Just a few more days...

I've been pretty good this week. Took class Monday, Wednesday, and ran for 30 min. on Thursday morning before teaching. Usually with time off i get use to being lazy and fall into that trap of "well i'm already out of shape why bother" mind set. But, i think i'm doing pretty good. Today i will take another class at 12. One of the guys from our company has been teaching class which has been helpful. I really do enjoy his classes and feel my body reponding positively to moving a bit again.

Another reason why i have been taking class this week is because in t-minus two day i will be going away with booba to our usual winter spot :


this:



plus this :



equals : :) <-- a happy me in South Beach Miami Florida.

We love it there. This time of year it's empty. Warm and relaxing it's exactly what i need after a long season. Plus we get a super cheap amazing deal through expedia. Seriously, if anyone wants to book a flight plus hotel trip go there! We leave Sunday and get back late Wed. evening. I got subs for my classes and i'm ready to refresh my body and mind.

Side note:

While watching HBO at my parents house this past weekend i just happened to stumble acroos a documentary called "Ghetto Ballet" i didn't get to see the whole piece, but saw most of it. It was very interesting and eye opening. I will leave the synopsis from the website since it explains it better :

Ghetto Ballet

From acclaimed filmmakers Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato, GHETTO BALLET focuses on several young dancers enrolled at Dance for All, South Africa's first ballet-training program for black students. Targeted at children living in Cape Town's poorest townships, the program gives young dancers the opportunity to train abroad at many of the world's top ballet schools, most notably in Paris, or to dance professionally in their own country. Ghetto Ballet profiles several of the program's most promising dancers, each of whom commutes to the Dance for All studio in Cape Town to train with founder Philip Boyd and his staff. The goal of these elite students is an all-important audition, when dancers will be asked to join a professional dance troupe in Cape Town or to train in Paris - with life- changing ramifications.

Check it out if you can! It's worth it.

My best to you all. Hope 2010 is treating you well so far

~Sara~

Elusive Muse.

Happy 2010! First post of the New Year.

I have been enjoying time off from the company. Not going to lie. Being lazy for about two weeks now has been very enjoyable. I was semi-productive and decided to take a master class last wednesday. It was good for me to take a class taught in a completely different style than i have been use too. I got some good corrections that i don't normally get. It's important, i think, to go out and experience as many different teachers/classes as a dancer. It refreshes the way you think of certain steps and forces you to learn a different style/technique. Each teacher has their own way of moving and putting steps together so you can't just go into robot mode. I was very sore after the 3 hour event, but i'm glad i got to do it.

On Monday i'm back to my company because, like good little ballerinas, we decided to give ourselves class so we aren't completely out of shape come mid-feb. Our director would be proud! It's only for a week and then i'm off to Miami, South Beach with booba for our winter getaway we save up for every year. I'm very excited to sit on a white beach with blue water drinking fishbowl size cocktails. Yum.

To finish up this post i would like to point out that Netflixs is awesome, once again. I have been watching ballet documentaries and it has been very enlightening for me as a performer. Suzanne Farrell: Elusive Muse , is the one i just finised. I never really knew her whole story and romance with Mr. B and how it really affected her career. I highly suggest it.

I'm currently watching :Etoiles: Dancers of the Paris Opera Ballet. Im enjoying it so far. I didn't realize how much contemporary work the company does. Anyway, if you get a chance check these both out. I will prob. be adding more later.

Class and teaching Monday!
Happy Sunday everyone <3

~Sara~

"how you dance, is who you are." -Suzanne Farrell


Just a quick post to wish everyone a happy,safe, and healthy New Year!
Lets hope 2010 is a good one!

~Sara~

Ballerina...

My awesome roommate got me a free 3month trial to netflicks so last night i spent the evening picking out and browsing through movies. I came across a documentary i remember a friend mentioning entitled "Ballerina" by director Bertrand Normand. Netflixs, being awesome as they are, had a "watch now" option so i did. It was a very interesting film that took you through the training and selection process of selecting Russian ballerinas from the Mariinski Theatre. (formerly known as the Kirov) It followed five ballerinas and their and their struggles/joys/progress. I suggest all dancers (or non!) watch it.

~Sara~

Tis the season!!!!! and the end of a season....

Happy Holidays everyone!!!

So, good news...nutcracker finished successfully, bad news, had to travel in 2feet of snow to get to the last show that was 2hrs away. The show went well considering we were missing half our company due to a huge snow storm (record breaking) the day before. I was planning on not going because my car was snowed in and the streets were awful but, since we were already missing so many dancers i took the risk. It all worked out. I did, however, get thrown into party scene as a mom along with my friend. We did a good job making up the moves since we found out 5min before we would be doing it. It was covered well as us pretending we were the "drunk" guests. All in all it was a full house and our last show of the season.

The last two weeks of shows was spend rehearsing for our spring shows. She is doing rep. that she choreographed a while ago and hasn't set on the company since it first started. I'm pretty excited to be learning something new this year. My favorite piece so far is the beatles ballet that she taught us. It's four couples and involves a lot of cool partnering. The other ballets are pretty as well. We all got videos of them to study over the break so we don't forget what we learned. We will see who actually watches them haha.

Two months off now! I'm sure i'll be able to update more. Even though it will probably involve me complaining about how out of shape i am getting. I am going to try and take a few classes here and there in the city, but i also have to watch my money. Classes can get to be so expensive!

Sorry i didn't update much during the Nutcracker season like i said i would. Between rehearsals and teaching time just slipped away from me.

I hope that you all have a happy and safe holiday!

~Sara~

where's the understudy?

So crazy times at our company today.
We had a 10:30am childrens show this morning and an hour before the opening we are scrambling to switch around parts. The sugar plum of the day woke up and had horrible back pains and was unable to do her part that evening. Now, she does have another cast for that part, but the other casts partner broke his foot two days ago. She didn't feel comfortable doing the pas with another partner without rehearsing it. Every guy partners different so i can understand this. My director decided that they would do just their variations and finale. Ok, that problem was solved. BUT, the two sugar plums also shared the parts of snow princess, chinese, and flower princess. YIKES. SO, lead marzipan had to learn chinese in an hour you, our director called in a retired dancer (of two years) to do flower princess. To sum it up, in case i lost you, it was a big fat mess. It also proves how important it is to have understudies. This is something that we seem to lack having since we are a smaller company. I guess we just have to do what we have to do to make it work!

Although we had some last min. crazy town, the show went surprisingly smooth. Arabian went MUCH better. We got all the lifts. Everyone just seemed to have a much more on show. I'm a bit surprised too because we were all up really early for this one and given a mild heartattack with the injuried. We pulled together and made it happen.

Another early one tommorow and a 7:30 in the evening. We are going to need all the energy we can get! Merde!!

~Sara~


Think happy thoughts. My Oona is <3

Arabian

So my director today in rehearsal wanted to change the end bird lift in arabian because we didn't get it in the show. Boys, being stubborn as they usually are, said that he didn't want to. She told him to show her the lift five times in a row and she will let him do it. So we did. The crazy bird lift from a split on the floor is back in. I think the only reason it didn't go up is because it was the first time on stage. Nerves will do that to you. I'm confident we will get it. We have only missed it maybe twice in rehearsal so i know it can be done.

We get to sleep in tommorow (class at one...yay) since we have a 10:30am show the following day. It's going to be a LONG week. I will be blogging at the show! Five shows this week. Yikes. HELLO stamina.

Tis the season!
~Sara~