I'm Back!!

Well, after my multi-month long hiatus I'm back! I feel a lot has happened since my last post about my audition in Las Vegas.

I graduated college (finally) with a B.A. in Dance and a B.S. in Psychology. My Sr. Portfolio performance at SJSU went splendidly, and pictures will be up soon on my website.

I have been enjoying life, and being able to actually live and breathe. Spending time with family, dancing because I LOVE IT without the pressure of a grade, taking walks, laying in the sun and tanning (I'm actually not super white this summer, it's pretty amazing!), scrapbooking and mixbooking like a maniac, I have a little pot garden on my patio, I've lost 15lbs since March (even if it doesn't look like it) and I feel great!!

Anyway, that is my brief update, and regular posts will resume.

20 hours for 1 hour

So I recently drove to Las Vegas for a dance audition, and I was told that I should journal all of my audition experiences, so here I am "journaling" and sharing with y'all.

About a month ago a friend of mine and fellow dancer told me about an audition being held in Las Vegas for female dancers 5'9'' and taller. We both fit that criteria and so we decided that we would make this journey together.

This past weekend was the audition. Now, originally we were going to start driving at about 2:45, then we changed it to 3:15. However, we didn't actually leave until 4:30, this was because as my friend was driving home from teaching her tire blew out.

Anyways, we were all packed and got on the road. Many of the snack that were supposed to also come with us got left :-( oh well.... It is amazing though how much "nothing" there is between the San Francisco Bay Area and Las Vegas. When we were hungry for dinner, we couldn't find anyplace to eat!! Finally we stopped in Boron, CA and ate the only restaurant they have called Domingos. It was actually pretty good, and it was also open late which good because we got there at about 10:30pm. The management liked us....primarily because my friend who is a tall white girl like me speaks Spanish almost fluently (definite plus in many situations). After a nice dinner and receiving pens for gifts we set back "on the road again". There isn't much to tell about the drive because like I said there was a lot of nothing so yeah...not very interesting. We just talked most of the drive.

Finally at about 2am we arrived at our hotel in Las Vegas and immediately crashed. Our check out time was supposed to be 11am but since we were sooooo exhausted and we didn't have to be at the audition until 1pm we asked if we could have a later check in, and it got pushed to 12pm. At about 10:30-11 we started waking up, showering, getting dressed, and getting all gussied up. the excitement was beginning!!! Then my friend pulled out her aqua leotard she was planning to wear for the audition, only to discover that somehow her pointe shoe glue had leaked onto her leotard, and there was now a big hard mess on her leotard. (and yes she did have the glue separate in a ziploc, but somehow it still leaked) She wanted to cry, and I wanted to cry for her, but she wasn't about to let a leotard ruin the experience or the audition and luckily she had brought a back-up (it was just black instead of a color).

We left the hotel found the dance studio where the audition was being held, ate a cliff bar, and went inside. We checked in, and submitted our headshots and resumes. We were the first to check in so our audition numbers were #1 and #2. Finally, other girls arrived, and we all went inside the room to learn the audition routine.

There were about 20 girls, and some were even taller than me, and I'm 5'11'' so that was pretty exciting. I was finally dancing with people who weren't midgets!! The routine was taught really quickly, and they didn't alternate lines or split us into two groups, so there was a lot of people trying not to kick other people. Once they taught the routine, they took all of us out of the room and brought us back in two at a time. My friend and i were the first two to be brought back in and do the routine, while everyone else practiced out in the hallway/lobby. The first time we did it, it was horrible. There were forgotten steps, wrong arms, ....yeah. Then we got to do it a second time, and we did it!! Yay!! It just wasn't as sharp and precise as we both know they were looking for. The entire audition experience lasted 1 hour, and then we left to have lunch/dinner and get back on the road. 20 hours of driving for a 1 hour audition...we are crazy!!

We probably won't get an email informing us that we are hired, but we both learned a lot from the experience. I first of all started getting an audition wardrobe together, because I bought all new stuff for this audition. I also learned that I need to be able to learn choreography faster and more precisely instead of being worried about how to "show off my personality". The overall technique of the audition wasn't difficult, the choreography was just insanely fast, and there was a lot of choreography for the arms so if you didn't do it accurately or fast enough they would get tied up in knots around your body. I think I want to start taking hip hop because even though hip hop is a different style than this audition it would get me used to learning and doing fast sharp precise movements with my limbs. Something that Ballet, Modern, and even a lot of Jazz classes don't emphasize.

After the audition we drove home, and arrived back into the Bay Area around 2am, just in time to get s"some" sleep before classes later that morning.

Were we crazy to drive all that way for this audition? Yes! Do we regret it? No! Would we do it again? Probably. Did we have fun? Absolutely! And did we learn things to take back with us? Most importantly....yes!!



