeded to write each of our names with our toes. Interesting right? It was SUCH a great stretch. We went around in a circle; Bethany started us off. She spelled her name out-loud and we followed the spelling with our feet. Then, of course, there was barre, a little bit of center and across-the-floor work. Bethany focuses a lot on performance– our posture, expression and fluidity are extremely important.

Later, I ran over to Studio C with Emma and Anna not too far behind. There, I slid on my pointe shoes and worked on releves, echappes, our across-the-barre combination, walks, chaines turns and others. I love it! <3

Nike’s Arc Angels– this is new!

Lovely dancers, we (Emma, Anna and others along with myself) are in a predicament. It is truly the “conundrum of the in-between.” Here are the details:

Last year, I was told that I would be moving into Training 2, the highest ballet division at my studio. What an accomplishment! The only draw-back was the fact that I was not on pointe at the time and would not be able to participate in the Thursday Training class (as it is made up of pointe work). I am on pointe now, however, but am not at the same level as the “Thursday twos.” That said, I will not be on pointe in the Training 2 recital dance– beginner pointe will have a wholly separate dance instead.

Our predicament stems from the fact that we must still do some ballet work in the recital. The question is: do we (Emma, Anna and others along with myself) join in the Training 1 dance (and have a separate part) or dance with the twos in our flats? Also, no matter what choice we make, there is not a single class in which the entire Training Division is together; there aren’t even classes where all the ones and twos are grouped.

This, dancers, is the conundrum of the in-between, which I do hope will be resolved sooner, rather than later.

On the up side, the modern Christmas Dance is coming along smoothly! We have about 20 seconds left to choreograph. So fun! April and I dance in a part that requires us to preform shoulder rolls— ouch! My shoulder is all red now…! Despite this, I am really enjoying the dance and modern in general.

Come to think of it, I have another piece of recital information, this one revolving around modern. To put it basically, Miss Sara teaches a beginner modern class (as well as mine) in which she only has four students. One of the girls cannot participate in the recital, leaving only three to be in a recital dance. Miss Sara asked us in class today if it would be alright to have the six-year-old dancers join in our dance at recital time. We did not hesitate to accept!

Pointe Dancing

An interesting title if I do say so myself…! I am quite sure it will tie in somehow.

Today, yet another Cecchetti-free event, has been busy! Miss Sara has given me an official two-month assignment (relax my hip and work on my turn out), which she claimed is coming along nicely. Exciting…!

The bulk of my eventful day stems from the cherubs class. Miss Jennifer and I, 15 minutes early, struck up a conversation about the Presidential Election (Phew– it’s almost over!) and soon let the little princess inside. We had a fairly full class today; only two or three girls were missing! They did their “tummy-stretches” first and proceeded into their forward-rolls (as we skipped the name-game). We had a little trouble lining up for the rolling period of class; a certain girl attempted to “cut” in line, which resulted in a bit of a breakdown. Despite this, we managed to get through the rolls and moved into “silly songs.” Afterwards, we began the cherubs’ Christmas Dance! It is an adorable little dance, choreographed to a funkified version of “Joy to the World” (Funny… my modern dance is done to the same general song!).

At the end of class, I was put in charge of handing out lollipops to the girls (ah-ha!). Miss Jennifer gave me a helpful suggestion at the beginning of the year– give everyone the same color to avoid breakdowns. Usually, this works out grandly. Today, however, as I was handing one of the princesses a green lollipop, she burst into tears and begged me for a different color. Going by the “you get what you get and you don’t throw a fit” rule was hard today.

Anyway, all Christmas Dances are coming right along! The ballet dance is a bit tricky, but we’re getting better at it. Modern looks really great right now, as does the cherubs’. Yay…!