Dissection, Demolition, Deconstruction, Destruction, Discussion

Contemporary was good/normal. We got a new phrase, and with a partner, we chopped it up an rearranged it. We then showed our new work to half of the group and the same time as another pair showed their’s. Our Join group’s was very cool because we all ended up in the same position! we are genius no?

Choreography was just as very interesting as always. We didn’t dance or choreograph at all, but we did what is call a “deconstruction” of the piece we were supposed to watch for homework (i posted a link earlier). We considered the implications of titles, colors, the relationships between men and women, etc. We totally over-analyzed this piece and had a VERY interesting discussion. 

Next we watched this totally amazing piece called falling angels. Here is a SHORT excerpt from the piece. (trust me, the ending is better. i just couldn’t find the rest on youtube). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZ5CWhJro4Y

80s Day and Multi-colored Tape

In contemporary yesterday, vincent didn’t have his laptop with him to play music from, so he had to use someone else’s ipod. He didn’t know whos it was so when he was going through trying to find a song to play, he’d randomly crack up because of the weird artists they had. They must have really like the 80s though because thats like ALL we used for music lol. It was pretty interesting.

So in between warming up an working on choreo, we had a little stretch/H2O break. I was stretching my center splits and vincent is just like “Lilia, youre too bendy already! Do some crunches or something!” haha it made me happy because i really am not as fexible as the other girls quite yet. I’d just been at the studio for 4 hours and had already taken a ballet class so i was really warm.

Opening night of the beast is tomorrow and i am SOOOO excited. A couple of weeks ago DB had a revelation apperently. He decided that it was stupid to just have little tiny “Xs” on the stage that the audience can see so he asked everyone to change it up a bit for this show. Now, in multicolored/glow-in-the-dark tape, contthere are a million rectangles and diamonds and such showing where people should stand and where props should be placed. Vincent was inspired by this fact and decided to modify our choreography from 2 weeks ago so that we all stand in the boxes and travel between them. We also added some awesome new material to the end.

Oooo! one more thing. Vincent said hi to me from one of my really good friends, Zane, who recently moved to dance with ballet chicago. We miss you zane!

M.G.

GUESS WHO HAS THE SAME BIRTHDAY AS THIS AMAZING WOMAN! I FEEL SO LUCKY.

If for some reason you don’t know who this is, you REALLY should. PLEASE look up Martha Graham. please?

Choreo HW

Here is a link to the piece we were supposed to look up for choreography and write a paragraph about. its quite interesting. take a look:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ub1-vqsJKG0

Ankles & Something About Domestic Violence

Monday i was planning on doing a couple combos on pointe like i did on friday. i ended up taking the whole class in my shoes and it actualy felt ok. Until today.
Took class today on flat and my ankle was hurting... id say a moderate amount? anyways, class was good. Mitch and i are now kinda in competition to see who can dibs the good barre spot first by putting your shoes there. today i got it because he was lying on the floor outside the upstairs studio watching the company.

OMG i am INSANELY excited for opening night of "The Beast" on friday. I'll probably be there from like 3:00-11:00 but thats totally fine with me. AHHH i am so pumped. What AM i going to wear? suggestions? i have to be stage-handish but also kinda nice for the after party. Help me!
If you live in seattle, you should come to the show.
( http://spectrumdance.org/company/the-beast/ )

New York, New York!

Ok so i looove this song and ive had it stuck in my head forever! it kinda reminds me of how much i want to go to nyc. ok it actually REALLY reminds me of how i am dying to go to New york. If you go anytime soon, take me please! We can go see broadway shows together! please? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-J3GNLRuIQ&feature=share

RENT is a long-term commitment

So i keep seeing all these posts about rent that are all like “ive been listening to the soundtrack non-stop for the past  days!” Then i just think “wow. i am such a rent nerd. i havent listened to anything BUT rent for the past like 4 or 5 months.” Its true.

An All Wheeldon Night

After ballet class today, Sydney drove me and audrey C to McCaw Hall to see Pacific Northwest Ballet in “All Wheeldon.” As you will see later, us Spectrum girls go to See every PNB show of the year. Its our thing…

http://www.pnb.org/Season/11-12/AllWheeldon/#Overview

So all wheeldon is just a collection of pieces choreographed by Chris Weeldon. Its contemporary ballet which is PNB’s specialty. We had to sit a little further back than usual because sydney couldnt find her pass that gets us in for 5$ and she didnt want to pay for the $173 dress circle tickets we usually get. As long as we sit all together, its ok.

