The Nutcracker Auditions

So our school performs the Nutcracker every year in December. Our auditions are in August. Which, happened to be today.
DTI is like my second home now. I spend about half my life hanging out there, waiting for some class or another. It's pretty funny, actually. So today, August 28th, I went to the studio at 9:30, half an hour before class as they had instructed me to do so. So the audtion was one and a half hours long but we started late so I ended at 12. At the end of that class, the teachers told us who they wanted to stay for the acting callback. I was part of it, just like last year.
During the acting callback, we learned the Candlelight scene from the beginning, which requires acting, of course. In the beginning you act all frightened and then joyful once you see the doll. Of course, that wasn't how anyone was feeling while doing it. We had to do it one by one in front of three teachers and all of the students. Nervousness. All throughout it, I'm sure each single one of us was thinking "Oh my gosh everyone is staring at me. I need to get past this level. Oh shoot I made a mistake. But I need to keep smiling right now or else I'll never make it."
Well last year, I apparently did not do well because I did not continue any further than here. I'm sure you're expecting me to say now that I passed this year.
Well, you're wrong.












Naw, you're right.

I was one of the maybe ten or so chosen for the next acting callback. We still did Clara stuff, except we were being her in the Winter Wonderland scene. It was short. All we had to do were shenays (how's it spelled???) in and a sutenu (again, how?) and then a grande jete (I know how to spell that one! I think?). But the first step was hard since we had to spot looking up, and hold our arms out to the sides.
I learned this over the intensive, only this was simpler. Honestly I liked the other version better, but this was fine, too.
I don;t think I did very well in this. I didn't feel that same confidence as I had during the Intensive when I did it on my own, and my grande jete was sloppy. But I was the oldest in my group, and all of the older girls moved on so I don't really know how I did.
But anyway, I moved on even more, plus two really good ten year olds. The next thing was a pointe class. I'm not en pointe, but we still did it. It was a hard class since it was with the older girls, but I got it. Mostly.
After that, all of us passed to the next thing. We just did a small sample of the Russian dance. Two pique turns, ambuates (wow, I need to improve my French miserably), two more piques, and then shout "Hey!" Well it wasn't as easy as it sounds. It was fast and it was all turns. Pretty hard. But I almost got it.
And that was all the girls my level had to do. I passed everything.
Mostly, I think I did well. I have a feeling that I might get a lead role, such as lead lamb. It's the role I want desperately, and I have a really good chance.

~nat~

An exciting post

Hi! Nat here!~

So on the last day of my Intensive, our teacher told us we wouldn't have to audition to find out what level we'll be placed in, because they already evaluated us over the summer. They already figured out what level, and they would email it to us sometime over the next week.

I've been going crazy all week waiting for that email. Which some of you, like Starr, or Connie, might know already. I was in level four last year, and level three before that and level two before that. But I was never below that in this school! Anyway, different topic, here. So I've only been doing ballet in this school for three years, right? Everyone passed level two. Me, and four other friends made it to level four. Which meant, in two years, I completed two levels, in which one of them you had to pass.

And then level four. I, personally, always thought I was doing really well in level four. The only reason I thought I might not make it to level four was because this girl, Kristen, is and was much better than I became, I think. And she only got to level five in one and a half years. So since I only did one year, I wasn't so sure. But at the same time, I was practically at the top of the class, with one of my other friends, and someone had to go to the next level.

We got the email yesterday evening before going to a party. I was just getting my clothes out, and my dad called me from his computer. He sounded kind of angry the first time, as if I forgot to clean up something he wanted to. But when I saw his face, I realized that wasn't the case at all. He showed me the computer, and I scanned the list of dancers. Once I found my name, I checked to the side, and I saw I made it to level five!

My other who friends who had done the Intensive. Everyone who was in level five before had made it to six. And level four and five kind of grouped together a lot, and six and seven would be together. So I was kind of disappointed, because we wouldn't really be a team anymore. But it's okay, they deserve to be in level six, they are really good. So I'm happy for them.

