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.