Point your toes... PLEASE!

Have you ever heard the phrase, practice makes perfect? Do you get annoyed when someone constantly corrects you for your mistakes? Lately my dance studio has been struggling with some issues, as in not PRACTICING!!! Falling out of pirouette turns, not pointing their toes, forgetting the dances, stopping in the middle of the dance to fix their hair, the list goes on and on! Recently everyone has been let’s just say not working as hard as they should be!

Two weeks ago, we had our first competition of the year and we got exactly five weeks from today until our next competition. Everyone has been slacking off, not giving it their all every time they step into the classroom. At the competition, all of the dances scored really well. Every dance got high golds or platinums! (The highest you could score was platinum then high gold, gold, silver, the lowest a bronze) So our studio did really great! Now with one competition over with and (how many more to go?) all the dancers including some parents are becoming very arrogant (cocky) which is hurting the team. The corrections the judges made we need to take into consideration and fix them. So when the next competition comes we can score all platinums and take home special awards, etc.

Being a teacher, you want to watch your dancers you have taught, to be successful on the stage. It is SO frustrating when you put so much time and effort into the dances you choreographed and all they give you back is…nothing! My sis and I have been teaching dance for a couple of years now, we know by now all the little “tricks” kids will try to pull on you. It just shows pure laziness. We know the ones who practice and who don’t. If you want to succeed at something, whether it may be dance, football, school, etc. you have to go for it and not give up! Practice may not make perfect, nobody is perfect, but practicing can get you pretty far and only make you STRONGER in doing what you love! (That is usually one of the speeches; we use to try to encourage our dancers to give it their all and to practice!)

It may seem a little "crazy" now; hopefully everyone will just get back with it! My dance teacher just told the whole studio she is pregnant and she is in the stage that everything makes her irritated, so I don’t know if that is a major factor! All I know is if I had a penny for every time I said to the dancers, “point your toes” I would be extremely rich!!!

Broadway Bound

Have you ever seen a Broadway show before? Well, not to brag but I have seen so many shows I lost count! You might be thinking, “ Who cares!” Maybe you don’t like to sit through the shows and watch performers take the stage. Personally I love them, my sister and I always go see live shows when they come to town or we take a small vacation to New York! I have been following a blog about dance and one of the post she wrote, inspired me to talk about Broadway shows. She had been talking about all the shows she has seen, so I decided to switch it up a little and instead of constantly talking about my competitions and just dance, I will talk about musicals and how fun they are to me! Maybe you love to watch the shows and you can't help but to be singing along in your head, toe-tapping to the music, dancing in your seat, or maybe your like my dad, the only thing that can keep you awake is the loud music blasting in the speaker or having to keep nudging you with my elbow to get you stop snoring!!

I have always loved going to see Broadway shows ever since I was little! I remember my first show I saw was, Cats. I know to most people, performers dressed as cats, crawling, jumping, acting as cats would do in every day life might seem silly, but really it was a well based story line! It wasn’t just about cats dancing and licking their paws for two and a half hours long on stage! The dancing was amazing! It was a great show, I don’t remember the exact year I first saw the show (I was very young!) but I saw it again a couple years ago with my sister and cousin.

I absolutely love the musical Hairspray and Movin’ Out! When Hairspray first made it’s debut in 2002, my sis and I got to see it in New York! As you might know the movie of Hairspray was released in 2007. (The stage version is better than the movie!!!) These two shows I think I could go see everyday and not be bored watching them. Being a dancer, I love to watch the famous dance scenes. I also enjoy just pretty much all of it!

I have been in a few musicals before, they are so much fun, just like dancing in front of an audience at one of my dance competitions, instead of just dancing, you get to sing and act as well. Plus, you get to dance to a live orchestra or band. Instead of music burned onto a CD. I attended a performing arts program during high school, so I got to learn all about the performing arts! So I got the opportunity to take some good parts in the musicals! I love this scene it is fun, for me! I don’t know what my future is in store for me, as in I still haven’t picked a major, I could go into all of the performing arts, but then again I still love my dancing, and I can not decide if I want to do just that! Although dancing is my life!! I still would be doing it just in a little different way!

5 Reasons

(My cousin Sarah and I, last weekend at competiton! We are in our Hip-Hop costumes! )

You know you're a Dancer when...

1. ...every handrail you see turns into a ballet barre. Can't help but when you see one it is the only thing that comes to your mind and you can't help but to bust out a couple of ballet moves.

2. ...everytime you hear Nutcracker music playing, you start to get butterflies in your tummy. At the mall at Christmas time, walking by stores, gift shopping for family and friends, enjoying the holiday decorations. Then you hear Nutcracker music and you start to get excited and can not wait for the annual performance. Whether your performing in it or going to see the show for the (how many times, I lost track!)

3. ...you can't resist doing grande jetes down an empty hallway or grocery isle. My sister and I are known for doing this!! When we were little we would go with our mom to the grocery store all the time and if no one was around... We would bust out all kinds of dance moves, Leaps, turns, tumbling. This would be the only reason we would go the store! Eventually, we got caught my some customers and completely almost took them out! Ever since then, we are not allowed to go with my mom to the store! She would get so embarrassed.

4. ...you DVR and re-watch episodes of "So You Think You can Dance," "Dancing with the Stars," "America's Best Dance Crew." Long nights after school, at the dance studio, you miss these incredible shows! At my studio we always talk about these shows during classes. We always discuss who is gonna stay, who is going home. Who do we want to win, or did you see so and so miss up? It becomes our life! If someone did something great and you want to see it again, the rewind button becomes your best friend! These shows are great inspirations for young dancers!

