*sigh*

Ok, I've been really bad about posting and I'm so sorry. All the shows finished without a hitch. YEAH!!!!! The whole cast of Nutcracker 2010 made a huge 10ft poster for the teachers that we had all signed and we presented it to them right after the curtain fell on the last show. Jimmy kept telling us that we were part of the FIRST annual Nutcracker at TDC. Even though I've done a lot of Nutcrackers it felt cool to be apart of the first one for them. After the last show, Mommy and I went out to Denny's with a great friend of mine and her mom for desert. When we got there and started to look at the menu, real food started to look really appealing. So I got breakfast instead of ice cream. After we got home and kind of unpacked the car, I ended up crawling in bed at 11:52pm. The next day, so Thursday, we had technique class, which didn't happen. Jose, Dana, and all us students had a fun day and sat around eating cookies and watching Don Quixote for 2 and a half hours. So that's the end of that chapter for me. Here's a recap of the last couple months!!

Setting waltz of the flowers

Us girls hanging out waiting for rehearsal to start

Yes this did happen a lot!

Most of the time, this loverly Dr. kept me going

Fooling around during a break

Snow Queen, me, with my flakes

Group picture with the 10ft poster

Sugar Plum Fairy and Dew Drop Fairy.
One of my many wonderful teachers to learn from.

Fly the curtain!!

Show #1..CHECK!!

I'm so sorry, it has been forever since I last posted here. Let's see, the last I posted was Jimmy had his radar on me and blah blah blah....Oh yeah! Ok so dress rehearsal went relatively smoothly, but it was long. All the dancers had to be there at 3:15pm and we finally got done at about 10:30pm. The worst part about it was Jimmy band us from eating in the theater and in our costumes...so we didn't get a bite of food from start to end of dress! That was one big issue, one of the others was the snow. One of my parts is snow queen so during the whole snow waltz Jimmy wanted snow falling on the front of the stage. And when I say snow I'm talking little pieces of floating plastic that cause death if you step on it. So I spent the whole 1st half of dress and the 1st show trying to avoid this deathly snow. The show itself went pretty well, much better then the rest of us thought it was going to go. Here are some pics of dress rehearsal!

Snow Queen, lovingly made by Mommy

This was before dress started. Mommy wanted a good picture of me in both my costumes. Now I just need one in Dew Drop.

He's on to me...

Well today was the first day Jimmy has really gotten on my case about my dancing. I was doing dew drop and I could hear him telling Jose. "She needs to make it bigger, elongate it, stand out from the core." Jose gestures to me. "Yell at her bro." Jimmy promptly turns to me and yells, "You need to make it bigger! You're blending into the core and you're not standing out. You need to earn the spotlight and keep it." Got it Jimmy, workin' on it!!

Ay ay ay....Can I die yet?

I know I keep saying that this was/is a long day and what not, but today was officially a long day! I went to the florist to help out Brooke with an order that she got for 50 center pieces and originally I told her I had to leave by 3:30pm. Then Kathi from TDC emailed everybody and warned us that there was going to be a parade going down Old Town and Front St, the main street, was going to be closed from 4pm to 10pm. Well the way I get to the studio I have to drive part of Front St and rehearsal started at 5:30pm, so I didn't know if the part that I drive was going to be closed as well or not. So I told Brooke that I had to be out of the shop by 2pm so I could rush home, hop in the shower, inhale some food and then get up to the studio 1.5hrs early so I wouldn't get blocked out. Jimmy wouldn't be very happy with me if that happened. So, that's what I did. I came home, showered, inhaled and Ricky Racered, some of you will know what that means, up to the studio to find that they were closing the road right past the intersection where I turn. In short, I didn't need to rush at all. So having PLENTY of time, I took Dani along and we went and got a starbucks and then came back to sew up her pointes shoes. Then the rehearsal commenced, on time and I filled in for the nutcracker doll, which was kinda fun cause I got to play a guy part. After rehearsal was all through with, I was going to leave but I looked out the window at the street and the traffic was backed up to Tahiti. So I hung out with some of the other dancers for a few at the studio waiting for the traffic to subside. It finally did not long after that so I left and got home at about 10pm. Hope to get a good night sleep tonight cause Jimmy wants a full costume, full hair, full makeup runthrough tomorrow, which seems really rather pointless to me but...whatever! Hope tomorrow goes smoothly.

Dew Drop tutu!!

