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!