Last Day

Well, today is the last day that I will be at Juilliard.  This morning, we took ballet class and had rehearsal for the performances.  Our first performance at 2 pm went very well.  We have another one at 5:30 pm.  My parents are coming!  I have learned so much in such a short amount of time!  All of the teachers have been awesome, and I am sad to leave.  I am definitely glad to be going home though!  It's been the experience of a life time!  Tonight, there is a party for all of the dancers in the lounge!  That should be fun.  Tomorrow, we are leaving Juilliard around 7 am.  After we leave, we are visiting SUNY Purchase College.  It's about 30 to 40 minutes from the city.  Then, we are going HOME!  I should be home late tomorrow night!  This has been one of the best three weeks ever!  I am so glad that I chose to come here! 

Only 2 Days Left! wow

Today was great!  I had ballet, partnering, ballroom, and modern.  All of the classes were great.  After rehearsal tonight, we went to an outside performance.  It was raining, so we had to use our umbrellas!  It was an awesome show.  Tomorrow we have a run-through of our show.  In the show, we are doing some ballroom, our choreography for music class, and the piece done by the choreographer.  It will be a great show!  My parents are coming in tomorrow night!  I can't wait to see them!  Well, I better get to sleep!  Thanks for reading!

Last Monday..

Hello everyone!  The wifi connection has been down again, so sorry for the delay of my posts.  Yesterday (Sunday) was so much fun!  We started out the day by going to Times Square and getting Broadway tickets at a discounted price from the TKTS line.  We had to wait in line for a while, but it was so worth it!  We went to the 3:00 showing of Mary Poppins!  It was amazing!  I loved every second of it.  The show was performed at the New Amsterdam Theatre.  It was beautiful!  The whole show itself was amazing!  I've never seen anything like it!  We took the subway many times yesterday!  I actually don't like the subway.  It's way too crowded for my comfort.  On Saturday, we went to a flea market instead of going to the Highline.  The flea market was fun.  I bought souvenirs for both of my awesome parents.  Today, I had ballet, partnering, modern, and music class.  In music class, we have divided up into groups of five or more, and we have to put choreography to a long set of counts that the teacher provided for us.  The counts are tricky, so choreographing something is difficult.  In our choreography, me and another guy are going to use our tap shoes for part of our dance.  It's going to be awesome!  In rehearsal today, we didn't do too much because our 16 minute piece is finished.  I can't believe our piece is that long!  That's crazy!  I love it though!  I've never done anything like it.  The piece is very verbal, meaning that we actually talk and yell and even flirt in the piece!  Yes, we have to flirt!  Not to anyone in particular.  I just choose to stare at the wall.  I'm so excited that I'm in the piece that I am in because it is so unique.  Like I said, I haven't done anything like it before, so it's cool to do something different.  We aren't allowed to video tape the performance, so only my parents will see the finished piece.  I am exhausted, but excited for the end of the week!  My parents are coming in Thursday night to take me out for ice cream after rehearsal.  Then, we leave Friday night, or Saturday morning--I haven't decided yet.  Today was a great day!  Keep on reading! 

Only one week left!

Hello everyone!  So sorry that I haven't posted lately!  The wifi has been off in my dorm room and the only place I can write this is outside or in the cafeteria.  I have been so busy with classes and rehearsals!  I am having so much fun though!  I am learning so much!  It's crazy!  Our piece is coming together!  Rehearsals have been going great!  We have to finish the ending and then we are pretty much done!  We already have twelve minutes of choreography done and it's not even finished yet!  It's going to be a great piece!  I wish you all could see it!  Tomorrow (Saturday) after a two hour modern class and rehearsal, we are going to the Highline.  I don't really know much about it, but that it used to be a train track???  I'm anxious to see it because people say it's really cool.  Tomorrow night, we are going to see a performance.  I don't really know too much about the group, but people say that they are amazing.  I wish I could remember the name.  I'll tell you all more about it once I've seen it.  Sunday, we are going to see a Broadway show!  I know I told you all that we were going to see a show on Wednesday, but that got changed to Sunday.  Sunday morning, we are going to the TKTS line to buy the tickets at a discounted price.  We won't know what we are going to see until that day because tickets are limited.  All I want to see is a show on Broadway!  That's all I care about!  In between buying tickets and seeing the show, we are going to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to see the Alexander Queen exhibit.  I don't know much about the exhibit, but once again, people say it's really cool.  I will be so busy this weekend!  I better get some rest!  Talk to you all soon!