Dew Drop

It's still in 2 pieces but at least it can go on me.

This is my Snow Queen bodice. The tutu part is still under construction.

These are a few pics of the wonderful tutu Mommy is making for me!! Luv ya Mommy!!!

Prequel to Hell Week

Dani and I tried to catch a few and Drosselmeyer draped his cape
over us as a blanket.

4hrs into an 8hr rehearsal.

Me and Drosselmeyer

Ok, we have 2 weeks to pull Cracker of the Nut together and it's looking pretty promising. Today was a LONG day, I had rehearsal up in Temecula from 12 until 6pm but I didn't end up leaving until 7ish. After church I ran home, dropped Mommy off at home, grabbed my dance stuff, raced back out the door and drove rather speedily, not exceeding the limit of course, up to rehearsal. Stopping at Wendy's for a very healthy lunch I got to the studio a little later then what I wanted but they hadn't even gotten past the first scene yet. So I ate my lunch, changed into my dance attire and...waited. Mind you, the rehearsal started at 11, I wasn't needed until 12ish, and we finally got to my first part in snow, the end of act 1, at 3pm. I texted my mommy at about then and said 'we just started on snow, which is the end of act 1, so I won't be home on time'. So we ran through snow 4-5 times and then had a 10min break and then we started act 2. All I had to do was finale and of course they did that last. I took up my Dew Drop Fairy costume for Dana to see so that took a little extra time. So I was finally released at 7ish and am now sitting in front of the fire with a very tired body. Even though I didn't dance a lot, it wears on you just sitting down and....waiting!!

The Beginning of the End

Today was our first run through of the whole show, act 1 and act 2 put together. It was interesting! I stayed with a friend up in Temecula on Friday night after class so that I didn't have to get up quite as early the next morning and so it would save me some gas. Rehearsal started at 10am and it started at 10am on the dot. The parts I play are Snow Queen and Dew Drop Fairy who appear in snow waltz and flower waltz. Snow comes at the very end of act 1 and flowers comes at the very end of act 2, so I'm doing a lot of sitting. The first act, which consists of party scene, tree scene, battle scene and snow usually takes the longest because this act has the most amount of people in it. Parents, 3year-old munchkins, military soldiers, stinky rats, snow flakes, yeah we have quite a menagerie!! After about an hour and a half we finally got around to doing snow and stopped several times to fix things. My snow corps, affectionally known as flakes, were kinda running around willy-nilly and Jimmy was having none of that. He stopped them and cleaned them up and we did it again...and again....and again. Thankfully we all got a lunch break at 12 for 45mins, so Danielle and I headed to Starbucks and Wendy's for a very healthy dancer lunch. We brought Dana, one of my teachers, back a coffee and she was much happier. Act 2 started on time and went much smoother than the first act. In this act we only have spanish chocolate, arabian coffee, chinese tea, russian trepak and flowers running around the stage, so there's a lot less to worry about. Jose and Jimmy ran each number a few times and then we got to flowers, aka flower waltz. My flower corps are older girls so they knew a little better on where to run so it didn't look quite so chaotic. We ended pretty much on time at 2:30pm and all-in-all it ran pretty smoothly for it being the first run through on a performance they know nothing about. Next Sunday is going to be another long day, but that's ok, it's all part of the job!

Heat, ice, heat, ice, HEAT!!!!!!!

Foot problems I think are the worst for dancers to have. And I wouldn't really say mine is a problem, it's just a overworked, no rest, overzealous, not giving it a break issue. I've never had the greatest point in the world and it always frustrated, still does, me that I couldn't get my foot to point more. Then one of my teachers told me I was not doing it correctly. He told me to point with my achilles tendon and took me FOREVER to learn how to engage it. I'l bet while you're reading this if you point your foot and touch your achilles, it's soft or not engaged. Now try and point it and tighten your tendon at the same time. Yeah it takes a while. So anyway, I've been trying to do that for about a year and I finally got it, only now I've overworked it somehow. Now I just have to wait until it gets better and heat and ice it. That's what I did last night. I took one of mom's stock pots, filled it with hot water, then took one of her big plastic bowls and filled it with ice and cold water. Jose told me 10mins heat, 10mins ice, 10mins heat, 10mins ice and then end with heat. OMGOSH!!!!! That was the most painful thing I've ever done to my feet, or foot. It was a good thing Mom was in bed and couldn't hear me out by the fireplace, there was a little bit of muttering. But this morning it feels better, so I must have gotten some of the junk out of my ankle. Now just to rest it and let it heal. For those of you who know my personality, that's going to be a challenge.

