Disorders

Yesterday we had a student from Brescia University come in to talk about eating disorders. Anorexia and Bulimia are very common in dancers. We always strive to look perfect on the dance floor especially in ballet. The stereotypical ballerina is very tiny looking practically like bones, but also very elegant. Its hard when dancers see that image on the big stages in New York and Boston and always want to strive to be just like them. I know at times I may go down a path I shouldn't be because of dance but I always try my best not to. The pressure to be "skinny" is insane especially during your teen years. One of the things the lady told us to do was to write "your beautiful" on your mirror so every time you wake up in the morning you feel a little better about yourself. It may sound stupid, but for some they have to do that to keep them eating and healthy. I know I would rather be dancing 5 hours a day and eating than starving myself and ending up in a hospital with a feeding tube. Remember, no body is perfect and we all have our imperfections we just have to learn how to rise above them!

Flashdance

For our modern dance we are doing Flashdance. For those of you who don't know Flashdance was a movie back in the 80s I believe about a dancer who does some not so appropriate things to survive in her career as a dancer. Our costumes are completely 80s aerobic exercised styled. Its pretty hilarious but cute at the same time. My leotard is a royal blue color and I have black tights with hot pink legwarmers. If thats not enough we also have headbands that we wear across our foreheads to complete the look and black belts to tie it all together. All in all, dance costumes really haven't been bad this year. (:

Sparkle and Shine

Okay so everyone that is a dancer knows how we love our rhinestones. We definitely beat the heck out of be-dazzler around recital time. On Monday we received our costumes. For our ballet number we are wearing white tutus that smell like rotten fish.. and a black bodice. For our Swan Lake number we are wearing simple black leotards with a hot pink skirt. One thing about simple costumes is that you have to make your movements really big so it looks better. We've already talked about adding more sparkle to our costumes, you really can never have enough!

Audition

This past weekend at the studio we had auditions. They were for an allstar team and to be able to dance in the staff's hip hop dance number in the showcase. Well lets just say.. I've never taken a real hip hop class before but I decided to do it anyways. Shockingly enough they were all really impressed! The owner knows how i'm severely committed to ballet but wants me to take hip hop next year no questions asked. Just goes to show you that when you try you might actually make it! Even though I didn't make the team because she wanted people that were in hip hop classes she told me I will make it next year for sure which is truly exciting!