Dance- Wednesday, Thursday, Friday

On Wednesday in contemporary class we worked really hard on the Starlight dance, we're almost done! And we added onto the Sweet Disposition dance, I'm really proud of myself my heel turns are getting really better. Both dance are looking a lot better. Also on Wednesday night Lorissa and I stayed at the studio after class to do our duet for competition a few times, since we both felt that it hasn't been looking that great lately.
On Thursday night we added onto Francesca's choreography for the Spring, it's not exactly a hard dance but Francesca added on a traveling part which is really hard for me for some reason, that's definitely something to work on.
And then on Friday even though it was Good Friday Sabrina asked if we would all come to practice for competition anyways since the next one is in a week and we need work on all the dances, and it was really needed.

Reflection of Sturgis advisory drives- Thanks giving meal and Dress a live doll

Both of these charity drives were great experiences in advisory. With my advisory, Dr. Gilligan's that is we really planned and pre-organized the Thanksgiving meal for a family. We all planned what we were going to bring so that someone wouldn't bring what another brought. Canned vegetables such as corn and peas, boxed mashed potatoes, some fresh vegetables, cranberry sauce, butternut squash, and we also provided money each for the family to buy a turkey at Stop N Shop with a giftcard. Everyone promised to bring what they did and they did so, so I was really proud of our advisory.
For Dress a Live Doll we were assigned a 9 year old boy named Alyn. We were given a list of one of everything that we were supposed to get for him like sweaters, pants, jacket, socks, hat, scarf, pyjamas, shirts and maybe also a couple of toys. We were told that he loved anything guitar-loved. I decided to get him a couple of sweaters at K-Mart with my mom. We brought everything to advisory and wrapped it in Christmas wrapping paper, everyone brought something different, it was really nice.

Tuesday ballet- rehearsing for Paquita piece

This Tuesday night Sabrina was not there so Miss Sarah taught our class, we had a relatively short barre on pointe and then kept our pointe shoes on to go right into our Spring gala dance: Paquita. I had missed last week's class because it was my birthday and I realized last night just how much new choreography I had missed. At first everyone was trying to teach me everything all at once and it was chaos. So I watched them do it once without me and then joined in the second time. I did miss a lot of choreography but I was able to catch up.

Thursday night ballet and Friday competition

So on Thursday night we wore all pointe shoes all class like we usually do with Francesca and started to learn the slow adagio dance to Paquita, we start out in two groups and make a circle, it's very painstakingly slow. And Francesca wants us all to do a double pirouette on pointe and turns aren't exactly my strongest point and she wants me to do one on my bad side too. So I need to achieve a double pirouette on my bad side, (my left) in a month somehow.

On Friday Sabrina was not there so I was put in charge of the little girls downstairs while Jen the other teacher had a class upstairs. Everyone was late so we only had time to stretch and work on one of the little girls' dances. We had competition at Providence a little over a week ago and it went pretty well but we all think that we could have done much better. Sabrina is fixing a few of the dances to add some turns and more diversity so that we can score more points. And also Lorissa and I are really going to work hard on our duet, we want to especially score high on that, so we're going to the studio whenever we can and Jen is changing some of the choreography.

Wednesday contemporary

This week at contemporary again not a lot of people were there for us to really work on choreography which is incredibly frustrating. But my old friend Katie who danced there last year came to class since she has Spring break and we were able to do some exercises that we haven't done in awhile like our plies, tendus, leg swings, arm swings and abs! I don't really love the abs but it's good for my body to get used to them again.

Tuesday night ballet- new choreography for Spring Gala

So last Tuesday night we started learning new choreography for our Spring Gala, Sabrina is teaching us a fast dance on Tuesday nights and Francesca is teaching us an adagio which is just a slower dance on Thursday nights. The music is from Paquita and it's really pretty, I'm already loving the choreography. Sabrina's choreography especially is really interesting, but my feet were especially hurting that night. I think it's just because I need my feet to get stronger again.

Short SOI meeting.

This week at SOI was a very short meeting, but more people are finally beginning to show up again. We're done with the movie and had a bake sale Friday at break, I wasn't able to come to school on Friday, otherwise I would have definitely made something or sold. We also discussed the overdue food festival and Jade mentioned that it be just for seniors. And I think that this would be amazing since it would be right after IB exams, the stress is lifted and we could just relax. The problem would be how to fund it right now.

Competition practice Friday

On Friday, as usual I had competition team practice 4-7. Since the first competition is a week away, we did a dress rehearsel, costumes for most of the pieces. for Angels and Demons I need to tack on a pair of wings to the back of my costume, and we'll all wear a halo. And I also wore my solo costume, it's really pretty and dark blue. And my friend Lorissa and I wore our duet costumes, we also bought together the shoes and tights that we need for that piece. I think we're all really ready for competition.

