Billings bound :)

Hello all!! So today was Thanksgiving and I'm happy to say that I did eat a lot and it's a good thing that no one had to lift me today, I might have broken some dudes back...not good! So tomorrow begins 'the most wonderful time of the year' and Nutcracker season. San Diego Ballet tours their Nutcracker to a few places but this year we're just going to Billings, MT and from what google tells me it'll be snowing on Sunday :D Yippee!!!!! So tomorrow I get to spend the day in 2 airports and 2 planes, not to thrilled about that but I think/hope I'll live. Our flight leaves at 8:30am tomorrow and then we have rehearsal at the Alberta Blair Theater in Billings until 10pm. We have 2 shows in Billings, one Saturday night and one Sunday afternoon and then we come home on Monday. A pretty packed weekend but it'll all be worth it. Touring is always a lot of fun, especially if it's with a lot of friends that you enjoy being around. I get a long with everybody pretty well but I get a long great with the guys so I'll be hanging with them probably the majority of the time. I'll try and keep y'all posted about the tour but I'll be busy while I'm there so I'll do my best :)

My parts in Nutcracker include:
Mother
Gun rat ;)
Snowflake
Arabian
Flower

Ballerina's Mask

We spend so much time trying to be someone or something we're not that we sometimes forget who we really are. With practice we can be whoever we want to be...someone nice, someone mean, a killer, a jealous lover, a princess, a prince, a fairy, a gypsy, a witch, a sorcerer...the possibilities are endless!! We change our appearance to make it more believable, you can see it in our eyes and in our body language. The best compliment any actor/dancer can get is "I believed you on stage, you were really feeling that."If I can make someone say that, I've succeeded...that's truly dancing!!

Part of our everyday mask

Dramatic mask

Day 3...

So season started on Tuesday and my body is kindly reminding me why ballet is so unnatural for you...everything hurts!!! From soreness to bruises...I have both. The plan was to work on Alice for the first week before the show and Mambo & More the second week before the show, we're almost done with Alice so we can get onto the fun stuff next week :) We had a film crew at the studio today taped footage of our rehearsals. Apparently there's a new TV channel that's opening soon and it's about San Diego, so they wanted to film the local businesses (how you can pick local businesses out of San Diego is beyond me) in SD. On Sunday we have an official meet & greet with the patrons of the ballet at an art gallery in the NTC Promanade where we dance, so they can meet us and all that jazz. The picture below is of our meet & greet last Saturday at the bistro, a very casual fun time...it was nice :) Well I'm hitting the spa tonight so I can walk in the morning...see y'all soon!! :)

Some of the company :)

New Beginning

I'm sooo sorry that I haven't written here in forever, I've just forgotten about it...oops! So company season starts this Tuesday and I'm so stoked!! We have a lot of new girls this year and the same number of boys...so the boys are out numbered about 4 to 1. We have our photo shoot tomorrow for the San Diego Ballet website and then a physical to make sure we're all in dancing shape and not going to fall apart. Our first show is October 13 & 14, so we have 2 weeks to get back in shape and learn a new ballet...this should be fun, but it's our job and I wouldn't trade it for anything! The girl who's been in the  company the longest threw a meet & greet for the dancers so we could get to know each other before we started spending every waking moment in each others company, which was a good idea. Last year I was the only trainee, now there's like 6. And last year I was the only one under 21, now there's like 4 or 5 people under 21...so that's nice because we'll do more social events at places that can accommodate minors and not just legal drinkers. I really hope this season will be a good one, we have a lot lined up to perform so if anyone is interested just keep an eye on sandiegoballet.org for tickets and events :) Happy season!!http://www.sandiegoballet.org/

5 minutes of fame

So when Svetlana was telling everyone their parts there still wasn't anyone to play the evil queen in the show Once Upon a Tutu that I'm doing in September. Since I had a blast in Snow White being a vulture back in 2008 I volunteered to be the evil queen...playing evil is sooooo much fun, but there's a twist to it. Instead of it being the evil queen from Snow White that goes into the cauldron and comes out ugly, it's Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty that goes in and comes out beautiful but more evil. So I'm Maleficent before she goes into the cauldron and an incredible jazz teacher is 'me' when she comes out. I finally get to be evil on stage and Svetlana says that the part is perfect for me. I plan to go all out with this part, including the make up ;) So Maleficent before the cauldron will be red hair and black and green makeup while after she comes out, she has black short hair and black and purple makeup so there's a distinct difference in the transformation. So I get to have fun with eye makeup!! Here's what's it'll look like ;)

Country Ballerina ;)

Did a small ballet/country photo shoot with Mommy today...thanks Mommy!!!!!!! :) Here are some of the pictures :)

Not ready...obviously!

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We had fun!!!!!!!! :) Thanks Mommy ;)

Gunpowder & Satin

The other day Daddy and I were shooting out in front of the garage towards the big dirt hill in our front yard. We were hitting the usual targets of water bottles and aluminum cans and I must say I was pretty proud of myself. I shot the .22 pump action most of the time and was able to chase a can across the hill and hit it with pretty much all 20 bullets. Then I practiced with the pistol and had a fabulous idea. What would my pointe shoes do if they were shot? So I emptied the pistol into the hill and went and got a pair of old, dead shoes and put them on the hill. I loaded up the pump .22 and unloaded it on them. It was soooooo much fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I felt that it was a form of therapy being able to take out my anger in that way on my shoes, might as well cause them some pain since they cause me pain everyday of my life!! My mother was horrified that I would do that to my shoes but now they've taken up permanent residence on my shelf ;)

We had fun, if you couldn't tell ;)

My shoe, full of holes :) I also, unintentionally, shot the ribbons a couple times