Day 8

Week 2 has officially begun!  It started off well!  This morning we had pointe and modern.  In our pointe class, we start off in center with no shoes on.  We work on our posture and holding in our core.  I feel that it really works for me.  After the center work, we do some barre work in flat shoes.  Then, we do pointe work.  I like her pointe work because we actually jump in our pointe shoes.  Jumping in pointe shoes is really hard, so I enjoy the extra practice.  The pointe teacher is really nice.  She's very personal too, which is a good thing.  In modern, we added on to some of the center work.  Last week, we kind of touched over the basics of the Lamone modern technique, so this week I think the work is going to get more advanced.  I am so excited for that!  I've learned so much about modern just in this one week!  I love the teacher too!  She's short which is awesome too!  This afternoon, we had music class and a workshop.  In music, we were given a beat (1,2,3,4,5,6,1,2,3,4,5,1,2,3,4,...) and we had to make choreography to it.  We were in groups and at the end of the class, we had to perform it.  Our group was the best!  It was awesome!  Everyone liked ours!  It was a lot of fun!  I'm learning a lot about keeping an even tempo and just about music in general.  I think it's a great class for dancers to take because dancers must have a good ear for music.  In the workshop (after music class), we began learning the Alexander technique.  The Alexander technique is basically a technique that makes sure that your neck and head are placed correctly on the spine.  The technique was actually developed by an actor (Alexander) in the 1800s who kept losing his voice, and didn't know why.  He spent 9 years developing this techinque that softened his neck muscles and other muscles, so that he wouldn't keep losing his voice.  Each of us individually stood up like we normally do, and the teacher fixed our positions.  It was crazy to see how some people's posture changed when she told them to fix one thing.  I felt that the class was very worth-while.  Tonight in rehearsal, we have finally started piecing some things together.  The choreography is very neat, but it's no where near being finished.  We have a lot of choreography, but it just needs to be put into the piece.  I think it will turn out well.  I'm excited to do the finished product!  This Wednesday, we get out of rehearsal early because we are going to see a Broadway show!!!  I'm so excited!  I've wanted to go so badly!  We don't know what we're seeing yet because the RA's are getting the tickets at a discounted price, so we won't know what we'll be able to see until the day of the show.  I am just so excited that we are going.  I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to see a show!  I am just oozing with excitement!  I can't wait until Wednesday!!  Well, I am going to read until I fall asleep!  I'll keep you all updated!  Hope you're enjoying reading about my day!   

Day 7...a day off!

Wow!  Today was fun!  This was our first day off!  I didn't realize how tired I was!  Today, we took the subway and went shopping!  About 30 of us went on the subway so it was very crowded!  I had no idea where I was going so good thing I had a group to follow!  I've never been on the subway before so that was an awesome experience!  It was very fast!  We went shopping at small outside stores and thrift stores.  I actually didn't buy anything.  I also had some pizza for only $1!  It was good!  New York is definitely famous for their pizza!  After a long day out, some of us went to Starbucks for a cool down.  We sat by the fountain at Lincoln Center.  It was a hot day so the mist from the fountain felt nice!  I can't believe that we are starting on the second week already!  In some ways it feels like I've been here forever, but in other ways it feels like I haven't.  I got to skype with my awesome family tonight which was nice!  I miss them!  Can't wait to see what the next two weeks here brings me!

Day 6...one week done!

What a fun day!  We started out the day with a ballet master class with the Juilliard Dance Director, Lawrence Rhodes.  It was a great class!  All 44 dancers were in there so it was a little crowded.  Other than that, it was great!  I really liked his style!  After class, we had rehearsal.  Rehearsal has been going well this week.  We have a lot of material in our heads, so it's a little overwhelming.  The piece is coming along really well.  After rehearsal, we had some free time!  Some of us went shopping and then saw a free dance performance in Central Park.  The Keigwin company performed and it was amazing!  I loved all of the pieces!  It was very contemporary!  Today was a really hot day out so we were all sweating when we were watching them perform.  It was awesome to sit outside at night and watch a performance.  I have never had that experience before.  Tomorrow we are going to Governor's Island where you can see the Statue of Liberty really well.  I'm really excited!  One week down and two more to go!  Already a third of the way done!  WOW!  Thanks for reading!  Hope that you're enjoying it!