Thursday ballet- Francesca again

This Thursday I learned that Miss Francesca was back, she's pregnant and decided not to teach for a little while, but now she's feeling better to teach our class. I didn't really like her teaching style in the beginning of the year, but now I'm starting to really appreciate how much she concentrates on technique and really pushes you as a dancer. So I look more forward to her class now. I wore pointe shoes the entire class, which was really good for my feet to get back into. And later in class she had us jump over a stick she was holding up in the air that we had to go over and she is going to do that from now on.

Wednesday contemporary

So on Wednesday, the weather was really horrible and there was only about six of us in class, so everyone needs to really start coming so that we all learn the choreography and move on much more quickly. But we learned about a third of the dance for "Sweet Disposition", it might be my favorite, choreography wise. And now we're about three quarters through the "Starlight dance", which is really exciting, now we can work more on technique. Both dances are going to be really great.

Tuesday night ballet

This Tuesday Miss Sarah taught class since Sabrina was sick. But it was a really nice class, I wore my pointe shoes at barre, I felt like my feet were really strong last summer and this winter, but for the last month we haven't worn our shoes as much what with breaks and everything, so I think we've become a little bit lazy and a goal right now is to get out of this lazy spell.

SOI meeting

Last Wednesday, we finished Food Inc, we only had about 10 minutes left of the movie. Then after we talked about having our bakesales again, I volonteered to bake something, I'm just not sure what to make yet, maybe muffins or something. I am wondering when we'll have our big food festival, maybe that will only happen at the end of the year.

Friday night competition

On Friday night, a couple of girls were not there for competition practice, which was unfortunate since the first competition in Providence is in 2 weeks. But we got our competition team jackets and the fake hair ponytails that match all of our hair colors, which we'll wear just for Bollywood Meets Hollywood. We did Bollywood about four times, since we didn't have practice during vacation, practice was a little intense. And we worked on Angels and Demons too about four or five times, Jen told me a different way to run at the end, apparently the way I was doing it looked weird. And we all performed our solos, and Sabrina said mine looked really good, so I was happy.

Wednesday night contemporary

This week at contemporary, since we had missed about 3 weeks of class because of the snow day and vacation, we were really behind. The Spring Gala is 3 months away and we need to really work on the 2 dances that our class is going to present. So Jen had us do a 15 mintue warm out, and then she started to teach us the new dance to a song called "Sweet Disposition", I love the music and the movement, I think it's going to be really pretty. This dance unlike "Starlight" is much more random, in "Starlight", it's all about placement. And we also added onto "Starlight", however we're still a little bit behind since some of us forgot the dance.

Cape Women Online Magazine

This week I have e-mailed Nicola, one of the publishers of CapeWomenOnline Magazine and she asked for a piece on C.A.S. actually and how it's affected me and what the I.B. and C.A.S. actually are and how C.A.S. represents being a citizen of the world basically. And I listed off all the activities that I'm doing and a couple more that I'm still planning to do. She was really excited by the piece and sent it to the editor who made some edits. And I also sent Nicola a mini-biography of me, that I suppose will be on the website. So I'm really excited about that. I also think that I'm going to make a Facebook page with one other Sturgis student to help promote the magazine soon.

SOI- 2/23/10

Last SOI meeting before vacation, we continued watching Food Inc., a documentary about where all our food actually comes from and how we should eat more organically. And seeing all of the really graphic images of the slaughter houses made me finally decide to become vegetarian and stop eating meat, I had been thinking about it for a long, long time and had tried before. However this movie helped to make a decision. And since then for two weeks now, I have felt lighter and have had more energy.

Wednesday contemporary

This Wednesday in contemporary not as many girls were there so we weren't able to work on the Starlight dance. But we did our stretches, leg swings, arm swings, jumps, across the floor. I was really happy that we didn't have to do any push ups. We worked on the Starlight dance for about the last half hour of class, but didn't learn any more, I think that I really need to work on my extension though.

Tuesday night ballet

This Tuesday I worked with my friend Lorissa and our teacher Jen to finish our duet that will be performed for competition. We finally finished the duet it's really good, now all we have to do is work on honing and perfecting piece by piece and it'll be perfect in March.
Then I had an hour and a half of ballet, I didn't want to wear my pointe shoes since I knew that they were completely dead and I would have no support, unfortunately my teacher Sabrina made me wear them. And since they are so dead I had no feeling and they didn't actually hurt at all!
Also during center and across the floor work, Sabrina complimented my pointe work which really made me happy, since most of the time she complimentes my arms but not my feet or pointe work so much.
Then after class the competition team worked a half hour on the Bollywood meets Hollywood piece and I really think that it's been perfected and it looks so much better. Also Lorissa and I performed the duet for everybody.

