5th Day of Stretching!

For everyone that wanted to do my quest of stretching every day in August, how are you doing!? I feel like I can already see an increase of an inch or two in my develope's!

Stretch!

Hi guys! It's been a while. I'm not dancing this summer (sadface) because I'm working a lot. It's a double edged sword, because more work means I can keep taking dance, but the more I work the less time I have to dance. It looks like I'll be taking two ballet classes this year, 90 minutes on Monday with level 5 and 6, because they're both really small levels (4-5 people each), and 2 hours on Thursday with just my level. I'm excited, to say the least. I'm thinking of asking my dad if I can take a solo class at my old studio twice a month, but I don't even know if they'd let me do that, and how much it would cost, ect. I would love to learn a lyrical solo, or even a ballet solo.

Anyway, I've decided to do something I call, "Stretch Everyday in August!" where I stretch...everyday...in August. Pretty self-explanatory, really. It's my second day, and I decided to warm up first by attempting the Odette/White Swan variation (but I did it on flat). It's a really pretty, really simple variation, so I watched a few videos, and put my own spin in some places, and got warmed up. Now I'm sitting here, stretching as I type.

My goals:

• Stretch everyday, if it's 10 minutes or an hour and a half
• Get right split
• Get closer to left and center split

So what do you think? Anyone who wants to join me definitely should! We could all comment on this post to stay motivated, and accomplish your own flexibility goals, whether it's to touch your toes or to nail your oversplits!

Quick Pointe Shoe Video

Here's a video by the Australian Ballet about the pointe shoe fitter/ artistic co-ordinater. I know I would kill for a pair of custom pointes, wouldn't that be amazing?

Tell me in the comments if you've found your perfect pointes, what are they!?

New to Ballet?

Hey guys! For anyone out there who hasn't taken their first ballet class, but wants to, now is the perfect time to start looking! Summer classes usually end in mid-August and then the dance season starts, so look around for local studios!

As for me, next week (I hope) I'll either be taking lyrical or ballet, and probably am going to continue until the end of August.

How are all of your summer sessions going?!

Ballet Intensive: Days 3-5

Hey everyone! My ballet intensive ended on Friday, and I've been super busy so I haven't gotten to post. I've recently gotten a job (yay!) at a cafe, so I've been working most evenings, and on Sunday I worked almost 12 hours.

The last few days of the intensive were much like the first two. My pointe shoes broke in very nicely, however, I've discovered some flaws. They put a lot of pressure on my big toes, and the elastic drawstring is too tight so it digs into my heels very painfully. Ouch.

Something weird happened on the third day though. Our studio is located on the 4th floor in a big building that used to be a factory, and was turned into a building dedicated to the arts. So, there are a lot of art studios, glass blowing studios, wood shops, music studios, and our dance studios. On Wednesday, some people were walking around our floor (probably browsing art studios) and stopped to watch our class. For like, half an hour. It was strange, because they weren't bashful about getting right up to the windows. I actually appreciate an audience, because I know it makes me dance and perform better.

On Friday, I actually did some halfway decent fouettes! I got 5 or 6 turns and actually landed it, and it didn't look too bad.

Anyway, my dance classes are pretty much done for the summer, but I'll post some informational posts so stick around!