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!

Day 5

Sorry that I haven't blogged in a while, but the wifi connection wasn't working for the past few days.  I have learned sooooooooooo much these past few days!  It's incredible.  Today I had ballet and partnering in the morning.  Ballet was great.  The teacher likes to go back to the basics which allows us to really concentrate on our placement.  In partnering, we danced to contemporary music which was a lot of fun.  We did a cool shoulder sit lift at the end which was really fun as well.  In modern, we are learning the Lamone techinique.  It's great to know different modern techniques, and I haven't had that much experience with Lamone.  Our modern teacher, Risa Steinberg, really concentrates about the connection of the body to the floor.  She also wants us to relax.  That's kind of hard for me because I am always pulled up.  I have found it difficult just to let go.  I am learning from a whole different perspective.  After modern, we had ballroom.  We did the salsa, the waltz, and the tango today.  It is so much fun!  I never thought that I would enjoy ballroom, but I actually do!  I still have to go to rehearsal today at 6:00.  The past few days in rehearsal, we had to create our own phrase of choreography.  We then had to do the phrase and actually say out loud what we were doing.  I found that very hard to do the step and say what we were doing at the same time.  I've never done that before and it was interesting to hear what others think about when they are doing a step.  Our choreography is very interesting.  It is very different from anything that I've ever done.  I love it!  Tonight, we have a "jam session" with the summer percussion students.  All of the dancers will be dancing to the music made by the percussionists.  It will be a lot of fun!  Tomorrow, all of the dancers have a ballet master class with the dance director of Juilliard!  That should be fun!  I can't believe a week is almost over!  I have learned so much in so little time!  Thanks for reading!

Day 2

Today was a great day!  I am so exhausted!!  Today, we started out with ballet and pointe.  The teacher was great!  I learned a lot from her!  She explained things from a different perspective and it really worked for me.  After that class, we had modern class with Ms. Steinberg in the Glorya Kaufman studio (that's the studio with all the windows that overlooks Broadway!!)  Modern class was great!  I love her style of modern technique!  We also had ballroom class which was surprisingly fun!  I have never taken ballroom class before so I was quite nervous.  It was a lot of fun!  We learned the basics of the tango, swing, and the merengue.  After ballroom, we had "understanding technique."  I'm learning a lot about anatomy already from that class!  Later, we had rehearsal from 6:00-8:00.  We are accomplishing so much already!  We already have two long phrases done!  Also, we had a chance to do some improvisation.  We created our own phrase using opposing pairs of words such as spacious and crowded and round and linear.  Everyone came up with some neat phrases.  We might use our own choreography in the piece.  Today was a very long day and I am exhausted!  But other than the exhaustion, I am already learning a lot and enjoying myself!

My First Day

 The Glorya Kaufman dance studio! This overlooks Broadway!!

 The Juilliard theatre.  (the summer students don't perform on this stage)

What a relief!  The first day has come and gone!  We started out the day with a placement class in ballet and pointe.  The class was taught by one of the Juilliard professors from the college dance faculty.  He was great!  After placement class, we went on a tour of the Juilliard building!  It was so confusing!!  We got to see the theatre that the college dance students perform in.  It was beautiful and HUGE!  We also got to see the Glorya Kaufman Dance Studio which is the studio on the second floor overlooking Broadway!  I hope I get the chance to dance in that studio!!  We also got to see the academic rooms.  They were very small!  Also, we were told that only about 900 students go to Juilliard each year!  That is small!  After the tour, we ate lunch.  After lunch, we had modern class.  It was great.  All of the summer intensive students (44) took the class so it was a little crowded.  Other than that, it was awesome!  I loved the teacher!  She was so nice and funny too!!  After modern, we had a class called "Understanding Techinque" with an anatomy teacher (she teaches the college students during the year).  She told us some interesting things about the body.  It was very informative.  After that class, we had dinner.  Then, we went off to rehearsals.  There are four pieces in the show, and everyone was casted in one piece.  I was casted in a piece that is contemporary.  It is amazing!  I love the choreography and the choreographer is very nice and laid back!  I think the piece will be great!  We already accomplished so much and we only had one rehearsal!  All in all, my first day went really well!  I am exhausted!  Keep on following!

I'm officially at Juilliard!

Just got settled in at Juilliard!  I have a great view from my dorm room!  I also got a single room which is nice.  There are 6 other girls in my suite.  I've met most of them, but people are still coming in from traveling.  We have a residence hall meeting at 4:30 today which will explain the rules, etc.  Tomorrow is the first actual day of classes starting off with placement class.  After that, there will be a tour of Juilliard.  Modern class is in the afternoon followed by an "understanding techinique" class.  I am so excited and so nervous for the first day!  Wish me luck!

Leaving Soon!!!

I can't believe I'm leaving on Thursday!  I've been busy packing everything up!  It feels like I'm bringing my whole room!  I can't wait to get to NYC!  I've never been before and I'm anxious to get a feel for the city life!!  My family and I are doing a bit of siteseeing before they leave me on Sunday.  We will be doing a double decker bus tour of both uptown and downtown NYC!  I really can't wait to visit China Town- lot's of fun shopping!  I will definitely be adding pics of everything we see.  I'll keep you all updated!  Thanks for checking out my blog!  Lots of posts to come!!