Friday night competition and Sunday telethon

Last Friday was from 4:30 to 8 since it was a dress rehearsel for the March of Dimes telethon that we performed on Sunday. The costums looked great and everything, the Bollywood meets Hollywood piece definitely needs the most work though we need a lot more expression in our faces for the piece.

Then on Sunday I was at Cape Cod Commuity College for a couple of hours for the telethon, I was supposed to be in only in two group dances except we apparently lost five minutes and so had to drop one dance and that just so happened to be my second dance that I was supposed to be in so I ended up being in only one dance, but it was still a nice experience, fun and it was for charity.

Thursday ballet and new dance

Last Thursday Miss Francesca wasn't there and actually she isn't coming back for that class since she's pregnant so our usual teacher Sabrina is taking over the Thursday class. So Sarah taught the entire class in the beginning she was getting frustrated at some students at barre for messing up a combinaition a few times. The class was fairly easy which was nice for a change, dance without complicated steps. And then after class we usually work on a piece with Miss Francesca a lyrical piece but since she's not coming back, I guess that dance is over with. And so after class the competition girls, me and this new girl Siobhan made up a dance which is really fun. Jen mostly choreographed it, it's to a new Muse song, which we are all obsessed with right now. Also I added a running part to the beginning which really goes to the song's sticato.

Wednesday contemporary

Last Wednesday for contemporary we again worked on abs, the only thing I have difficulty with are push ups, I can do all the other abs, but for some reason push ups are my enemy and I absolutely hate them to death, I feel like I can't do them. We worked on the Starlight dance for most of the dance. Jen put us into places for the dance since before we were dancing in any place that we liked. And also we learned a little bit more choreography and it's really interesting.

Ballet class Tuesday

Last Tuesday our teacher Sabrina was not there, but Sarah took over for barre. I wore my extremely dead pointe shoes even though I probably shouldn't have worn them since it's not very good for your feet to dance on dead pointe shoes, there's no support left. But then Miss Jen took over for center and the across the floor and she let me take my pointe shoes off for the rest of class. Jen likes to give more complicated and difficult combinations and work us more.

Friday night competition

On Friday from 4-7 pm I had competition, back to usual. We started downstairs by practicing Angels and Demons, the ballet piece for about an hour, since we have a telethon in two weeks where we are performing our competition pieces. And so everything has to be really good. After Angels and Demons everyone else found out what they were performing for solos, since Lorissa and I already knew what we were performing. Then we practiced Schindler's List a couple of time and then we went on to Bollywood meets Hollywood, and everything is looking a lot better. However there was no time for Lorissa and I to practice our duet which isn't even finished yet and Sabrina wants us to perform it at the telethon.

Greek Club

At Greek this week, two Sturgis alumni came , one was a guy that graduated in 2005, I forget his name but he majored in Classics in college. So he actually ended up reading some Ancient Greek for us and his accent, everything was amazing. He was so exceptionally good. So basically the whole meeting comprised of him reading passages of old Greek poetry, so we really got a feel of how to correctly pronounce words and letters.

Very short SOI meeting

SOI was a very short meeting this week, Jade just had us fill out a survey over a movie that we're going to watch during meeting and when the food festival should be. We initially planned for the festival to be right after mid-terms, but that may not work out.

Wednesday- contemporary

So the reason why at least one of my feet was really hurting Tuesday night is because I somehow pulled/hurt my instep in my left foot a few days before dance started again. So it kind of hurts to walk, but of course knowing me, I danced anyways. So I went to contemporary early at 5:00, to work on my competition solo with Jen, we're about an hour into it and she said it's looking a lot better. However my left foot was kind of a bum. Then into contemporary my body was sort of aching since I definitely did not stretch enough during the break. And we continued on with the choreograophy to Muse that we were working on, which I'm really liking, I think it'll be a really pretty piece.

Tuesday Dance- Ballet after Holiday break

On Tuesday, 6:30-8 I had ballet and then jazz for about an hour after. Being on pointe shoes after two weeks of no pointe shoes is one of the most painful sensations ever. We had a very simple class and a simple barre, but with a lot of pointe work sequences. And then in center we worked on promenades with is where one turn with one leg in the air at a 90 degree angle and turns around oneself. It can either look really good or really bad, so after we did this combination in the center, Sabrina our teacher had each of us do a promenade by ourselves and she had her hand under her leg so that our leg would be higher than her hand. It's kind of humiliating being by yourself and you make a mistake, but I learn from them.
After ballet, we only practiced Fame once and then we started learning a new group dance, it's a mix of hip-hop and a sort of Spanish style. I really love the dance so far, the style is really cool, so I'm looking forward to dancing it.