happy almost new year

Wow, last post of the year!

2007 has come and gone, quite quickly actually. It's certainly been a year of ups and downs, but it is definitely ending on a high note.

I'd like to take this time to thank all of the people who have made this year special, especially the last few months...I hope they know who they are. I am so grateful to everyone who has helped me along the way, given me opportunities to prove myself, and showed me who I can be. There are too many people to name individually, but a big hug and thank you to all my family, friends (near and far), and just everyone.

I have lots planned for 2008, but one of the biggest lessons I learned this last year was that plans are not set in stone and sometimes it's better to just have a general direction you're headed in and let the wind take you where it will.

Another lesson of the year: People can be your greatest asset or biggest hindrance, but only if you let them.

With that said, my new year's resolutions:
1. be more optimistic
2. let go of things that keep me down
3. take more time to stop and smell the roses

I found this quiz thingy online and just thought it was interesting what qualities make a year good or bad. My answers:

Compared to this time last year, you are:
Happier (much, much, much)
Less happy

Compared to this time last year, you are:
Healthier (minus the bursitis)
Less healthy

Compared to this time last year, you have:
More money (I got paid for the 2 things I love doing)
Less money

Compared to this time last year, you have:
More friends
Less friends

Compared to this time last year, your career prospects:
Are better (graduation soon!)
Are worse

Compared to this time last year, your life is:
More exciting (tenfold)
Less exciting

Compared to this time last year, you are:
More optimistic about the world
Less optimistic about the world

Compared to this time last year, you have:
More things to be thankful for (far more)
Less things to be thankful for


Happy New Year 2008 to all! Hope it's a good one :)

dance online in the Times

Even though my thesis is technically complete, I'm still avidly following the dance writing online craze and just came across an article about exactly that in the NY Times the other day. Mention of The Winger :)

Go read it.

oh lazy day

Today was the first Sunday I spent in the city since August! Between Nutcracker rehearsals and going home for the holidays, I haven't had a Sunday to rest since the summer, and today I realized what I've been missing...relaxation!

Hah. I slept nice and late today, got a much-needed massage after being so sore from time off, and hung around at home most of the afternoon. I did some updates over on my website, but that's about the only productive thing I've done. I think everyone needs a day of nothing sometimes!

It's almost new years...

holiday update - finally

Okay, sorry again for not posting for a few days. Even though things weren't too busy I tried to take some time away from the computer instead of my obsessive excessive attatched-at-the-fingertip hours on end online. Haha.

So here's what's been going on and what's coming up, bullet style:

*went home for Christmas and it was a nice, relatively quiet holiday



*since coming back to the city I've gotten to catch up with some old friends spending some time here and it has reminded me how small and tight-knit the dance world is, and how close everyone really is. Even though I go months at a time without seeing some of my closest friends, we get together and it's like we haven't missed a beat. I love that.


*I got an email from the director of my old studio asking if she could hire me to take over the studio newsletter, writing and designing the whole thing. I'm meeting with her next week to discuss details, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to do it, which will get me back involved over there after a 6 month absence (well, maybe not quite that long)

*remember how my foot has been bothering me? Well, my left Achilles tendon has been hurting on and off since about April, and it was only on Christmas Eve morning that I finally had a chance to get it checked out (mostly because insurance doesn't cover out of state, and I'm hardly ever home long enough to make it to a doctor there). So I have Achilles bursitis. It's basically inflammation of the bursa, a sack of fluid between the tendon and the skin, and there's not much to be done besides rest, ice, and anti-inflammatories. My main concern was that I wasn't making it worse by dancing on it, and the doctor said I'm not, so that's good. I should be starting PT soon so I should be just fine.

Coming Up...

*understudy/apprentice with Rebecca Kelly Ballet. I forget if I mentioned it on here, but I auditioned for her a while back and had some vague dialogue later, but she emailed recently asking if I'd understudy a little showcase they have in January and also come to her choreographic workshop as a guest the following weekend to learn some rep. So I'm looking forward to that.