Here is a picture I took of myself in our hotel room, just before leaving for the audition studio.

Overcoming Technical Difficulties

This past weekend was Grace Dance Academy's performance of their production "Creation". Costumes were finished, programs were made, the students had worked hard and gotten lectured about still not being on the right counts (even though the performance was the next day!!). Everything seemed to pull together last minute at dress rehearsal. Everything felt finished, and the dancers looked polished, all of the lecturing and hard work had paid off, and as teachers we couldn't be more proud or excited to open our show!!

An excited cast, and an eager audience, the curtain opened...and that is when we experience our first technical difficulty of the evening. Our slide show that so elegantly started a story that the dancers would finish through movement froze, and instead of a slide show the audience saw a gray box. (Not very exciting). Quickly the curtain closed! And shortly after the curtain reopened! Everything back on track!! The slides worked, and the show opened with a beautiful performance by GDA's Ensemble dancers.

However, that was not the end of the technical difficulties! During the second dance, dancers were on stage, dancing wonderfully and on the right counts (they were the once who were given a lecture during tech) when all of a sudden their music just stopped right in the middle of their dance!!! They froze, and didn't know what to do! We called them off stage, and tried to proceed with the rest of he show. But music was still being an issue, the next song didn't want to play and instead music from the second act began playing!! WHY?!?!?! Meanwhile the young dancers from the previous dance (the dance whose music cut out on them) were back stage crying upset (as they should be) about not even getting to perform a dance they had worked so hard to get right!

I know that dancers and other behind the scenes people began praying for the Holy Spirit to cover the show and prevent any other interruptions, and from that point on the rest of the show went (for the most part) smoothly. After the entire production, the dance that never finished came back on stage for a not-quite-encore encore...they did beautifully!!

To quote one of our audience members to our director: "It WAS amazing. The girls were amazing, you and all the other teachers are amazing and God was amazing, but we already knew that. My husband can't stop telling everyone he talks to today about how gorgeous the dancing was, how beautiful the message and what a wonderful tribute to the studio this must have been. He is not one to go on and on about dance, but he said he teared up several times last night watching all those girls dance for our Lord. Thank you for all your efforts. My family was all very impressed!"

Here our a few picture that I took at our flawless dress rehearsal.




Me and two of my students after the performance.

Creation!

If you live in or within driving distance of the Bay Area, I invite you to come see Grace Dance Academy's FIRST full length performance "Creation"! You will get to see some of my students, my choreography, and my costume designing skills all on stage at one time...how exciting is that!!!

For more info visit the Facebook event page or visit Grace Dance Academy's website Tickets can be ordered in advance or purchased at the door.

I hope many of you can come!!

Scandal

So I am sure everyone has heard and is still hearing about the sex scandals in the Catholic Church. It is true that there were some pretty bad things that have happened, it is a reminder to all people that no matter the person in authority or what kind of position held by a man, they are still just that, a man...a human.

I think that what happened was horrible. The sexual abuse, and the covering up/protecting the offender. I think that that should never have happened and should never happen again. However, I am aware of some other cases of sexual abuse (not in the catholic church) where the offender is still free. Relieved of his duties, but not arrested and not under house arrest. I don't know if the people are waiting for the "right" time to prosecute or if the people who came forwarded requested that he not be turned in, in either case there is a person who committed the same type of crime and is yet being "protected" or hushed up. Again I don't think this is right, I just think it is an example that this whole hushing up thing is not unique to the Catholic Church's situation.

Additionally, I find it interesting that the media has put the Catholic Church in such a spotlight when in "2009, [only] six credible allegations of abuse concerning people who are minors were reported to the U.S. bishops -- in a church with 65 million members." While at the same time youth who are in detention centers are also sexually abused. "Nationwide about 12 percent of youths held in state-run, privately run, or local facilities reported some type of sexual victimization" One center is reported to have had over 34% of its youth sexually abused in the last year, and that is just ONE center in the last year! Why aren't these centers as well as others who have high sexual abuse rates being criticized and investigated as intensely as the Catholic Church is? In comparison the Catholic Church's rates are minute; 6 out of 65 million members versus 4 out of 11.

To read more and learn about the history of sexual abuse in the Catholic church, as well as read some statistics of sexual abuse (priests vs other religious leaders vs men in general) read this article by Dr. Thomas Plante is a Professor of Psychology and Director of the Spirituality and Health Institute at Santa Clara University as well as an Adjunct Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine

50th Anniversary

Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I think I will let this photobook of about 100 photos tell the story of my Mom and Dad's anniversary celebration.

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Dance Pictures by Dillon Engstrom

I just wanted to share some pictures that were taken in a photoshoot last week. All pictures were taken by Dillon Engstrom. Thank you Dillon for a beautiful and fun photoshoot!