I hated the 1st of the four pieces, but the other 3 were REALLY good. The 2nd was a stunning & beautiful Pas De Deux, followed by a super balanchine-like section, and then a piece about life as a dancer backstage (HILARIOUS!!!!).

I would definitely suggest going if you get a chance.

So audrey is working on writing articles for a Spectum newspaper she and Mia decided to start, so she was collecting quotes from us about the show. If she publishes it i will be sure to post. I was also taking notes so that i can write a review of the show for my Choreography class (Eva HATES PNB so we’ll see how she takes it).

p.s. I tried pointe for the first couple combos today and it was okay except for like 3 or 4 hours later, i started getting sharp pains in my ankles while was weird… PLEASE FIX YOURSELF ANKLE!!!

Thurs Contemp and Choreo

Sat around at spectrum today for two hours waiting around for my class to start. i got to watch the company for a little while, but then the when off to some tech rehearsal somewhere. :(

Contemporary was fun. It was hard, but it also just felt REALLY good on my body. THANKS EVA! There were a lot of people in class today:

-Paige (Ballet 7/Academy), Jasmmine (Ex-Academy member), Mitch* (Ballet 7/Academy), Sydney (Ballet 6), Mia (Ballet 5), Jovian (Academy/Company apprentice), Michelle (Ballet 7), Seneca (Ballet 7/Academy), Me (Ballet 6/Academy)

Choreography was a little different this week. We started out with a discussion, but then the Year 2 students went off to choreograph a dance based on a charcter in a book they were reading. The Year one people, stayed with Eva and worked on some Choreo exercises. We were then signed to be a dancer for one of the year 2 students (two Year 1s to each year 2). They set their choreo on us, then we performed it and discussed all the performances. It was definitely an interesting experience.

My feet hurt from yesterday. A lot.

*Not real name

Tech Time!

Kate taught us all the workings of a light board today! Its pretty complicated, but the Academy Dancers only have to deal with the easy stuff (set up, pressing the right button at the right time). Kate gave us these little handouts that tell us exactly what to do when we work the lights on a performance night. Super helpful. We also brought out all the risers and set them up in the studio which took forever. Theyre really heavy, so there were four of us on each one helping to bring them out of the tech closet. Some dude was there on a ladder covering up the skylights so all the blackouts and stuff are actually black. We ended up staying until 9:30 so my dad was a bit pissed. Oh well…

Oh Yes. Hit That Develope!

And THIS is a professional dance company. Haha gotta love them dancers.

I Wish This Could Be My Future

I just think this is a super awesome picture. PLUS, shes wearing garbage bag pants (the love of my life), and those booties that i really want.

Scott = Um, Yeah! Tap = Nope, Sorry.

So usually on Wednesdays, my schedule is thus:

3:30-5: Ballet

6-7:30: Tap

7:30-9: DB* Contemporary

Unfortunately, today Shawn (outreach director of Spectrum/”in charge person”) decided to change DB to the same time as tap! so… im having to quit tap which really sucks. especially, since i was taking three tap classes a week during the summer in order to go straight into advanced!

So today i had to skip out on tap, but it was actually ok because we had a sub in DB who was REALLY GOOD (i think i actually might like him more or almost as much as Vincent). His name is Scott and hes a former company member at spectrum. His class was SUPER hard, his choreography was really cool, and the floor (even though we cleaned iton sunday) totally ripped my feet toshreds! well… not really but they will definitely hurt for a couple of days.

I kind of hope he comes back, but i also want to take as many class from vincent as possible before he leaves town in a couple of weeks. But, there are never too many good dancer teachers in the world.

* Dont forget: DB stands for donald byrd. Look him up. Hes our Artistic Director.

p.s. i think im going to try a couple of combinations at the bar on pointe on friday. wish me luck! I really have missed my shoes.

MY BARRE!

So theres this guy in my class who you definitely need to know about if you are planning on reading this tumblr in the future. His name, for internet purposes we will say is Mitch (if you dance at spectrum, you will know who i’m talking about). Mitch is in level 7, but he totally shouldn’t be. He sucks. He smells bad. Hes rude. and hes REALLY strange.

So anyway, i get to Class and Mitch is standing in my spot at the bar. if you are a dancer, then you will know that that is a CRIME!!! Well, i get in the studio and i hint to him that he totally is standing in my spot. I keep asking him to trade, but he just wont! i was even considering bribing him… Later in class, he got busted for not following the dress code :P and not saying “ms.” when adressing our teahcer. He then proceeded to get about 2 inches from kicking me in square in the face with his pointe shoe. Yes. He does point. He sucks at that too.

