Author: Aquinnah

Six days until Cecchetti Exams… ah!

I figure I might as well give the rundown of my Monday ballet class…:

I was at the studio about ten minutes early and talked to Emma and Anna, specifically about the drastic changes they are planning to make to their diets. A few minutes later, guess who walked in…? APRIL! After weeks on end of being out of dance (because of a very painful injury), April has returned to us! and looks as if she never left. Welcome back, April!

In class, we learned some new turns, although the name of this particular move has slipped my mind. Afterwards, we began the Christmas Dance! I did not expect to start this until after the exams– what a pleasant surprise! The dance is being choreographed to such a catchy Christmas song… why on earth can’t I remember the name…?

Rehearsal Six? Truly? Here is how everything played out…!

Being that my family was invited to lunch at a friend’s house down the road a bit, I was dropped off at the studio early (to save gas). I got myself ready for class and ate a quick lunch. “Clara A,” or Emma, came back to grab her new pointe shoes and told me that she and a few others were hanging out in Studio 3. Mesmerized by the fact that there is in fact a third studio, I walked back. Inside the room I found both Clara’s, the Nutcracker, Emma and a couple of other Party Girls. We hung around, had some laughs and overall just had a grand time being perfectly random.

Shortly before rehearsal time, we were called to be measured for costumes. I happen to be the tallest of the girls by a whole inch (I am five feet, four inches tall.)! Crazy!

Then, of course, there was rehearsal. We ran the entire scene with both Cast A and Cast B. That’s quite an accomplishment! We need to do a little bit of detail perfecting next week….

When my mom came to pick me up, we went over to the little dance store connected to the studio. There, we purchased another required performance item. They are “bun curls.” It is a net of curls (HUGE CURLS!) to attach to my bun, giving me the “party girl look.” So fun! At first, I thought I’d be getting brown curls with red highlights (as my hair turns a bit red during autumn), but I ended up getting a brown with some extremely blonde highlights (after asking a couple of people for their opinion)! I really like them.

This week has sped by! Here is what happened during the past two days:

In modern class on Thursday, I had a little bit of catching up to do (as I was still on vacation on Thursday of last week). I learned some more tricky combinations (to some extremely over-dramatic Beethoven) which I was able to accomplish rather quickly– yay! We also began our Christmas Dance! My, oh my, have I not explained this yet?

Each class (within a certain age group) starts to choreograph a dance toward mid-October to present to all the parents in December (the week before break). We throw together some costumes and dance our hearts out– so fun! It is truly one of the best parts of the holiday season. So far, we have only started the modern dance. I believe Miss Sara plans to start the ballet dance after Cecchetti Exams. As for pointe, we are not allowed to complete enough moves to create an entire dance yet, so we are having our parents come to watch our regular class instead.

Yesterday was another long Friday (made longer by 15 minutes). I had a wonderful time! My mom sat in on the end of ballet class and the beginning of pointe, as it is Parent Observation Week at my studio. The video above is something that she took during ballet while my amazing dance-sisters and I practiced single, double and triple pirouettes. I (located in the far corner of the room) complete three perfect triples in this video! Whoo-hoo! Beautiful job to (from far back to front) Stephanie, Anna, Mary, Emma, Allison and Jamie!

In pointe, I got my first two blisters on my second toes… ouch! Despite my pain, my toes are toughening up and I know now where I will need to use tape for class. Of course, to get blisters, you have to work. I did some releves in parallel (I got all the way over my arches on these!), releves in First Position, echappes, marches across the barre, and… drum roll please… CHAINES TURNS! Yes, we did our first turns, with our hands on our hips, across the floor. It was kind of difficult (as my feet are not totally stretched out yet), but I’m working on it. Basically, if I keep my feet closer together, they will come out perfectly.

Rehearsal tomorrow! I might shop for the rest of my required performance items afterwards. Nutcracker Post coming soon!

“Hold your horses folks. I’m having a kaniption fit.” –Miss Sara

The quote above came from one of the three e-mails that my dance instructor sent out to each of the girls in the Cecchetti class yesterday. The first (and what we supposed to be the only) e-mail was to give us the exact location and time for the exams on Sunday. A while later, we received a second e-mail with the quote above. Why was Miss Sara having a fit? While checking that she had e-mailed us all the right building address, my teacher read that the exams are not until the weekend of the 27th. An e-mail was sent out the the exam coordinator and just before ballet yesterday morning, a third e-mail was sent out to us. This was the conformation– the exams are really on the 28th.

