Sunday, May 29, 2011

Dancing off to Dreamland

To put it bluntly, my sleep habits are crap.  Last night was the worst it's been in a long time, though. 

I fell asleep early yesterday, at about seven in the evening.  I woke up at around ten, though, and was wide awake.  I cleaned my room up and read about half of a book and was still not tired.  I never made it back to sleep last night. 

Eventually, at around six-thirty (after watching the sunrise..a first for this notorious anti-morning person) I decided to go for a run.  So I got out of bed (I'd been laying there for six hours) put on some shorts and a t-shirt, grabbed my sneakers and headed out.  I went on my usual route which is just over a mile long.  When I got back my dad was awake.  He questioned my reasons for being out, knowing that I do not get up before seven unless there is a concrete reason (I don't even get up that early for school) and he was shocked to hear that I just hadn't gone to sleep.

Finally, I crashed at around eight in the morning.  I woke up around two in the afternoon, still completely exhausted.  I've made it through the day so far, but I'll be dancing on over to dreamland quite soon.

Saturday, May 28, 2011

My life is interfering with my LIFE

If one were to ask me what I want to "do with my life", I would first tell them that that is my least favorite question of all time.  Second I would tell them that I am sixteen years old and I tend to change my mind a lot, and that I don't often plan things.  Third I would tell them that, with the afore-mentioned facts in mind, all I want to do is dance.  That I love to dance, and I posses some talent in the area, and that I don't know what I'd do with myself if I wasn't able to dance.  Dancing is my life.

That being said; dance gets in the way of everything.

At the peak of my schedule this year, I was in the dance studio four days of the school week for classes.  I often had Saturday rehearsals for the competition team and I would go in to the studio on my own on Sundays to practice my solos.  The only weekends I didn't practice were the weekends that I spent away at competitions.  I often logged 14 hours a week in the studio.

Don't get me wrong, I did all that willingly and I enjoyed myself.  But I also missed out on a lot.

I'm in high school.  I watch my friends plan for parties and sleepovers and shopping trips and movie dates.  And I get invited to these things!  But who can never go?  Me.  I never go to school dances because they're always on Friday evenings and Friday is the one day I cannot skip class because I am the teacher.  I was really excited to go to the last dance of the year because it's on a Thursday evening this year.  However, last Thursday class was cancelled due to an impending tornado and hail storm.  Not a big deal?  Well, I've missed the three previous Thursdays for mandatory school events.  I don't know the endings to any dances and our recital is two weeks away.  Guess who isn't going to the school dance?  Me, again.

My friend invited me to a party a few weeks ago with the invitation, "Sam and I are having a party on Saturday and he said I should invite you.  I him that I would but that you probably had something dance-ish going on.  Can you come?".  I couldn't...I had dance.

So like I said, I love dance and all I want to do is dance.  Dance is my life.  But I've reached the point where my life is interfering with my LIFE.  I regret nothing, and there's no turning back now because, "When you get the choice to sit it out or dance, I hope you dance"!

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Keep on Dancing Till the World Ends

A day after doomsday and we're all still here.  I gave no credit to the prediction of the end of the world, and I'm certainly glad my disbelief was correct.  I did, however, have several thoughts on the matter over the past couple days.

The first thought came on Friday evening.  I was teaching acro class as usual.  My Friday's are consumed by acro, often leaving my social life lacking due to the fact that everything happens on Friday evenings.  I teach four classes in a row and the second class of the night, the class at the intermediate level, ends at six o'clock.  With the end of class approaching, we were having a blast.  There are four girls in the class; two eight year olds and two six year olds.  They had done their dance really well and I was giving them a break.  We were playing with hula hoops and they were having so much fun.  I just happened to look at the clock at about five minutes to six and for some reason that sparked the thought that the world was supposed to end the next day at about the same time.  At that moment, all I could think was that if the end of the world were to come a day early, I would die completely and blissfully happy.

The second epiphany occurred yesterday--Doomsday.  I was at a dance workshop (which was amazing!!) with a professional from Broadway Dance Center.  The workshop, the dances and the teacher were all absolutely incredible.  I've been to workshops with the same person several times this year.  The last time he came to teach, he taught us a dance to Britney Spears' song Till the World Ends.  So yesterday we discussed the end of the world and it was jokingly mentioned that it would be the last time we saw each other.  The dance to Till the World Ends was brought up and the teacher told us that, on the off chance that the world blew up and we all died, we should put everything into that workshop and "dance until the world ends".  As I was driving home that was all I could think about--how all I want to do is dance, whether the ends in an hour or I live to be 102, all I want to do with my life is dance.

So I'm really glad that I have more time to dance until the world ends.  At least until 2012.

Saturday, May 21, 2011

Dance on Over to Meet Me

Hi there!

This is the first time I've ever had a blog, so I'm not really sure what to do.  I suppose my first entry should be some sort of introduction, so here it is...

I can be defined my many things:  I'm sixteen years old, I'm one half of a set of twins, I'm usually the tallest girl in any given circumstance, I'm most certainly not shy, I'm a sophomore, I'm often over dramatic in situations.  I'm a lot of things, but most importantly, the most definitive aspect of my life, is that I'm a dancer.

Dancing plays such a fundamental role in my life that it is easier to imagine not breathing then it is to imagine not dancing.  I've danced for eight years of my life, which I consider to be a short amount of time.  My current training consists of classes in; acrobatics (acro), ballet, hip-hop, lyrical, modern and pointe--I've previously taken lessons for jazz and, for a brief period of time, tap.  I'm also on the competition team for my studio and I compete with; two acro solos, one jazz solo and an acro group. 

As well as taking classes for my own benefit, I also teach acrobatics classes to kids from ages 3 to 15.  I absolutely love kids :).  The girls in my acro classes totally make my night.  I always leave the studio in a better mood than I arrived.  Since I love kids so much I also babysit all the time. 

My favorite class?  Acrobatics...without question.  I'm uber flexible; most often I'm described as "disgusting".  Some rough videos of some of my dances are on YouTube under the username "acrobaticallyapt". 

If I were to have a catch phrase it would probably be, "I cant, I have dance".  Dance basically consumes my whole life, leaving little time for other activities.  I do, however, participate in my school's show choir group This year I was only a choreographer, but I auditioned for next year and I've made it in for the Soprano section. 

Other than that, I usually just hang out with my friends.  I have the best people in my life; never once have I felt lonely.  I'm constantly surrounded by their shenanigans and I absolutely love going crazy right along side them :)

So read my blog and you can go crazy with me too!  Read my blog because you're bored, or because you're a fellow dancer, or because you know me, or because you're nosy, or because you like to read.  Or don't read my blog.  Use the time you've saved not reading my blog to learn how to dance, because a life without dance isn't worth living!