He Who Must Not Be Named

So theres this guy in my class who you definitely need to know about if you are planning on reading this tumblr in the future. His name, for internet purposes we will say is Mitch (if you dance at spectrum, you will know who i’m talking about). Mitch is in level 7, but he totally shouldn’t be. He sucks. He smells bad. Hes rude. and hes REALLY strange.

So anyway, i get to Class and Mitch is standing in my spot at the bar. if you are a dancer, then you will know that that is a CRIME!!! Well, i get in the studio and i hint to him that he totally is standing in my spot. I keep asking him to trade, but he just wont! i was even considering bribing him… Later in class, he got busted for not following the dress code :P and not saying “ms.” when addressing our teahcer. He then proceeded to get about 2 inches from kicking me in square in the face with his pointe shoe. Yes. He does pointe. He sucks at that too.

Marley Maintenance

So at 11:00 i went to the studio and helped Kate mop the marley upstairs with some water/vinegar solution. Words of wisdom: NEVER use soap on marley floors. so anyway, we washed the whole studio, and then Seneca showed up with a friend (i think her name was erika or something…) and helped us dry it of. That took a super long time so by then it was already like 12:15 or something.

*btw, this whole time we were listening to broadway show tunes!!!!!!!!!!*

Next we needed to redo the spike marks which took a really long time too seeing as we totally measured wrong the first time! sucks… After we laid a bit of new black tap on the marley, we reviewed some combinations from last week and taught Erika(?) some of ‘em.

At about 12:55, we gave it a rest and took a muffin/croissant break! Its too bad we didn’t get to learn how to work the lights yet, but i think we’re doing that this thursday when it actually gets dark outside (we have huge skylights in that studio).

You have no idea how much i love all this technical stuff! its so interesting.

Ballet at Noon?

So today, as the title suggests, i took an open ballet class at 12:00 taught by Marco. I thought it would be nice to take class without having my mind stuck on school and not being all tired from the day, but it actually wasn’t. I love taking class at like 9 or 10 cause its refreshing and it wakes youup, but when a 12:00 class is just kinda inserted into the middle of you day it just doesn’t feel as good on your body.

I’d never actually had marco as my teacher before, but ive heard a lot about him from my friends. They all say that he does waaaaay too many port de bras, stares at himself in the mirror, and gives you weird corrections. Based on this class, i have found all of that to be true. However bad he sounds, he actually gave some really good combos that made you use your brain and work really hard though. 

Because this was open ballet, not many of my friends were in it (it was mostly old ladies), and that totally changed the mood of the class making it seem boring and uneventful. I’m not quite sure if ill take that class next saturday. It kinda sucked a bit compared to Ms. Erricka’s classes.

Tricks of the Trade!

Today after Choreography, the academy students unexpectedly got an extra class tacked on from 8-9:00! The class was to teach us how to put together the theater which was super cool! We learned about the curtains, lights, Tech closet and all that jazz (next week we get to learn how to operate the sound/light board!!!) So why did we randomly have to learn all this stuff? Well as academy students, we help out at all the Company shows working as stage hands and lighting people and stuff. Its a lot to learn, but we get to go to a ton of shows for free!!! Yay! We have more of these classes scheduled for next week. I can’t wait. Its super filthy and interesting!!!

Today i had two classes taught by the amazing Eva Stone. First i had advanced contemporary. It was super fun and really challenging. Eva’s style is so different from the style that i am used to working in that i always had to have my brain turned on since the movements didn’t come too naturally. Next i had choreography!!! Most of the class was spent sitting in a circle talking and taking notes in special “choreo notebooks.” We also got to make up a dance based on 5 movements and positions created with a certain event in our day in mind. we then combined it with another person in the class’s dance to make a new one. It seems just like your typical choreo class, but it really wasn’t. Eva somehow made it special.

Body update: Ankle still hurts like hell, pulled hamstring is much better after and epson salt bath and some magnesium lotion.

Food? Huh? What?

When you’re on the go, you often dont have time to stop and eat.

Here is what i ate today:

Breakfast: nothing

11:00 am: Vitamin Water, Pretzels

3:00 pm: small doughnut, 8oz latte

11:00 pm: four crackers with cheese, milk

Healthy huh? Tomorrow i promise i will be better.

A Body Will Always Hurt After A Good Day of Dancing

Thank God i got to ballet before 3:00 today! I’m riding a different bus now and it seems to work much better. Success!