There are many people who have done much switching about of their schedules for this weekend; Emma and her mom already had a hotel room set up. Thankfully, I am one of the few who can say this is working out for me. I am glad to have a whole extra week to practice! However, just as it has been stated, there are others who are not fond of this change in events– someone owes us A LOT of chocolate.

My goodness, how time flies! The fifth Nutcracker Rehearsal has already come and gone. Two hours never seemed so short as they did today! Here are the details:

I arrived at the studio 15 minutes early, as usual. Emma popped out from behind me; I might have jumped…! We hung around with Caroline and Anna, humming Cecchetti music and watching girls put on their pointe shoes until two-thirty. We rushed into Studio 2 (we later transferred to Studio 1) and the rehearsal began.

Of course, missing the fourth rehearsal, I had much to catch up on; however, just as Miss Patty explained, the work was mime. Today was also the first All Party rehearsal which the nutcracker participated in. He is an extremely good dancer (although, most of what he does is “robot”)! It was much easier to practice while the nutcracker danced, rather than pretending he was around.

Basically, we danced with the nutcracker and learned our exits today. I had a great time! Can’t wait for next week (after Cecchetti Exams)…!

Pointe Dancer at the Beach

Officially back from my vacation, I attended my dance classes yesterday. It was so great to see everyone again!

After ballet and pointe, it was time for Cecchetti. While vacationing, Emma called to let me know that we would  be having Mock Cecchetti Exams during the Friday Cecchetti classes. Miss Mimi, Emma’s worship teacher, kindly agreed to be our examiner (as she is Cecchetti trained). She was very sweet during the whole of the examinations and gave us helpful advice.

To go into more detail, we took the Grade 1 mock exam (along with Grade 2) just as the real exams will be taken (in a week!), minus the part where Emma sprawled out on the floor and burst into laughter while Caroline and I jumped and clapped our hands in excitement. We entered the studio when called and lined up in number order— I am number two. From there, the exams flowed pretty smoothly. Miss Mimi was impressed with my vocabulary skills— there was only one word that I really had to think about before answering. My answer was not wrong, but it also wasn’t worded correctly. That said, I know just how to answer the vocab question now. Our main problem was turn-out. Miss Sara, sitting in the corner, was itching to correct us on this particular part of the exams, but couldn’t speak. Apparently, we did a little bit better during Grade 2– phew!

Overall, I believe the mock exams went pretty well. It is the tiny details in each combination that need to be perfected. Miss Mimi is not the type to tell us precisely how she would have graded us, but assured us that we did not fail. Yes, I do have a goal (“I will not get less than a…”) to be revealed at a later date.

“Into the Sunset”

“Mossy Rock Attitude”

“While at the Lake”

“Machine Gun Dancer”

Hello from my far-off vacationing spot! Life here has been hectic; visiting relatives, cooking and cleaning, hunting, shooting and trapping, knitting and just relaxing in the woods. So fun! Despite all of this, I have found time in my days to practice Cecchetti and to dance everywhere possible! Picture one (far left) was taken by one of my brothers just before this beautiful place was covered in a blanket of darkness. Picture two (near left) was taken in the middle of the woods by my mother. Picture three (far right) was taken by my dad after a family walk to the lake. Lastly, picture four (near right) was taken at the shooting range this afternoon by, once again, my dad. Thank you all! (P.S. Even dancers like machine guns…!)

I have missed Nutcracker rehearsal and two ballet classes on my trip so far. At the moment, I am missing the cherubs. Thankfully, Emma is covering for me.

In my division, I have to make up for any ballet classes that I miss. I took care of my making-up before I left home by attending the Thursday ballet class before modern. I took two classes– this makes up for everything. I will be back for classes on Friday. While I can take extra classes at my home studio, that is impossible with The Nutcracker. However, I was able to read Emma’s blog to find out what we learned and how everything played out! If you would like a peek into Emma’s dance life, visit her blog! You can find the address by clicking “View my complete profile” (under “DANCING ME” on the right-hand side of your computer screen or the bottom of your mobile device) and looking under “Links.” Click “Emma’s Blog.” Don’t forget to check out my other favorite websites!

Esmerelda