*Dance Research Forum Ireland. Again, forget if I mentioned it but I submitted my senior thesis dance journalism proposal to this big dance scholarship/research thing and they accepted it and want me to present it via poster at their conference in Ireland in June. Yay! Work paid off. It's expensive though, so I'm not positive I'll be attending yet...

*starting to rehearse for a little student showcase with the people I take class with all the time, to be on February 24. Fun. I love them.

*internship at The New Yorker starts pretty soon after the new year. I'm sooo ready for that, but I'll miss my current internship.

Ah. Well, I'm sure I'm forgetting something, but there's an update for now. I'm back in the city and sore from class (since I took almost 2 weeks off besides a single class here and there). It's nice to have a few days of "vacation" to enjoy the city before getting back to school and work and such the day after new years.

And I officially graduate in 4 weeks.

Happy Holidays

Apologies yet again for the lack of posts...I'm home now for the holidays (until Thursday) but will do a nice long update on the past week when I get back to the city. Not much excitement has been going on since school finished so not much to blog about anyway! hah

Oh, check out Christmas Gift Ideas for Dancers over at the Winger. My suggestion was the flexi-stretcher, haha.

Have a happy, safe, and restful holiday :)

updates

How is it that even when I'm done with all my work I still can't find time to blog? Haha.

Apologies for the lack of posts this week, but I did just post (after a month's absence..oops) over on The Winger, so take a look. Just a general roundup of recent events.

A friend took me to see an interesting version of Nutcracker tonight...perhaps a review will come soon, but nothing official. It was very very different, let's just leave it at that, haha.

Oh, and I took class yesterday after not having it for a week (performing is different from taking class...20 minute warm up in socks in the dressing room with Britney Spears and hyper dancers blasting in the background doesn't count). I'm a bit sore, including my Achillles which has yet to be checked out but will be when I'm home next week.

There's a quick update...happy Friday.

celebrate! semester is over

I turned in my last paper this morning, and I am SO DONE with this insane semester.

YES!

Haven't had time to write much lately, but I will do a good post tonight or tomorrow...promise. And watch for website and blog design updates coming soon.

interview of me on Ballet Connections

More details later...

But click to read an interview of me on BalletConnections.com!

Nut all done!

I'm back in the city after Nutcracker weekend!

All the shows went well and were fun. It's nice to be done with it though. And to get a paycheck in my hand at the end of the performances was SO satisfying! Maybe that sounds wrong, but it's like, to have the opportunity to do what you love AND get paid on top of the experience itself is so great. I don't know. Nevermind, haha.

Anyways here are some more pictures...I have performance shots and even (blurry) videos coming soon that my family took from the audience :)

Meanwhile when getting home tonight I got to meet up with my favorite visitors!!! I've missed them so very much and I'm so happy they came for a few days (even though it's the last, busiest days of the semester!)! We're going to have some fun...


snow costumes


the NY girls


on the train on our final return from CT


my favorite out-of-towners and I in front of the tree @ LC

Nut week 2 day 2

Today's shows went really well. It was yet another long day, but it was fun. I love being onstage.

My family came to the later performance and it was good to see them. I took pictures with them while still in costume but I'll have to upload those later from their camera. Meanwhile, here are a few pictures from backstage:

Nut week 2 day 1

Today was our first day at Mohegan Sun! It's so much bigger and better than last week's theater. Especially the backstage area.

We had spacing and tech rehearsal all day, but like last week, it was a lot of sitting around waiting. Not so fun. We had a short break for lunch/dinner and we actually got to go out in the mall and casino area. It's so neat in there! Waterfalls and everything...

Later tonight we had dress rehearsal, which went pretty well. It was a long long long day though. We have 2 shows tomorrow so I'm looking forward to that!

off to Nutcracker weekend #2!

In the freezing snow I'm off to the train to Connecticut for my second (and last) weekend of Nutcracker. I'm excited to be in the BIG theater this weekend, and will update regularly from the hotel :)

Also of note is that I just spoke with the NY Times dance writer about my thesis and she gave me some GREAT insight and interesting perspectives. I'll share details next week when I have time to finish off my thesis. So glad this insane semester is almost over!

