Before ballet and pointe

Hi, everyone. I am about to go to my ballet and pointe class but first I figured I should blog. I've been working really hard in class and although I'm seeing improvement and I'm doing really well sometimes class can seem impossible. Our class ranges from 11-20 years olds and being 13yrs old I am obviously definitley one of the youngest. There's 9-12 of us each class and we are the second most advanced level in my ballet school. In two weeks is the last week of our summer session and I will be on vacation that last week so today and next week Friday I have a makeup class for the two days I will be missing, but other than that I will have perfect attendance. This is very important because we start rehearsing for Nutcracker in about two and a half months and we are selected based on height, age, ability level, and dedication so I really need to continue showing my ballet tecaher my committment and dedication to class. I have never been in the Nutcracker or anyother ballet for that matter so, this is definitley something that I really want to do, but for right now I just need to keep working hard in every class.

My Summer So Far

Ok, so I know that I haven't written in a post in like 19 days, but I have been really busy with ballet/pointe and I have also been hanging out and going to the pool with friends quite often. I also have had two garduation parties to go to in this past weekend. I had ballet and pointe today from 12-2 pm. Pointe hurts, but I still looove it and I love the challenge that ballet and pointe brings me. Every class I am learning something new (especially in my pointe class) and I am vastly improving.

What holds next summer will be very hard to say. This winter I am going to do lots of auditions for ballet summer intensives for next summer, but they are very hard to be accpeted into and are extremley expensive. This summer and this fall I am going to train and work harder than I ever had in ballet. I am starting the school year (unlike last year) at my current ballet school and I am en pointe. I also have the possibility of performing in my school's nutcracker and our spring ballet so I definitley have a lot to be happy about and alot that's inspiring me to keep working harder.

My Pointe Shoes

At the beggining of this week on Monday I was fitted for my very first pair of pointe shoes. I was so excited. I've wanted to get my pointe shoes since my first ballet class and getting them was awesome. I went to the dance store with my mom and my amazing ballet teacher was there with the really nice pointe shoe fitter. After trying on two pairs of the same pointe shoe that were slightly too wide I tried on the third pair of pointe shoes my teacher and pointe shoe fitter had picked. They were the exact same pair except slightly less wide and they agreed that the third pair I tried on was a perfect fit for me so, I am now wearing Chacott Veranese II's. They are a really pretty peach color with a very soft pink tint. My mom and I only had two days to sew on my pointe shoes before my first pointe class which was on Wednesday. It was an hour long class. There are six of us students beggining pointe for the very first time this summer. The first half of the class we learned more about putting on our shoes and how to tie our ribbons. The second half of the class was spent solely on simple pointe excercises at the barre. We did three different excercises. The first was going up all the way onto releve and then doing plie whils still on releve so, that we could really focus on pushing into our arches and then going up onto releve to see if we could maintain it. Then we would reverse all that. The secong barre combinations we did battmant tendu a la seconde and then we would bent the leg in tendu so, we could again focus on pushing into our arches. We would then do that on the other leg as well. The third and last exercise we did was pas de bourres at the barre which I loved. The entire class seemed to fly by and luckily, other than sightly red toes I didn't feel any pain or get hurt toes or anything yet which is good because I've read and heard about many dancers in lots of pain after their first pointe class.

From now on, though I won't be dancing on Wednesdays. Instead I will be dancing for 2 hours on Tuesday and for 2 hours on Thursday. This will start next week and go until I believe the last week in July. Tuesdays and Thursdays I will have an hour and 15 minutes of ballet which will be followed by a 45 minute pointe class. Other than the six of us starting pointe the other girls have already been en pointe for at least a year so, class will be pretty challenging, but I think for most of the summer we will be at the barre when en pointe. I don't think there will be many of us though. Altogether I imagine there will be no more than twelve of us.  I can't wait for class on Tuesday, though! I will keep you guys updated. Got to go know and order a mesh pointe shoe bag on discountdance.com to prevent mold build up in my pointe shoes.

Awesome Ballet news!!!!

So, last Thursday I had my usual ballet technique class and it was pretty good. My teacher followed my fellow dancers and I ouside and said hello to our mothers. My mom asked my ballet teacher about what classes I should take this summer. My ballet tecaher told my mom that we would have to wait for her to e-mail my mom because she hasn't heard from 'the shoe fitter' yet. My mom and I both got excited when she said this because we had a feeling it was going to be...
"But, if Jacqueline wants to do the POINTE class she'll have to do the ballet IV class which is followed by the  pointe class." I was SO shocked and surprised when she said this I coulldn't even believe it! She is seriously going to let me start pointework this summer!!! I can't wait!!!! Now, I feel like all my hard work has really apid off. I know that this is just the very beggining of all the hardwork I will have to spend in the ballet studio, but I'm extremley dediacted and incredibly hard working and my teacher has definitley noticed this. I still can barely get over the fact that she's letting me start pointe. I should get my first pointe shoe fitting within the next few weeks so, we'll see how it all goes and everything. I'm so happy! I can't wait. When I found out my teacher was letting me start pointe that when my mom and I went into the car I burst into tears of joy!  I know about pointe work and how it causes your toes to bleed, it hurts, it gives you bunions and blisters, etc. but for right now I'm going to just enjoy the amazing moment.

The Google Art Contest

Hey, everyone so as most of you know at the end of the school year it's cram time with homework, projects, and making sure you still get good grades to follow what your teachers say and end the school year on a "high note". Well, just now I went on the internet because I have to complete some homework online and because Google is my laptop's homepage I came across the Google Art Contest and I decidely to quickly check out the finalists' entries. Well, first of all let me say EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM IS ABSOLOUTLEY AMAZNG and you should definitley check them out, but while I was going through the entries I noticed one that definitley caught my attention immediatley!

"If I could travel to any "pointe" in time I'd visit the late 1800's to the early 1900's to see famous ballets of that time. I would see all the beautiful dancers en pointe and be a spectator of their magnificent jumps, turns, leaps, and graceful skills. "

Kathryn P, Grand Forks, ND, Grade 9

Isn't that drawing gorgeous?!... and it's about ballet! Because of the fact that I'm a ballet dancer I'm probably being biased, but I think it's my favorite. Don't get me wrong, however. I think every single drawing deserves to win WITHOUT A DOUBT, but this one certainly caught my attention. I'm under a lot of pressure with school work and friends, and what ballet level I'll be doing this summer/fall and if I'm strong enough to start pointework and all that other stress we dancers go through, however sometimes it's important to remember that everyone goes through their own stresses and how no ballet dancer had it easy and that this is normal for everyone both dancers and non-dancers, and it's also very important to rember how exceptionally blessed I am and to just keep trying to be positive with ballet as these challenges wll carry with me for the rest of my ballet dancing life regardless if I only make ballet to a strong pre-professional level with a top ballet school or I end up signing  a contract with a top ballet company. I have made a very big outline for myself marking my training as my route to becoming a professional ballet dancer. This outline of my proffessiional training life is much easier said/heard than done, however I know that I can't focus on that for right noe instead I need to enjoy the beautiful ballet entry for Google and be glad I was given the wonderful opportunity to dance in the fist place.

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.