My Much Adored Shampoo/Conditioner

So, as promised in my blog I will also be posting about hair stuff besides dance in this blog, so here goes.
Well, first of all let me just say that I am picky about my hair and what's in my hair products. I love natural ingredients in my beauty products, but I also love top of the line brand name products which is why Tresemme's naturals luxiorious moisturizing shampoo and cream conditioner. The shampoo and conditoner smells awesome, kind of like a hair salon, but not in a fume hair spray way. I think it's the aloe vera.  The shampoo offers a lower amount of sulflates than the average shampoo and the cream conditioner is completley silicone-free keeping my hair extra healthy and strong!! It's works great for my natural curls. I shower every night and I always use the Tresemme shampoo/conditioner. I wash out the conditoner just enough so, there's no suds or huge residue left in my hair, but there's still the lovey aloe vera extract and other invaluable conditioning oils left in my hair. Then I comb my well-treated/washed hair in a low bun and when I go to sleep I comb out my super sliky smooth well-conditioned hair and when I wake up my curls are 95% frizz-free!!! This makes it great for straightening or for people who want to leave their curls au naturel, but don't want to deal with the firzz. Highly recommend!!!

Black Swan vs. Dance Moms

Ok, so yeah I guess a TON comes to mind when reading this title, but i'm here to share all the (majority of it negative) things I think on the t.v. show, Dance Moms and the award winning movie Black Swan. So, first off is Dance Moms.

I think this can be semi-entertaining to watch which is pretty obvious considering the fact that it has gotten millions of views.  For the very few of you who don't know Dance Moms is a t.v. show about a small group of dancers who rehearse and train at the Abby Lee Dance Studio where they train under the direction of the cruel and dramatic dance teacher, abby Lee Miller, but every dance day is its own story with the mothers trying to push their daughetrs up to the top of a pyramid. It includes "awesome" drama and best of all dance!! So, what's not to love about this Lifetime show? Well, let's hit the rewind button first. The drama in Dance Moms always seem so fake, and the moms' insane shallow-ness makes the drama appear that way. All we hear is the dance moms complaining to the audience and Abby Lee Miller about how their dance daughters aren't in the spotlight enough. Ummm. hello?! Your daughters AND you are constantly on t.v. for your hit reality show, you are interviews, TONS of girls know your faces and a ton of things are constantly going viral about you guys (take this blog for instance, your daughters are healthy, pretty, wonderful dancers, AND your daughters win dance competitions and shcolarships all the time... and then there's people in India trying to find bugs to eat for dinner so they can stay alive..... Yeah Christy remind me one more time why you're upset this time?, and yeah so the drama's for entertainment but how much of it do you REALLY think is legit?? Also, it's sooooooo annoying when people talk about their favorite dancers!!! Everyone always says how much they hate Maddie and like so and so better, but the truth is Maddie's very good at dance for her age and her artistry is incredible for such a young dancer. For those of you Brooke Fans out there let'sbe honest with ourselves Brooke really can't act to save her like. She an amazing dancer, but Her artistry just really isn't there. Pasting a fake smile on your face isn't good acting, sorry. So, next time someone asks you who your favorite DANCER is say a dancer who is a more realistic choice. When someone asks you who your favorite CHARACTER is say whoever you like...just saying.