Happy snow day :)

holiday fun!

After my internship today I took a break from the stress of reality and started to celebrate the holidays! Soooo much fun, but I'm left with a massive headache from all the sugar from gingerbread houses!

last issue of school paper

The December issue of MMC's school paper The Monitor is now online. This was my last issue as Features Editor before I graduate! As usual, lots of work went into it, so take a look!

Still smiling about The New Yorker internship :)

the new yorker!!! & more...

Okay, the secret is out...my internship plans have changed as of an hour ago.

Before I accepted my spring internship at Forbes Magazine's website I had also interviewed at the mother of all magazines, Conde Nast's NEW YORKER. And I found out today that they offered me the internship. At The New Yorker. The epitome of the magazine world. AHH!

So therefore I must accept it and will be doing THAT in the spring instead of Forbes. I am so thankful for all these wonderful opportunities and am overwhelmed with options...I've never been in this kind of situation before and it's crazy!

On top of that, I don't think I mentioned that last week the contemporary company I auditioned for about a month ago emailed me asking to be a guest at their workshop thing in January and also come understudy a performance the week before at City Center! So that will be a great learning opportunity to!

So much is happening so fast. This insane semester is over in 9 days and I have so much to do until then (on top of Nutcrack week 2)...but I am not complaining! :)

Nut day 4

I'm back in the city after a long long long weekend of Nutcracker.

Today's performance was definitely the best of the whole weekend. I guess it all takes some getting used to before I can feel free, but it was much more enjoyable today than usual.

Here are a few pictures...more to come after next weekend's shows at Mohegan Sun! 3 shows down, 3 to go! (and about 1 more week of insanity at school!)

Nut day 3

Today's performance was much much better than the past 2 days.

Luckily we didn't have to be there at the theater until 1pm, so we slept late and went out to breakfast before heading over. Then we just had a matinee show and that was it! It went quite well...I've figured out a nice little rosin routine so I don't fall again. Performing takes some adjusting and it's only after 2 full, long days at the theater can I be totally comfortable with everything. It's always fun, but it's just a bit tense and stressful when the directors stand in the wings and correct you immediately after coming off (even when you have to go right back on in the same dance...). BUT overall it's going well. I love those few moments of peace onstage.

After the show they had this "Sugar Plum Party" where the whole cast stands onstage in all the kids and mothers in the audience make a big long line and come around to us to say hi and get the Sugar Plum's autograph. It was hard to stand there for so long after performing and being exhausted, but it was so cute to see all the kids in their little holiday dresses and stuff! It was like a little Christmas pageant. I remember all my little dresses my mom used to put me in for that kind of thing...so funny.

Tonight we got back to the studio and got dinner, and now we're just sitting relaxing. It's nice to have some time to breathe and not be cramped in a room backstage. Oh, also today was better because some of us snuck into the house to use chairs to warm up before they opened it to the audience. It felt much better to be warmed up (what a concept).

One more show for this weekend (tomorrow matinee) and then back to the city. I feel like I've been here forever! It's been worth it though! And next weekend at Mohegan will be even better, I'm sure. :)

Nut day 2

I'm writing from backstage, where I have been sitting with my heating pad listening to amusing conversation for about 3 hours now. Rehearsals can be such a waste of time...

We got up at the crack of dawn to leave the studio (where we stay) to get to the theater at 8am for a 10am show. Mind you it is quite freezing backstage, and no space to even do a plie, nevermind do barre to warm up! So hair and makeup went on fast and then we had a performance for school kids. It went pretty well...no falling, so that's a good sign after yesterday, haha. It was cold though.

After the show they said we didn't have to be back til 1pm, so we had some time to go grab lunch on campus (we're at a college theater), so a big group of us went out in the cold. It was fun and we ate lots...

Then, since getting back to my little chair and plugging in my heating pad we have been sitting here just waiting and waiting and not rehearsing. We don't really know what's going on, but it's been a good 3 hours. We're supposed to have another full dress rehearsal at 7, but besides that it's kind of pointles for us to be here all day...ohhh well. The things we do to be onstage :)

Shows tomorrow and Sunday afternoon (and next weekend). 1 down, 5 to go.