...GO!!!!

"And the gun fired and the runners sprinted forward to begin the Marathon." (No that is not a quote, I just made it up) That's how yesterday felt, the beginning of a long month ahead. First all day rehearsal yesterday and it was a long day. Rehearsal started at 10am but I went up a little earlier to warm up, pop everything and generally wake up. We went until 3pm and then a couple girls and myself went to the mall to shop and eat for about 1.5hr. We came back and then had class from 5:30pm to 8:15pm, but I stayed a little longer so as to get pics of that freaky lift I already told you about. So I left the studio in Temecula at about 8:50pm and got home and crashed into bed at 10:15ish. Then I had rehearsal again this morning at 9am, so very crankily I got up at 6:30am and went up for rehearsal until 10:30. I often wonder why we dancers obviously love getting minimal sleep and waking up cranky. I was not awake this morning when I got to the studio so the first run through of flower waltz we did I had my left hand in the pocket of my pullover sweatshirt and my coffee in my right hand, marking everything cause that's what a run through is. Jose kept laughing at me and the other girls though it was rather funny too. Enough with the complaints, here are the pics of that lift I promised. Enjoy!!

Ready, set...

Today was my first rehearsal of flower waltz with all the girls. 13 people in all and it can get rather confusing with bodies moving around with no apparent destination in mind. We started at about 8:45am, which meant I got up at about 6 this morning, got ready and left the house at 7:30ish. We started to run it and didn't make it past the first 30 seconds for about 45min. Jose wasn't very happy with how it looked or the togetherness of the girls so he kept stopping and saying "Looks sloppy, go back." After we ran it ALL the way through Jose went and got Jimmy, the director of TDC, and he came in and watched it. Jimmy runs a lot of the competition rehearsals so he's used to speaking his mind and having the girls work for him, so he wasn't that pleased with the scatteredness(I just made up a word!) of the piece. After we ran it through for him, he leaned forward in his chair and said, point blank, "That looked like crap." We all perked up and listened after that I can tell you. He said we needed breathing in our bodies, that we all looked to stiff and robotic. "Jose and Dana should be running you guys again and again and again until you fall down exhausted or you're throwing up in a bucket." That's the kind of advise you as a dance get a lot. We all told him thank you for the advise, most of it was very positive and motivating, and he turned around and said, "Don't thank me, thank Dana and Jose for taking time out of their day to work with you. If you do a crapy job, it's insulting them not me. So take the time, dig deep within yourself and find that energy that is needed for this dance. And the fact that it's 7mins shouldn't be an excuse that it looks bad. I may be hard on you guys, but it's because I care." Inspiring words. We all felt the love coming from him and we all nodded our heads in agreement. Teachers may cuss at you or even throw some stuff at you, but deep down they do it because they care, not because they're mean. They do truly care about their students.

Upside-down freaky lift!

My dance partner/teacher was trying to teach me a lift for the swan pas in which the end result is.....ok let's see if I can put it into words. He's holding my waist and lifting me right above his head, I'm upside-down so my back is against his back and my head is on his lower back, my right leg is straight out in front of me at a 90 degree angel to my body, and my left leg is bent and my toe is resting against his ribcage/sternum area. Yeah, it's complicated! We've tried it twice and last night was the first time it actually worked. The hard part is getting into the final position. To get there you(the girl) have to ignore all common sense and once he starts to lift you, you have to pitch your body backwards for all your worth. The first time he tried it with me I was scared and didn't lean back enough and I ended up on his shoulder instead of over his head. Then he had to just talk to me and get me to trust him. I already trust him, but I've never been scared at any other lift and I told him it freaked me out. He told me that was natural but we needed to go over the mechanics of it so we both didn't end up on the floor. And then is finally worked! I knew it worked when it felt uncomfortable and when I could see myself upside-down in the mirror. Yeah, 1 more stunt down, a lot more to go!!! I'll post pics as soon as we do it again so you can see what it looks like.

