Dear friends,
Once again, I am sorry for the negligence of my blog lately, but I've been DANCING. I mean... no dance, no blog right?
To update you from the last post, I recently made my official New York debut at the Cool NY Dance Festival, and this weekend is our first big show for Jazz/Contemporaries at Joffrey. The illnesses have subsided (thank goodness) but other than that, life is just about as hectic as it was a few weeks ago. My favorite question I have been asked lately was "How is the wedding planning going?" Pardon? What wedding? Unfortunately, wedding planning will have to wait a little longer. My mind has strictly been: dance, dance, and dance.
With upcoming shows, it is so easy to get caught up in the work right in front of you. You forget you are in New York City doing what you love. It is a silly thing to forget, but with 12 hour dance days, you can't help but to only focus on how you are going to get through the next rehearsal, or you can get more coffee. This week, however, I have had two incredible moments that have put everything back into perspective.
My first reality check was Monday morning (I think it was Monday, all of my days run together lately). Dorrell, our director, stormed into rehearsal with a huge smile on his face and a handful of papers. The papers in his hand were printouts of a review from the Cool New York Dance Festival. They critiqued our performance, and loved it! At first glance the thing I noticed was the names of our quartet listed. I immediately freaked out. That is MY name printed in a New York dance review. I eventually calmed down enough to read the review. It really was wonderful. I then sent a text to everyone I knew, because clearly... everyone needed to know. Just in case you wanted to read the review here it is: http://www.offoffoff.com/dance/2011/coolny2011.php
My second reality check was this afternoon. It was a normal rehearsal for a piece we are working on for our show this weekend. The choreographer has an incredible resume that includes being a principle of the Paris Opera. (Yes, he is French, scary and French.) Today was one of our last rehearsals before the show so tensions were high, and after you add his intense French-ness... tensions were very high. He then announced that his friend was coming to watch rehearsal. His friend who happened to also be a world renowned ballerina, and now works with dozens of American dance companies. No pressure, she is just coming to watch. After the rehearsal they both sat down with us and just talked. They gave us corrections. They gave us advice. They complimented us. It maybe lasted five minutes, but then it hit me. I am sitting in the Joffrey Ballet School in New York City dancing for and talking with two world renowned dancers.
When I was growing up and told people that I wanted to be a dancer, I never imagined that I could have made it this far. It sounds cheesy, but its true. I was so humbled that I got teary eyed. May I remind you, that this was not intended to be a heart to heart moment. I quickly pulled it together, because you can't cry in front of people that important. As much as I would like to call it a reality check, I am not really sure if I can, because it doesn't seem like reality. Maybe a humility check?
Our show "Winter White" premieres this Saturday and has another run on Sunday. My mother and grandmother are flying in for the weekend to see it, and my fiance flies in Thursday to spend the week with me. I am beyond excited, thus am going to shamelessly post the link for tickets. :)
http://www.joffreyballetschool.com/performances-winter-white.html