My first class of the day was ballet as usual. today was a level 5/6 class instead of 6/7, which meant all the girls who moved up from level 4 were there, making it a really huge class. There was this new guy in class today which was great (we need way more since our main guy, Zane, just moved to go dance with Ballet Chicago)! Anyway, he definitely wasn’t experienced enough yet to be in level five, but im sure with a couple years of training he will be totally up to scratch and ready to do some hard-core partnering!

After ballet, i had an hour break in which to re-fuel and ice my ankle.

Tap was fairly normal. it was pretty challenging because it was an advanced class and i only started in like April, but i think i actually did pretty well! Yay for me!

Contemporary was tooooootally awesome! this was the class i have been looking forward to for like the whole summer! Vincent (probably my favorite teacher at spectrum) will be teaching for the first 4 weeks which is SUPER great. Then Ty (another super amazing awesome dancer/person) will take over! my life is totally perfect! The class was pretty challenging so i definitely had to be thinking on my toes the whole class, but it was still like crazy fun and a great experience.

Sad news: i pulled my hamstring toward the end of DB contemporary and after dancing so much, my ankle is totally in pain.

I am SO looking forward to a nice warm bath.

p.s. “DB” stands for “Donald Byrd” who is the artistic director of the Spectrum Dance theater company.

p.p.s. Vincent winked at me during class today… teehee

I LOVE YOU RUDI

http://www.nureyev.org/index.php

For a while now, i have been developing a love for this man. he is amazing in so many ways. if you’re a dancer and you don’t know who he is, you should. really. hes totally famous. and super cool. <3. Youtube him!

A Most Stressful Afternoon

So today i was supposed to catch the #27 bus right by my school at 2:55, and ride it for like 5 minutes until i got to dance. Sounds simple right? Unfortunately, my bus like didn’t come at all so i ended up catching the bus about an hour after i was supposed to! WHAT UP WITH THAT? of course i called my studio (Spectrum) as soon as i thought i might be late and was like “oh yeah my bus is being stupid so i might be like 10 minutes late for class.” LITTLE DID I KNOW, i would be standing at that stupid bus stop for like another half hour!!! i actually had to call the studio AGAIN and be like “hey, scratch that cause ill be like 45 minutes late.” i sucks cause that meant i had to watch class! Life sucks. i hope i actually get to class tomorrow. cross your fingers!

Moving on to the class its self… Watching from the corner of the room always gives you an interesting perspective on the choreography and gives you a chance to watch your peers dance from the audience standpoint. Watching Seneca today made me realize how good she is! she has beautiful extensions, port de bras, and shes an AMAZING turner. i told her after class that i was very impressed with her pirouettes. its always nice to hear compliments. 

One nice thing about being late, is that i got to see all my ballet 5 friends who arent in my class (im in ballet 6)! They all had class at 4:30 so i got to say hello and give some overdue hugs, birthday presents, borrowed dance clothes and such.

I am hoping i will have a better “Metro Experience” tomorrow! Look for my next post on thursday (i’m at spectrum for so many hours tomorrow that i probably wont get a chance to use the internet at all)! SOOOO EXCITED FOR MY DB ADVANCED CONTEMPORARY CLASS TOMORROW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! wish me luck. <3

First Day Back!

It was so great to get back into that dancing-everyday-mood! class was nothing special though... i had the same teacher as usual (ms. erricka) and with most of the same people as last year. however, there was one new person in class, which was great, named Seneca, who is like super nice and pretty good! yay for new people! i felt sad not doing pointe. :'( luckily there were two other girls not en pointe (im not sure why they weren't doing flat...) Oh! and sadly one of my friends who was super cool quit! im not too surprised though. she was always being like "why do we put ourselves through all this pain? are we even going to end up as professionals?" and stuff like that. i really missed having her in class! I am SO happy i danced the whole summer! i didn't loose any flexibility or technique! its so great! tuesday class shouldn't be to different from today (monday), but we'll see after that class.

Gearing Up!

Classes start at Spectrum DT in a couple of days! I have my dance bag packed with new tights, a couple leotards, various shoes, therabands, and all the other necessities for the start of fall session. Beginning monday, I will have to take the bus everyday straight from school to dance class. At least its only a 4 minute commute… Anyhow, I am excited and ready for my first Spectrum ballet class since a couple of weeks ago. The class is a level 6/7, goes from 3:30-5, and is taught by my main ballet teacher for the past few years, Ms. Erricka Turner-Davis. Wish me luck!

P.S. This class would usually be done en pointe, but due to an ankle injury, I will be holding off on pointe for a couple of weeks. Hopefully, it should heal by then.