But I am so excited right now, that I made it. And now I'll finally be able to bully my dad into getting me a new black leotard, since level five is black. :D

~nat~

Our Performance

So you know how I did the intensive? Well we learned a lot of choreography that we would do a performance of on the last day. Which was today. And now I'm so sad, because I want more.

But anyway, we had our performance today. We performed two ballet dances, one contemporary/lyrical dance, and one hip hop. The ballet dances were to Vivaldi pieces, the lyrical to the song Secrets, and hip hop to On The Floor, some other song, and Super Bass. I'd put videos, but one, I'm not allowed to, and two, I look bad in them.

The showcase was really fun. We were in studio, and we didn't have costumes, and mistakes were made, but it's a performance all the same, and I love performing. I don't have pointe shoes yet, and the first dance we did was en pointe. But one of my other friends is on flat too, so that made it better. I just wish I could have pointe shoes. But I get that I'll only get it when I'm ready.

This was probably my least favorite dance. I don't know why, but I just didn't like it. But I'm glad my parents took a video of me, because even though I look bad in it, I can look at all my mistakes and fix it. During this dance, at one point, we all have to turn. We stop based on the music, there is no fixed number of turns. But we messed up on the today. Me and five other girls stopped, and two did one more. It was obvious that we made a mistake.

The other Vivaldi dance was in flat shoes. I liked this one much better, this is probably the most favorite ballet dance I've done. This went well, this was also a dance that we've been working on since the second day.

The contemporary dance, to the song Secrets was a lot of fun to rehearse. It was completely mine and my dance groups composition. We created the dance in about five days, and since we finished it, we've been making it look better by changing parts, and practicing. It wasn't a very good dance, probably a bit boring, but it was a group of 4th to 8th graders composition. I think we did good. The performance went well, no mess-ups as far as I could tell.

And then hip hop. Now I'm not much of a fan of hip hop, and I almost hated the classes. But I had a lot of fun. I mean it's mostly choreography, but there is no worrying, "I hope I don't fall during this pirouette." It's mostly just arm movements and bouncing up and down. That doesn't mean I necessarily like hip ho, but the performance was a lot of fun. At the end we're supposed to do whatever we want, but we all ended up doing the same thing. It was kind of stupid, but it was really fun. We were all just laughing and basically jumping around.

I had fun. :)

I think I twisted my ankle though, because right now I can barely stand on my right foot. So I'm kind of glad in a way that I'll get a break.

Well that's it. :)_

Oh, and in my previous post, about the turns, can you see the second animation I put? Because I can't, but I'm not sure if it's just my computer.

Thanks!

Turns

So I'm sure pretty much everyone knows that in ballet, you kind of have to turn. Such as pirouettes, piques, and fouettes.

Like this:

~Pirouettes~


~Fouettes~


And since I can't find a pique turn animation, you'll just have to search it yourself.

So today, when one of my teachers was teaching, I couldn't even do a single pirouette. It's been like that for a few days in her class actually. Ever since one incident with my contacts that didn't let me spot my eyes in the mirror. For those who know turns in any way, you know that you cannot turn without spotting. I'll write about that incident another time.

So I couldn't do pirouette at all. Then my teacher gave us a combination where we do two pique turns, and then two fouettes. Now, piques are pretty easy for me. And they weren't even supposed to be doubles. But I'm not so great at fouettes. I CAN do them, just not well, and er, only three bad ones at the very very most.

During the entire combination, which we did three times on each side, I managed to do the pique turns, and then I didn't even manage to pull in my leg for the fouette turns! I think I only brought the leg around once, out of six times, but I couldn't even get myself to turn.

So now I'm not happy.









Although I still am.






Because no mattr how it goes, ballet always makes me SOSOSOSOSOSOSO happy and even more SOSOSOSOSOSOSOSOSOSOSOSOSOSOSOSO hyper. :D


By the way, if you want to search the pique turns, call it pique turns, and not pique. Pique is oly part of the step I'm talking about.