Dancing sick

You've probably heard the expression 'dancing drunk', well I was dancing sick the past couple days. I got sick with a head cold on Monday and that's the day that I take a double class, Vitaliy's class and then Jose's class. I got to class and of course that day of ALL days there are only 3 girls in class, so Vitaliy steps up the intensity. I could tell I was feeling out of it cause I have never had my legs shake that much or have sweat dripping off me from an easy class. After that class and went and told Jose that I was going home, unless he wanted me to pass out on the floor. He said no, so I went home. Then Tuesday I had class with Dana and I felt a little better. I told her that balancing was not going to happen and that my head was still a little on the funky side. The bad part was she did all of the porte bras(stretching forward, back, side to side...) forward, so by the time barre was done my head felt like it was going to explode. And then she had us do a very fast turn combo and I got through it on the right, but when I stopped the room was still spinning. I sat down so I didn't fall down and let the other girls go left. Then I had rehearsal yesterday, Wednesday, and I was able to all of it beside the turning. Hopefully tonight I'll be all better so I can twirl my heart out. I start rehearsing Saturdays in November so flowers should start coming together pretty quickly.

The Beastliest Pas Ever!

Right now my dance teacher/partner is teaching me the white swan pas de deux from Swan Lake. If you ever have a chance to watch that ballet, whether it's live or DVD, I suggest you do it. It is amazing and is one of the hardest ballets to perform. Why? Because there are so many emotions you go through and it is very demanding, technique wise. Odette, the white swan of the first act is actually a princess that an evil sorcerer has captured and turned into a swan. The reason this ballet is so hard, is because the girl who plays Odette has to play Odile, the black swan of the third act, as well. Odile is the sorcerer's daughter that he transformed to look like Odette to trick the prince. I'm not going to explain the whole story, you'll have to watch it and find out, if you haven't already. Odette is very vulnerable and afraid most of the time, while Odile is cruel and seductive with the prince. So you have to be able to change characters and become two different people, or swans, in the same night. I'm learning Odette's first pas de deux with the prince and it is so slow and you have to be so in control, it's grueling. And it's about 8min long and it has everything in it, from slow turns to fast, explosive jumps back to slow again. Jose and I are about dead after doing it just once. It is one of my dreams to play this part, as you can see in my bucket list, because of its extremes in character as well as technique. *fingers and toes crossed* Hopefully someday.

Cat-astrophy!!!!

So, Monday night, like 10pm, I get home from class, I'm all happy I got a good workout and I'm feeling pretty good. I pull into the garage and Mommy is standing looking up at this hole in our wall leading from the garage into the attic. The hole is for our ac ducting cause our ac unit is out in the garage and when the people installed it, we never patched the hole up. Well Mommy and I got tired of the hole so we stapled a couple of old bedsheets up there to keep the cats out of the attic. I know, totally the girl way but hey, it works! So Mom's looking up at the hole and I come over next to her. "What's up?" I ask. She looks at me. "Ashley is stuck in the attic." I sighed and rolled my eyes to the ceiling. Great! So obviously she was able to squeeze under the sheets and get in, but how the sheets are bundled up on the other side she can't get out. I go grab the ladder and climb up next to the ducting and I can hear her meowing and walking on the ducting on the other side. I can't get enough room under the stapled sheets, so I haul the ladder inside and go to the attic door which is at the end of our hallway. I set the ladder up, climb up, pop open the door and turn on the light. I call her and call her, and she doesn't come. So I climb up in the attic and walk as far as I can toward the opposite end of the house, which isn't even halfway, and call her again. About 5min later she shows her little whiskery and insolationy face. I sweet talk to her to get her to come to me and then I grab her scruff, mutter at her, and then hand her down to Mommy who's waiting at the base of the ladder. Poor thing, Mommy not the cat, gets clawed in the shoulder and Ashley gets chucked unceremoniously outside. CATS!!!

WHY!!!

This morning did not go as planned, at all! I went over to do chores for a friend and ended up running out of gas. I take that back, I didn't run out but the pickup is in the back of the tank and it didn't like how I was parked, which was nose down. I tried to start it and it sputtered and died. Great!! I called Mommy and she came over in the truck with the 5 gallon gas can and we put that in it to get me to the station. We didn't end up making church but at least I was stopped when I ran out and not driving. That's not an experience I would like to repeat, trust me!!

Zapatos!

Last Thursday I met my teacher at Discount Dance in Temecula for a pointe shoe fitting. I needed, still do, different pointe shoes. My Grishko's were starting to twist on my foot so that the shoe wasn't straight when I went up on pointe. I was also breaking the box of the shoe too quick and they wouldn't last me a month. We made good progress but needed to order some shoes to come in so I could try them. We ended up ordering 7-8 pairs to be brought to the store so I could try them and all together the total was $713(I didn't buy any of them, just thought you might want to know how much they cost!) We went back yesterday after the shoes came in and we narrowed it down to 2 different brands and we ordered one more kind. The Mirella's fit my foot well but the shank was to soft, and I liked the Suffolk Solo's. We'll see which one is top when I do one more fitting next week.