5. ...You stand in first position while waiting in a long line. You don't even realize you do it, until someone says something to you, or just stares at you strangely.

A Dance Mistake

Dancing has always been something I enjoy doing. A couple of years ago at one of my dance competitions, in front of hundreds of people sitting in the auditorium, an unusual mistake took place that left a friend and I in complete embarrassment. The aftermath turned out worse than expected: I was injured.

It was the day my dance studio has been waiting for, the dance competition was finally here and we were going to show everyone how hard work pays off. That day I would have been performing in ten dance numbers for the competition, all different styles of dance: small group numbers, large group numbers, duets, and a solo.

We were waiting backstage for our large group production tap number, with our costumes on, hair pulled back with so many bobby pins, hair that felt like plaster from the hairspray, our make-up caked on, everyone looking “perfect” and alike and ready to get this dance over with. The whole team was feeling “butterflies” in their stomachs, pressure to do good, so we can win top awards.

As the announcer called our number, my teammates and I stepped onto the stage to take our spots. The music started blaring in the speakers, and we took off tapping away to the music. Everything was going great until…while doing this really hard turn sequence my best friend and I collided and tripped over each other, falling flat on our face, right in front of the judges. My friend stood up right away, I just sat on the stage in pain, holding my ankle. After a few seconds, I looked up out at the crowd and I quickly realized the dance was still going on, so I stood up as quickly as I could and joined in with the rest of the group. We were in the front row, smack dab in the middle. The audience you could tell had mixed emotions. I remember at first they were laughing at us, but then after when some girls in our group stopped to see if we were ok, they quickly responded differently. We stood up right after that incident and tried to join back in quickly as possible to finish the dance. By the end of the dance, I was in tears because I ended up spraining my right ankle.

As we took our bows and left the stage, I looked over at my friend. She was crying too, but not because she was hurt, but on account of embarrassment. The whole way back to the dressing room, we cried. I was in so much pain, my dance teacher called for the paramedics to come and check out my ankle. I was taken to the emergency room for x-rays of my ankle. It ended up that when we collided, somehow I twisted my right ankle, and fell on it wrong. We tripped over each other’s shoes. It also does not help that I was wearing high heels. I was told I could not dance the rest of the day. I was devastated. I still had dances left to perform and I did not want to give up.

Hours after being in the ER, my parents came and took me back to the competition to watch and cheer on the rest of the team. While I sat back in the seats and watched my dances go on without me, it felt awkward. Before the dances would go on my dance teachers would quickly try to change the formations and try to drill it in the dancers’ heads. When they got on stage, it was a disaster! The dancers’ adrenalines were kicking in; you could see them forget the dance and the new formations. Some dancers’ would completely stop dancing, look around at others then try to join back in. The studio did not do so well at that competition.

I was on crutches for about two weeks, and was not allowed to dance for a month. It was hard, to sit back and watch my friends dance, and I could not be with them. Even at my dance studio, I would have to watch all the classes take place and take notes.

I could not stand it! My feelings were indescribable. I felt so weird to me to not be dancing. I wanted to just cry. It also did not help that my sister was making fun of me! She would constantly remind me that I was on crutches, calling me names and tearing me apart. She would say before leaving to go on stage, “ come on Heather let’s get ready to go back stage, oh yeah, you can’t dance!” I am used to dancing every night for hours and all I could do is sit.

It was just embarrassing at the time; imagine yourself falling in front of an audience. Looking back at it all now, I think it is funny! Still this day my friend and I laugh at this. We watch the tape, replaying the same spot over and over, laughing. It was not my fault at all; she is the one that collided into me. At least we continue to dance and we never gave up. Thankfully neither of us was seriously injured. Maybe a couple of bruises and a sprained ankle, but we stuck through and helped each other through the rough times. Even though that competition was one of the biggest competitions of the year, everything in the end worked out!

Dance your heart out!

Tomorrow is the first dance competition of the year! It is finally here! I am so excited to perform and watch my studio dance on stage! I cannot wait to watch the younger classes that I helped teach and seeing how well they will do! Hopefully they will remember everything they learned, corrections given to them, smile BIG, and most importantly get up there and have fun!! The competition this weekend is really small, compared to others we will be attended in the year! Being so early in the year, not to many studios take their dances out to compete. The competition is called Stage One productions.

While waiting backstage it seems like it takes forever! Watching the performers on stage and knowing soon you will have your turn on the stage, in front of the judges, makes you have “butterflies” in your stomach. Pressure is on high, because of course you want to do your best! No mistakes! My studio has this tradition that before we go backstage, we get into a circle, hold hands, and send good luck all around to one another. (By one at a time squeezing our hands) Then my dance teachers give us a last minute pep talk, reminding us everything we already know! (I think they get more nervous then us!!) This sounds silly, but it gets us all pumped up and ready for the dance. Did I mention we do this for all the dances?

One of the dances performing for tomorrow is the “mini’s” ages 5-7; which I help teach, they are doing a jazz routine to the song, “My Boyfriend’s Back.” The group consists of 8 girls and 1 boy. The girls start out on the stage in their adorable purple poofy dresses, then the little boy; Jake comes on the stage with one of those little motorcycles. He is wearing blue jeans and a leather black jacket. I cannot wait to see this dance. It is way to cute!! They do such a great job in class; hopefully they will not get to nervous!