Events of the Past Year (Part 1)

This may or may not be a long post.  A lot of things happened this past year so I might have to split this post into multiple parts.  I will try to stick to the main events though.

June 2013

The biggest things that happened last June were my dance recital and a three week summer dance intensive.  A few days ago I was reading something I had posted awhile back about my first dance recital.  I was chuckling to myself as I read my worries about having to change my hair at some point between the four dances I was in that year.  My past self had it pretty easy.  Last year I was in not four but fourteen dances!   Due to a smaller number of dances in our 2013 recital, the dances I was in made up about a third of the show.  So not only was I in over three times the amount of performances as two years prior but I had quick changes (four minutes tops to change into the next costume) galore thrown in, one including either changing into or out of pointe shoes and a tutu and bodice with at least twenty small hooks up the back.  We practiced getting into these costumes though and were relieved to find that we could do it within 45 seconds (the shoes took about an extra 20-30 seconds per shoe, but that was still okay and we were able to get to the side of the stage in time for our next piece).  Luckily there were few hair changes last year because those can be a pain.  Though we did learn a couple tricks that helped cut down on the time needed to switch our hair from a slicked back ballet bun to a half-up half-down style.

The day after recital, the Jr. and Sr. Company dancers departed for a three week summer intensive.  We stayed in a house near the beach and had an amazing time!  Since the company hosting the intensive was mainly a ballet company, the majority of our classes were ballet related.  In repertoire and variation classes we learned classic corps (group) and solo pieces while we worked on our technique in the ballet/pointe classes.  We did have a few other classes though.  These were jazz, modern, flamenco, stretching, and conditioning.  The instructors for all of our classes were great and I feel like I improved quite a lot within that three weeks.

July 2013

Last July, shortly after the ballet intensive, I went to Disney World with my Sr. and Jr. Company.  We had so much fun together the week we were there.  Not only did we get to go to the theme parks at Disney, but we got to participate in a couple Disney workshops.  One was a musical theater workshop (we worked on a scene from Mary Poppins), and another was a jazz workshop where we learned a few different dances that the Disney cast had performed in the parks and at various events.  We also got the opportunity to perform a few of our own pieces on the stage at Downtown Disney!