Half Way Through!!

I am proud to announce that I am officially done with the second week of the Ballet West Summer Intensive out here in Salt Lake City. Boy, what a week!! The ballet mistress of the company taught our ballet classes everyday. She's a really sweet lady and actually, sometimes it was hard to take her seriously because she was so laid back, especially in our repitory rehearsals. I love love loved her class!! The 2 hours we spent with her each morning were always a joy and seemed to fly by, in comparison with the rest of the day, which just seems to drag on. After a lovely start to each day with Pam, we had pointe and variations with another one of my favorite teachers named Jane. We learned two variations from the ballet Paquita, both of which I enjoyed thoroughly. I was trying so hard so that she would notice me. When your a dancer looking to stay on with the company for the school year, all you want to do is make an impression on all your teachers, and that is just what I am aiming to do. It was like the best feeling when she would walk up to me and give  me a simple correction like move bigger or pointe your feet or just smile. All I want at this point is for them to see that I have at least a little bit of potential and hope and that they want me to be here next year. I'm literally working my butt off over here! Let's just hope it pays off...

We also did a few modern classes this week, and let me just admit right now, I will never ever be a modern dancer. There is nothing appealing to me about that kind of movement. This particular modern class involved alot of improv... in other words, pure torture for about an hour. I am not even close to being creative enough to just come up with movement and combinations on the spot like that. I end up just flopping around and looking like an idiot, then I look around and see all these cool things people are pulling out of no where. I just don't get it. I love the structure I get with ballet. Everything follows particular rules in a particular order and it just makes sense!! I guess I'm just too uptight :) I love my rules and my organization. Dance without rules is just.. not right. But that's just my opinion. There are plenty of people that would disagree with me and that's fine by me. I just can't stand the idea of not having any order to my work. I'm a true born bunhead :) On Thursday, we also had a second technique class after our lunch break. So just after you've died in your first ballet class in the morning, you've gotta get back in that studio and do the exact same thing. The teacher who taught was this tiny little man with all sorts of loads of energy named Calvin Kitten. He's about my height, with crazy muscles and probably has more energy than all of us dancers combined. He's always running around the studio yelling at you to move more and work harder and be better. And honestly, it was my favorite class of the week. He just makes you want to work so hard and I went in there and just busted my butt on everything. And it really paid off! It's always nice when a teacher really notices you and gives you lots of corrections. It just makes you feel good about yourself and makes you push yourself that much harder. And then, when the class if over, you actually feel like you've accomplished something. I wish all teachers worked as hard as he does at his job. I love teachers like that, who really push you to your fullest potential and make you want to work, although, I know that it's important to be able to motivate yourself like that everyday, no matter who is teaching. That's the hard part about being a professional dancer.I'm just glad that I got to have a few classes with Calvin while I was here.

Me and some friends after the Arts Fest

After a very long and treacherous week, with quarter size blisters and a sore ankle and really tight muscles, the weekend finally came :) Ahh I love the weekends. On Friday night, we all went to this Arts Festival. A few Ballet West dancers were performing on this outdoor stage. They were all so beautiful, even in the Utah summer heat. We were all sweating our butts off, so I can only imagine how the dancers were feeling up there. I would have died for sure! Then, we just walked around and looked at all the cool paintings, and enjoyed a few free samples of greek yogurt and gelato. There's nothing so sweet as free food to a poor and starving dancer :) On Saturday, we went to this fun center out in Sandy, Utah. And it was actually really fun to act like a little kid for a day, going on all the bouncy houses and roller skating and doing lazer tag. We all had a blast! But, hand sanitizer was the first thing I grabbed for once we left. Yuck. Little kids are really gross. I don't want to even think about all the nasty diseases living on those jungle gyms.Things I learned that day: I cannot, to save my life, roller skate. It's impossible. Also, snow cones are the greatest invention on earth. You should have seen me and my new friend, Joey, scarfing down our vanilla and blue raspberry snow cones. Soo good!! And even better when they only cost a dollar. You then should have seen me failing out on the roller skating rink.. It was quite the sight. Let me just describe it to you. Just picture a girl in bright blue ghetto roller skates, basically walking around the rink, going about two miles an hour. I think I almost fell a hundred times, but I never actually ate rink, so that's a good thing, right?! haha! After the adventure at the fun center, a few of us went to the movies and watched the new movie Brave. It was such a cute show! I mean, totally not what I expected, but still really good. I kept waiting for the love story to begin with the girl and all the suitors, but it never actually happened. It was just about her and her mom the whole time. It needed a little bit of a love story, then I would have been completely satisfied :) I guess I am a total chick flick fan! Can't live without them!

It is now Sunday and I am just enjoying a relaxing day from my dorm room, sitting on my hard mattress and listening to some Luke Bryan, aka the greatest country artist ever!! I am a little obsessed right now :) Don't worry though, it'll only last a few more weeks until I find another song to over play for awhile. Well, now that I've rambled on for what seems like days (I'm sure all my readers would agree with me. Especially my sister, Jessica. I'm sure she's just dying right now! Love you, Jess!!), I better get back to my facebook stalking and laying around in my pajamas for the rest of the day. I sure need today to rest up for another tough week. The artistic director of the company is teaching our class this week and I am thoroughly freaking out. He will basically decide if I can be a trainee next year... wish me luck! I sure will need it!! Until next time...