Dancing4Jesus

 Last week I posted about packing and planning for a summer dance intensive that is almost 800 miles away. Today I wanted to talk about how it went.  We arrived early Saturday evening and I immediately started getting settled in to my dorm. I met my roommate and the other girls in my small group, and we all went to dinner together and started getting to know each other. Our counselor had us all meet in her room that night to play some games before showering and getting to bed.  The next morning we woke up and went to orientation before having some free time in the afternoon. I was assigned to take the second placement class so I got ready pretty soon after orientation. As I got ready and walked to the studios across the street, I got pretty nervous. I had never done any kind of audition so I was nervous about what it would be like and what level I would be placed in.  The class ended up going really well and I felt good about how I had done. The hard part was that we...

 I was out of town with some friends last December to watch a Christian ballet at a local church when we first had the idea to attend a specific dance intensive together. The intensive we were discussing is hosted by the company we were going to watch perform that weekend. They're a Christian ballet company and their summer intensive is open to ballet dancers around the world. We had heard so many stories from people about how attending that intensive made a huge impact on their spiritual lives, and my friends and I wanted to experience it for ourselves.   The dance intensive is almost three thousand dollars though, and is about eight hundred miles away from where we live. We really wanted to go, but the idea of raising the money in only four months, which is when the deadline was to pay the tuition, seemed pretty much impossible.  We kept talking and praying about it though, and soon we started coming up with ways to raise the money. On top of doing fundraisers, I g...

 Summer workshop starts in five days! Today I'll be talking about what classes I'm taking, my schedules, and more.  To start with, I'll be taking ballet, conditioning, pointe, variations, contemporary, musical theatre, and partnering. I do ballet, conditioning, pointe, and partnering throughout the school year, but I only do the other ones in the summer. We have two guest artists coming, one for each week. The first one is one of my studio's founders, and one of my past instructors. She's an incredible dancer herself and one of the best teachers I've ever had. The second is a world-renowned choreographer and I couldn't be more excited to have the opportunity to be taught by him.  I'll be there for about 7 hours the first week, including a 3-hour class on Saturday. The second week I'll be there for about 12 hours each day. The reason I'm there an extra 5 hours is because I'll be teaching! I'll be assisting in two classes, and I also get t...

Today I'm going to be hinting at some of the big things that are coming up this summer, giving you a sneak peak of what you'll be seeing in some of my future blog posts.  First of all, I'm going to be attending the summer workshop my dance studio does annually in June. Click here to read about last year's summer workshop. We're also going to have two amazing guest artists visit for the workshop and I'm really excited to be taught by them. I'm also going to have some exciting teaching opportunities during this workshop. In July, I'm going to be attending another dance workshop, but this time, on a much larger scale. It will be at professional Christian ballet company with two guest artists. I'm not only hoping to improve greatly in my dancing, but I also hope to worship and experience God in a whole new way. I've been planning to go for a little while now and am working hard to make the money for the tuition.  Also in July, I'll be receiving ...