All The Things A Ballerina Has To Think About

Okay, so here's a list of the things a ballerina has to think about WHILE she's dancing...

1. Arms! Are the round enough, straight enough, are they high enough, or low enough, are the elbows rounded and not pointy, are my fingers adjusted right...
2. Feet. Feet. Feet. Am I turned out, are my toes pointed, are my legs straight enough or bent enough, is my leg high enough, are my feet angled right..
3. Spotting. When you turn, you have to keep your eyes fixed on one spot, so your head has to whip around faster than your turn. Not easy, and extremely important.
4. Posture. The most important part of dance. Your pelvis needs to be tucked under your body, no slanting, it has to be in a straight line with your spine, as does your neck. You have to make your spine as straight as possible, and keep it that way, no matter what you do. Your hips can't move. Your neck has to stay up, unless it dips as part of the choreography.
5. The counting. You have to count to stay with the other dancers.
6 The music. You have to know how the music is, so you know where you are supposed to do certain steps.

See, totally crazy. You have to remember all of that, and I'm sure I've forgotten something...

Soooo Sore!

Okay, so I LOVE my new ballet teacher! She's really professional, and has studied literally every kind of ballet there is. Here's the thing though.
I showed up to ballet on time, but no one else did. So, for the first 15 minutes of my 75 minute class, I got a private lesson. Which was actually great because I got the teacher's undivided attention, so we got to work on my positions and stuff. Then this really nice, but not really hard working girl came in, so then it was still a really small class, which was still nice. But 30 minutes into class 2 of the other girls came in, which made the class not as fun, but still really small. The only problem is that I am Soooo Sore from all the work I did... My body isn't used to all the contorting. Plus, do you have any idea how much Ballerinas have to think about when they're dancing?
The other 3 girls never bothered to show up.
I actually got a lot of complements from both my school owner and my new ballet teacher.
The dance school owner was commenting on how serious I am, and how talented, and well behaved I am. :)
My ballet teacher commented on how great my memory and tecnique is. Her only comment was that my footwork is a little bit messy. She told me that if I work on that, I'll be really good. So, in that case, I will be working especially hard on my footwork! :)

Okay, A Few Things I Should Probably Mention About Myself

Right, so I haven't exactly talked much about myself. First of all, I live for music and dance. I've been singing since I could talk (actually since before I could talk, but they don't really count baby language as lyrics XD). I write my own songs, and it's usually kind of a pop/rock kind of genre, there's a lot of Paramore and Avril Lavigne esqe stuff. Most of my songs are clean, but some of the angrier ones are a little bit more adult. I write from my own experiences, and my songbook is like a sort of diary, my lyrics contain my thoughts, and emotions, they are who I am truely, not just the persona that everyone sees. I live up to my Austrian heritage in that I sing everywhere! I sing along to the music in dance class. I have a special waterproof dock that I put my ipod on and listen to in the shower, meaning that I'm singing along to music while showering... I sing in the car. I sing while I write. I sing pretty much anytime the mood strikes.
I also love acting. When I was little I had a vivid imagination, and now I can use that imagination to become what I am acting like. I don't just mimic the person, I actually imagine that I am that person and think like them, move like them, everything.
I think I've pretty much established my love of dance. So I don't really need to elaborate on that. I've made it pretty clear how big a part of my life dance is.
I have a huge dream for the future. I want to be famous. I want to be a triple threat, become an actress, get a record deal, dance and choreograph... You get the idea... Believe me, I know how hard it's going to be to accomplish my dream. I'll have to contend with very talented people, huge egos, stubborn directors and casting agents, and most importantly not forget who I am on the way. That will be my biggest challenge. I've heard the stories about the girls who went to Hollywood and never came home, or the ones who were so desperate to succeed that they lost their health, their individuality, everything...
It's what I want though, more than anything, to succeed in... Failure is not an option.

Almost Done!

I'm almost done with 9th grade forever... YAYY!! bwahahaha!

Why I Dance... (more sentimentalness, sorry!)