And now it's time for Black Swan. I have many different views on this oscar winning movie. First of all I have to say (and this goes for Dance Moms too) I'm not sure if I like dance being out in the media because I like how it raises dance awarness but at the same time dance becoming more widely known increases bad stereotypes (as if there weren't enough already) and having mothers of dancers fighting doesn't really raise much awarness except more about teh crazy people on this world. I always say how I much I wish dance (particularily ballet of course!) would be televised more often, but when I say this I don't mean having fake t.v. shows and movies I mean showing a ballet (or any dance) performance in its own original, beautiful raw form. Showing the ballet La Esmeralda is VERY VERY VERY different then showing a psychotic, hallucinating professional ballet dancer who is driving herself to Cukoo Land, although for the record I personally have never seen the movie, but I have seen the trailer and enough interviews about it to know plenty. There was nothing, however that aggravated me more then at the Oscars when they announced Natalie Portman by calling her a "ballerina", yeah she had a body double in that movie people that wasn't really her dancing!!!!!!!!!,and even if there was for some extermley odd reason that Portman could do even a quarter of the intricate balet steps os Swan Lake she still isn't a ballerina because for the MANY MANY MANY of you who don't know this a ballerina is a professional ballet dancer who is the principal dancer for her ballet company. Even if you dance professionally it doesn't mean you are  a ballerina and tehre is no such thing as a male ballerina!!!,and also she's an actress so, why are you calling her a ballerina? Sarah Lane, a soloist for the infamous American Ballet Theatre, was Portman's body double and believe me shehas had PLENTY of ballet training and experience. Seriously, go see the interview with Sarah Lane and the newsreporter Sarah Lane made her words very clearly and I totally respect her for that. The whole time I watched the interview, I kept thinking, "Yeah, you go girl!!" I do like how Portman said she liked dance and respected ballet but very few people have seen that interview.

So, yes this is what I think on the media involved with dance and I know it's kinda a lot, but that's how I am: extremely opinionated.

Ballet class!

So, today I had my regular technique class and I'm actually really proud of myself. I'm working so incredibly hard with keeping my shoulders back, obtaining a higher arabesque with the supporting leg in releve, keeping my legs straight, and remembering to lengthen my arms even after completing a wonderful balance. My wonderful teacher told me today during class, "Jacqueline, your balance was sooo good, but rember to bring your armsdown slowly and bring them through second position before completely bringing them down into prepartory position." That's what I constanlty work at achieving and I'm improvinga ton. My ballet school is very small, and yet it has trained many professional ballet dancers and has gotten them scholarships to summer intensive programs and year-round progarms to some of the top professional ballet schools in the U.S. It's pretty funny to think about, but what would you really expect from a pre-professional ballet school thats trained proffessional artists? Walls, that were a differnt color, no pictures of the pre-professional company dancers from your school, brighter lights, different flooring?? Hardly.

Sunday...ehhh

So, yeah today I woke up at 8am (pretty late for me!) and I flat ironed my hair, pony tailed it, did my makeup, ate breakfast, and what am I doing now?? Blogging, duh! Today I'm going to finish some homework that I didn't finish on Friday (during school) and then, I'm probably going shopping at the mall which will be awesome considering the fact that I haven't been to the mall in about four weeks! Then, I will also probably stretch which I do everyday to stay flexible throughout the week. There's nothing worse than waking up and having to do five different stretches before you can slide fully into your splits. I'm currently also in the process of planning out my summer and fall for dance and also planning out my ballet auditions for this year (which will be a first.) Well, that's it for now. Also, don't be afraid to comment or write questions on my blog! I'd love to answer them!

My All Time Favorite Dancer: Maria Kochetkova

I love Maria Kochetkova. I think she is so beautiful and I love how her personality has such honest and kindness to it. She is an absoloutley exceptional dancer who is unbelievably talented. In her graduate year of the Bolshoi Ballet Academy she secretly prepared herself for and won the Prix de Lausanne at the age of 18 in 2002 which started her professional ballet career with English National Ballet and The Royal Ballet. Then she auditioned for the San Francisco Ballet and was offered a principal contract with the San Francisco Ballet from artistic director Helgi Tomasson, which she accepted. At only 5 feet tall, I tower Maria Kochetkova by 2 inches!!! Her arches and her calves are incredible! Just look at these pictures of her dancing. Amazing.  

           

New Blogger!!

Hi, my name is Jacqueline and I am 13 years old (for those of you who have read my profile already know this.) I absoloutey adore ballet, it makes up SO much of who I am. Everyone who knows me know that I have a huge passion for dance. My dream is to be a professional ballet dancer when I get older. I know that this is a dream that I share with thousands of other young dancers like me and that there's NOTHING easy about the future I aspire to, but I am extremeley dedicated to ballet. Every ballet class I forget everything and I focus on strengthening my technique. Dance is where I feel the most true version of me, and that's why I love classical dance so incredibly much. As I'm sure most of you have already noticed I am new to blogging, but I can't wait to share with you my thoughts and feelings about dance, and all other things I love, like shopping, fashion, and hair and makeup products.