Nut day 1

Surprise - I do have internet here in CT!

Today was Nutcracker madness week 1, day 1. It was tech and dress rehearsal day, but since we ran both flowers and snow last Sunday I didn't have to do anything until the full run later tonight. SO I literally sat in the audience for 5 hours doing nothing. Actually, I gave myself barre twice because I thought I needed to be warm for rehearsal...but no.

Dress rehearsal itself later was okay...not the best. We did a shorter version because tomorrow we do an in-school show so it's abbreviated. In snow, we started with this big pinwheel thing (typical for snow scene) and I ran right on to attatch to the girl and I felt FLAT on my butt. It was great. Smack down. I was fine and got right up, but I definitely held everyone up in the pinwheel. LUCKILY the directors didn't seem to see (they stand in the wings! tense) so nobody said anything besides 'are you okay.' And I was.

The rest of the show was okay though. Just tough adjusting to lights and stuff.

First performance tomorrow morning, then more dress rehearsal all day. Yay!

off to Nutcracker weekend #1!

I'm just about packed and set to go for Nutcracker weekend number one! I'm excited to be onstage :)

Pictures to come over the weekend if I have internet connection at the studio where we stay...if not, then next week. Besides that I probably won't be able to post until Monday, so happy winter weekend everyone, haha.

mild annoyance at education

Okay, I try really really hard not to let certain things get to me and to avoid taking out frustrations via blog, but in my insomnia-procrastination tonight I saw this in a big ad in the new Pointe Mag and had to share...

How many PERSPECTIVE students will want to attend the Rock School Academic Program Alliance's unique college prep program when they cannot even spell or use basic grammar?! Usually it's PROSPECTIVE (not PER) who attend such fabulous schools.

I'm allowed to comment because I am an alumni, and despite their misleading self-representation in this writing, I did learn a thing or two about grammar.

Seeing that I'm currently taking a grad level copyediting class than ingrains these kinds of writing rules in my mind, I saw their huge (expensive) cardboard ad and saw that mistake and it just really really really irked me. Especially since the error is in the part where they're promoting the "educational" side of things.

I do apologize for the annoying tone, but it's hard to be proud of something or someplace when things like this come up.

i love my job

I had the best day at work (internship) today!

What started off boring, me entering business card addresses into the magazine's contact list, turned out to be such a fun day! After lunch I was invited to a press event with my bosses for this big craft show that's coming up in January (I'm in the home and crafts department) and they had a preview of the different vendors and stuff in this loft space.

It was sooo fun. What they do for that kind of thing is demonstrate their craft products by doing "make and takes," where you actually DO the craft right there at their table. It was like those old school craft fairs like with sand art (there was no sand art here, but that's what it reminded me of) but it was all free! I made a t-shirt with iron on things, a little birthday box filled with candy (who's bday is coming up?), a yarn pom pom, and these great wall decorations. And since we went towards the end of the day all the vendors were packing up as we ate our free brownies and they didn't want to carry all their products home on planes so they gave us all kinds of extra samples! Swag is the reason to go into magazines, if nothing else. Hahaha.

Heading back to the office with 4 of us carrying 3 bags of crafts each was quite amusing. It was lots of fun and I got some cute things to do once the semester is over and I can (briefly before January term starts) have a life again.

One more day til I head out to Hartford for Nutcracker! Lots of packing and papers to write before I go...

career day?

Today I gave a dance/dance criticism "lecture" at this high school I was asked to visit. In case you missed the back story, my huge senior thesis project is on dance journalism and one of my professors at MMC also teaches at this high school and asked me to visit them and "inspire" them with all I'm doing. Yeah.

It was actually kind of fun! I felt like it was career day back when I was in middle school, but this time I was the "adult" in the room. Strange, haha. Not many of them were interested in the journalism part, even though I brought a stack of dance magazines and press kits and my writing and stuff. But they were interested in my stories about ballet and Nutcracker and such, and they asked lots of questions.