Austin...

I believe this was on the 2nd day of class. This is most of level 6, my level.

This was the studio that we took our first, and sometimes last class in. If you look in the mirrors you can see that the back wall is completely made of windows that looked out onto the street. We got some weird people walking by that stopped and looked at us.

This has a funny story. My Aunt Jerri emailed me and asked if she could send me any kind of snack that came from Trader Joe's.  I told her that I loved the peanut butter cups that come from there, so she sent me some. I got the box of food and upon opening it, I saw this. She sent me a bag of trail-mix, some dried mango slices and 2 boxes of peanut butter cups, 1 had paper the other didn't. This is the box of paperless cups that obviously got hot in the airplane and melted into one big peanut butter cup.  I didn't get to taste this one at all because I was doing Sara's hair and she just started gnawing on it. And pretty soon all the people that came into the room had a piece of it and it was gone in 5 minutes! Andrew, another friend, explored the papered cups and ended up breaking a piece off, sticking it in his mouth, sucking on it, and then pulling the paper out. I did that same thing that night while watching Pirates of the Caribbean on my computer. 

Went site seeing with a couple friends and it's amazing how music oriented Austin is. I bet there were 2 dozen of these large 6-string guitars along Congress and 6th street. I think Chris is trying to sing as he attempts to play.

Me, Chris and Clarice

Friends night out! All of us got tired of the dorm food so we went out and had a very good and expensive meal.
David, Sara, Me, Andrew and Katrina

Sara and I split an Ahi Tuna steak, so good!

Sara's flaming dessert!

My chocolate Mousse 

Cheers to friends!!! And Austin!

Romping up and down 6th Street

Sara and I being funny, we did that a lot.

Andrew was always funny.

We decided to play a game of pool after a fake birthday party at Ballet Austin, and due to time we didn't have time to change so we played like we were. Playing pool in 6in heels is not as easy as it looks! Notice how he and I are both standing in 4th position. Can you tell we're dancers?

Lilly, Me and Lauren chilling in between performances and the end of the intensive.

Andrew really chill'n, I think he thought I made a good chair, not quite sure. He and I were probably the closest, friendship wise.

Me and David

The whole level 6 in our costumes with our choreographer Miss Thompson(sitting in front in the purple dress)

A lot of the kids parents came out to see them perform, but some of us didn't get to see Mom and Dad. So we parentless children gathered in the TV lounge at the dorms and played spoons.

Most of you already know this, but I went to Austin, TX for the last 3 weeks in July. I had a blast and made some awesome friends. These are some of my favorite pictures but not all of them.

My Thighs!!!!!

Yesterday I went and worked a couple of horses for my boss and thankfully I didn't rain on me in the process. First I rode a Clydesdale, Loomis, with just a bareback pad for about an hour. Then I rode her quarter horse, Larry, complete with saddle for another hour. Riding Loomis is what killed me. Do you know how hard you have to squeeze with your knees to hold on while this 1 ton horse is trotting and cantering around? And further more, do you know how much you use your inner thighs just to walk?! I'm practically crippled and I have an intense class tonight. Advil here I come!!!

Here we go...

My first post on my new blog!! This should be a fun journey. If you follow me, hopefully you'll see into the world of ballet and my journey through it. I just started rehearsals for Temecula Dance Company's (TDC's) Nutcracker and no matter where you dance, rehearsals are always long and most of the time fun. I try and keep a comical attitude throughout the rehearsal but one must know when it's ok to be funny and when to work. It is a fine line and depending on the teacher or choreographer that line can be long or short. Rehearsal is also a bonding time for the dancers, to grow in our technique and maturity as a group and to learn off of each other. A wise teacher told me that ballet is 2% body and 98% mind, you have to be able to laugh at yourself or you won't get through. Dancers have a tendency to be overly critical of themselves and stare at the mirror for hours and look at only the negative. A good laugh in the middle of the dance when someone runs the wrong way or does the wrong step completely can break that pressure of being perfect and remind us that nothing is perfect. Ballet is always going to be a learning curve, and thank goodness we have friends to take those curves with!