So I was thinking the other day about why I dance. Some people dance because they think they're good, or because it's an interesting hobby, or even because their friends dance, and they treat it as social time. For me, none of those reasons even remotely apply. In fact, sometimes it bothers me; the way everyone seems to treat dance as a mere hobby, or nothing important.
I dance because of the way it makes me feel. I feel like I'm flying. Like I'm a fish in the water. Like I'm in my element. When I dance, everything wrong seems to vanish. All that exists is me, the music, and the beats. It just feels right. I can't explain it.
It really doesn't matter to me what kind of dance it is, either. It doesn't matter if I'm sweating to the beats in hip hop class, pounding it out in tap shoes, or floating on my toes in ballet. Bob Fosse style jazz is one of my favorites though. I love getting into character and twisting myself into all the odd little pigeon toed stances.
I can't explain why or how dance has this effect on me. All I know is that it will always be a part of my life. I will always dance. I will always love it. And nothing will ever take me away from it. Nothing can. Never. Ever.

Cute Clothes!

oooh, yayy, I got some really cute new tops today! They're dressy enough to wear to teen court, and comfy enough to keep me happy! Yayy!

Mad at itunes!

UGHHH!!! My itunes is not working!!!!!! The songs won't download into my account! UGHH!!! So mad! Personally, I think it's my cruddy internet connection, but I can't go anywhere else to test that today, and tomorrow I'm going out of town, and won't be able to do it then! And I realllyyyyyyy wanted to get some new songs on my ipod before we left.... GRR!
Okay, sorry, had to get it out of my system.

Sentimental Thoughts...

So, I was just thinking today about how time changes things. I think it started when my mom opened her wallet in the grocery store, and out fell the little plastic holder with the pictures of me growing up in them (everything from my baby picture, to my last Karate portrait), and my dad picks it up to hand to her, and goes all sarcastically "Who IS that chubby little kid?"... And okay, I was a little chubby cheeked when I was little, and my cheeks are still a little chipmunky (wooo new word!), but I still managed to snap at my dad with a "Haha, isn't that hysterical?" and a hug.
But I was thinking about all the changes that go along with growing up. All the moves my family has made, and the friends that I've made, and the ones who I've lost. The people I know who have died, and the ones who have been born, and I've gotten to watch as they grow up.
Sorry, being sentimental, but I was thinking about my future a lot... I got more complements on my dancing today...

*Sobs* Recital is Over.

Okay, so Friday and Saturday were my recitals. Opening night was crazy and fun! I had 6 numbers in the recital, and at one point, I only had 3 numbers in between Jazz and performing group. It was sooo incredibly difficult, but totally worth it.
Saturday night was definitely an awesome night. I was totally shocked to get an award for being a teacher assistant (the trophy's photo is at left). It's like 6 inches tall, and kinda heavy, and I nearly dropped it on my foot on stage. After the trophy ceremony, everyone in the performing group ran over to give the 84 year old owner of my dance school a big, sweaty, group hug. Totally fun. My jazz teacher also gave me a little lavendar rose. (awwwh)

On the not so fun side, I almost fell during performing group's dance "FAME". I had four counts to get all the way around the stage behind the curtain, between the time I come off, and the time my cue is to come back on. I tripped over a prop one of the other classes had left behind the curtain. There's going to be a pretty noticeable movement behind the curtain, and hopefully none of the stage mics picked up my "OW!".

On the ego boosting side, some of the girls and their family's feel threatened (evidently) by me. They started trying to bust my self-esteem by talking about my hair, and my costumes, and how inappropriate it looks when I melt into a split during "All That Jazz". Tough luck there! Both my parents loved the choreography. Not to mention the fact that "All That Jazz" is Bob Fosse style choreography, so the way my hair, costumes, and split go is all perfectly exceptable.

Also on the ego boosting side, was one of my parents boating friends. His daughter dances at my school too, so he got to see all my numbers. He also used to work with a lot of Theater, Opera, and Dance Companies. He complimented me on opening night, and came by the boat yesterday morning to compliment me on my dancing. While he was here, he also told my parents that I have a lot of natural talent, and that by no means should I stop dancing, because I have the talent and attitude to go really far. All I can say is OMG YAYYY!