Day 1 of Pointe!

Hey guys! Sorry I didn't update last night, I was out with friends and didn't get home until it was almost midnight! One thing about dance is that it does cut into your social life, but if you have awesome friends (like mine!) they won't mind accommodating your schedule.

Anyways, yesterday was my first day at the ballet/pointe intensive. It was two and a half hours long. I was guessing there would be around 12 girls there, but there was only 8 including myself! That was really cool for me, because you get more specialized attention when there is less people. It also tends to make me more nervous to not screw up the combinations because if I do, it will be noticed.

We started the intensive like a normal ballet class. We did about 45 minutes at the barre, which was fun because we got to try some different combinations and even learned a few new things as well. Then we had a 5 minute water break and moved on to center/across the floor stuff. One of the last things we did was a petite allegro, which always makes me nervous because petite allegro combinations are small and fast, and I sometimes get tied up. However, this one was actually a lot of fun, and I managed it without messing up too badly. We also did a fun grande allegro which included saute arabesques, tour jetes, pas de chats, and grande jetes, which are always challenging.

After 45 minutes, we had another short break and got our pointe or demi-pointe shoes. Most of the girls at the camp are actually not en pointe yet because their feet aren't ready, so they have demi-pointe shoes which are like pointe shoes without the shank so they can get used to the feeling of pointe shoes without harming their feet. There are two girls that aren't from the academy who are just going for the intensive, and they are both en pointe with me.

We spent about 15 minutes practicing tying and untying the shoes, and worked on some basic exercises at the barre.

Being en pointe is a really cool feeling, it's almost like you're on stilts. I am 5'4" standing normally, and about 5'8" en pointe, so it really does make you feel taller and almost weightless.

Pointe Shoes!

Hello everyone! Just a comment before I get started; if you've visited the blog any time in the last few days you'll have seen that I've been changing the design around a bit and playing with new fonts and backgrounds. At the end of the day, I decided that the greenish blue theme I picked out just wasn't right, so I switched back to the original.


Ok, so back to the good stuff, I got my pointe shoes! My first ever pointes are Bloch Serenades, size 3.5, and I'm pretty much in love with them. I got them on Saturday (two days ago) and stayed up until nearly 4 am last night sewing on the ribbons for my first pointe class today. I'm super excited to get back to class, I haven't had a ballet class in nearly 3 weeks and it seems like it's been longer. Every day this week I have a class from 4:30-7, about 40 minutes to an hour of it will be pointe.

The toe pads I got are called Gellows, by the company Pillows for Pointes. They have gel on one side, and fabric on the other. They're pretty thin, which I like, but they're still comfortable.They came with a little slip of paper in the box that said, "Inspected by: Curly", which I thought was kind of neat. It's interesting to think about all of the work gone into making a single pair of pointe shoes and pointe shoe accessories. Pointe shoes are still hand made, so a few weeks or months ago my shoes were being hand made and inspected by a skilled craftsman in who knows where. It's kind of cool, isn't it?








Anyway, back on topic: I also got toe spacers ("Spacemakers") from bunheads, which are supposed to go between your first and second toe if you have a gap. I might not wear them the first class to see how it goes without them, but I got them just in case. They're made of a gel like material, they're squishy without being too soft. 

Finally, I'm also going to stick a piece of cotton or paper towel on the tip of my first toe because I have Greek feet, meaning my second toe is longer then the first (weird, I know). Putting something there to even out the lengths lessens the pressure on my second toe.

I'll be posting later with how my class went, so stop by again tonight or tomorrow afternoon. Leave a comment about your first pointe shoes, or if you have any other questions or comments feel free to post!

My Light Stage Make-Up

Hello again! I'm by no means a make-up expert. I really don't use much make-up at all. For those of you like me, here's a post on my basic stage make-up.


1. Wash and moisturize your face. I use a Clean and Clear face wash, but if you have sensitive skin or really nice skin water is fine. If you have dry skin, use a face moisturizer so your skin doesn't flake when you have makeup on.


2. Apply foundation. I use a creamy foundation by Maybelline for oil-control. If you're in between shades, go for the darker one because stage lights can wash out your face, but don't go four shades darker or anything too dramatic. 














3. Put on eye-liner. Many girls I know prefer liquid eye-liner for stage makeup because it's very dramatic, but I just use plain old pencil eyeliner. I would go with a black. For Nutcracker, I wing my eyeliner, but for the recital I just apply it to the top lash line. Some girls apply white eyeliner on the waterlines for the lower lashes, and at the corner of your eye to make your eyes look bigger.

Winged Eyeliner

4. Put on mascara. Next, I use mascara. To apply it, close your eyes half way, and first apply it on the top side of your upper lashes. Then open your eyes, and put it on the bottom side. When applying it to the bottom, wiggle the brush a little to separate the lashes. Then apply it to your lower lashes. I usually end up smearing my mascara or getting it on my eyelids, so at this point I use a q-tip dipped in eye makeup remover to clean up any little mistakes.


5. Eye shadow. I use a neutral brown eye shadow for performances where there's no specific color requested.


6.  Blush. I use a pink blush for performances because it adds dimension to your face so it doesn't look flat. When I put on blush, I smile and put it mostly on the apples of my cheeks. Then I use a little and brush it outward and slightly upwards towards my ear.

7. Next, I use a translucent powder to set the makeup and make my face matte, so it doesn't shine under the stage lights. I use Neutrogena oil-control translucent powder.

8. Finally, I put on a little lipstick. I like natural but slightly darker shades, sort of like a reddish-brown.




I get most of my makeup from Target, and I get my lipstick from Boscov's makeup section. If you need high quality makeup for a performance or show, ask someone at a makeup store to help you find the right shades for your skin tone.

Recital

Hello everyone! I had my 2nd ever ballet recital on June 2nd. Here's a little rundown of everything that happened, in case you haven't had a recital before.

My report time was 11:30 am. I arrived around that time (give or take a few minutes) and went backstage to my dressing room, which was a classroom in a high school. The other girls in the room were also teenage girls. We all hung out, stretched, and vented nervous energy by acting crazy until around 12 noon, when we started to get ready. I had to do my hair in a bun, put on some stage make-up and dress into my costume. We were ready by 12:45, and the show started at 1. My group, Teen Ballet, was number 5, so we went on at about 1:20. We practiced in the hallways a few times before going on stage, and pretty much everything went well.

When you're on stage, the bright stage lights pretty much block out the audience, which is mostly why I don't get extremely nervous on stage. I think the hardest thing about being on stage is remembering to smile. It's pretty hard to hold a big grin on your face when you're worried about messing up a certain part, but I tried to keep my smile glued on.

I'll make another post about what make-up I used for the recital just to give you an idea.