They even applauded my answer to the question, "Is there anything you would change about your dancing experiences in the past? Or anything you regret?" Someday soon I'll write a detailed answer to that important question on here, since it has come up a lot lately. No time right now though.

I had (ballet) class and lunch (yes, we do lunch) with my teacher this morning, which was good. However my foot is still hurting from rehearsal yesterday. Not fun. Crazy me, though, I took night class too, and all on pointe, but it actually doesn't hurt as much now as it did yesterday. Good sign I guess. I had to take class again though because I pretty much won't have a real class now for a week, because they don't give warm-up classes before performances at Albano so I just have to warm myself up. Great.

Ugh, I have SO much to do before I leave Thursday morning. Last minute school stuff and whatnot...off to do some work!

intern bosses on video

The magazine I intern at is doing a Christmas season special on their website where all the editors were filmed while giving a different holiday tip for readers. Thought I'd share my two bosses making their website video debut :) They're so great...the day they filmed in the studio it was such a big deal, haha. I kind of love the magazine world.

snow, onstage and off!

It snowed today!

I had this big long creative blog post typed up and then my comptuer died (as it often does) so here's the boring version of my day...

When I woke up to snow I half-hoped I wouldn't have to go all the way to Hartford for our last Sunday of Nutcracker rehearsals...but I'm really glad I went! As a surprise we got to rehearse in the theater today instead of the studio. I guess they got in early to lay down the marley, so we spaced and ran through everything today so that Thursday won't be so stressful (tech and dress day).

It was fun! I really love being onstage and being in a theater and everything. And this theater is super spacious because it's not in a city, haha. So nice. Rehearsal itself went well, although my Achilles is acting up again. My body often decides to go crazy on me when I change dancing environments, such as going on to a hard stage or going into 20 degree weather. Lovely.

Besides being unable to walk after the bus ride home, the day was good. I got home to a nice email from (my favorite) New York Times dance journalist, and Dance Editor of Time Out New York, Gia Kourlas!!! She's another contributor to The Winger and Kristin put me in contact with her to get some input for my (ever-developing-excitment) thesis. Wow! This paper is turning out to be a lot bigger of a deal than I ever expected but I'm really happy about it and that people care about it. It's no longer about my grade. It's about getting the issue out there and getting the opinions flying.

Anyway, I have yet another busy week ahead. Tomorrow after morning class I'm lecturing at that high school I mentioned last week. That should be amusing, to say the least. Tuesday and Wednesday will be mostly spent at my internship since Thursday, when I would normally be there, I'll be at the theater all day long in Connecticut. I'm spending from Thursday-Sunday staying over there and really can't wait to perform! The only part I'm not looking forward to is putting on pink tights. I've been kind of rebelling against them and wearing black tights since I "graduated" from BAE in June and have been in no rush to get them back on. But I guess Waltz of the Flowers would be slightly unattractive with little black legs sticking out of a pink costume, haha.

I'll keep posting through the busy week but come Thursday I probably won't have internet access...so wish me luck for Nutcracker year 13!

beginning to look a lot like xmas

I cannot believe it is December.


(Rockefeller Center pic I took last year...haven't gotten over there yet this year...)

This semester has gone by so very fast and yet so very slow. And it's almost done! Tomorrow is my last day of Nutcracker rehearsals before we go onstage next week! Yes!

Yesterday's interview for BalletConnections.com went well. He said it should be up on the website in a week or so, so you'll all get to read my amusing answers to some amusing questions. I can't help but laugh at myself sometimes, but I guess that's a good thing...

I'm still fighting a bad cold so classes have been a little rough this week. I think I'm just drained from everything, but I'm hoping the adrenaline will kick in these next two weeks of finals and performances! Too much to do to be slowed down by a headache and runny nose :(

Anyway, what lifts my spirits when I'm sick is all the pretty Christmas decorations starting to pop up around the city. The lobby of my internship office was all decorated with lights and wreathes when I went in the other morning, and today my school's lobby was decked out as well. The city is so nice at the holiday time :)