The Exam!

Dear faithful followers,

I am SOO sorry I didn't get around to posting sooner. I know I said that I would post on the 18Th. And now it's already the 20Th. *Sorry*

OK, so let me tell you all about Monday and the exam. I'll start from the very beginning, hey?

Well, I got up in the morning feeling surprisingly ..... calm. I had a shower and washed by hair. I didn't blow dry it because that makes it too hard to work with. I let is sort of just dry its self whilst I was having breakfast.
After breakfast I put it into a perfect bun. I was proud of how I did it, actually. For all my other exams my Mom has done my hair for me. This was the first one where I did it myself.

We left our house at about 9:00. Dad took me to Melbourne for the exam. We stopped in Geelong for morning tea. When we got to Melbourne it wasn't nearly time to go into the Opera Center (where the exam was held) yet.
Dad and I just walked around Melbourne for a while. The weather was absolutely beautiful. I love Melbourne - it's such a pretty city. I have only been there one other time in my life.

Eventually it was time to go to the Opera Center. Dad and I had made sure we knew exactly where it was the minute we arrived in Melbourne. We didn't want to be looking for it at the last minute.
Actually, the Australian Ballet Centre is in the same block as the Opera Centre. We ended up going in there thinking that's where the exam might be. ha ha.
The lady there said she didn't think any exams were being held there but we could go up to the 5Th floor and ask.
Dad was like 'well, it was supposed to be at the Opera Centre, so I think we'll keep looking.' So we did.

Anyways. So when we got the the Opera Centre a lady came and took me and three other girls up to the warm up room. I must say, it certainly wasn't as flash as last year. It was still nice, but not as fancy.

We got changed, warmed up and then before we knew it the examiner was ringing her bell for us to enter. It was really weird because I was SOOOO calm!

The exams was ...... well ..... not so good.
In fact, it was pretty awful.

I'll explain.

To start off with the floor was completely .... yeah - wrong. It was this rubbery stuff that hurt your feet so much just to stand on it and it was SOOO hard to dance on.
I would have much prefered to be dancing on thick carpet.
So that was incredibly disappointing. I felt that I couldn't do my best and could feel myself failing by the minute. Stupid Floor.

In the middle of the exam I actually felt like crying. My feet and legs and whole body didn't want to do what I told them to do. And I know this is going to sound lame but I blame it all on the floor.
You really need to be able to trust the floor when you are dancing. And .... if the floor's rubber it's pretty impossible to do a pirouette on it - let alone a double or a double-and-a-half.
Sucked really.

Plus, to go with that, when I got up that morning I had a really sore throat. It got worse during the day. By the time I got home that night I was coughing pretty bad. I went to school on Tuesday, but by Tuesday night I knew there was no way I was going the following day.

So I didn't go to school yesterday or today. Actually - I'm supposed to be at school right now .... in Major Project. he he he. Got out of that one OK I guess.
But I still feel pretty awful. I think it's the flu. I've spent the last 48 hours on the computer, piano, reading and bed.
Sigh.

On the way back from Melbourne Dad and I stopped at McDonald's for dinner. I had ....... a double quarter pounds, medium chips, medium coke and a soft serve ice-cream.
YUM!
That certainly was the best part of the day.

It is good to have the exam out of the way - but I am really really really terribly disappointed at how it went. I hope I passed. I mean - surely she can't fail me. I mean, she can, but you know - there would have to have been SOME good things I did in it.

I think it will be about 1 - 2 months until I get the results back. eeeeekkk. Well, I did the best given my situation and that's all I can do, hey.

I am really sorry I didn't post earlier. Thanks for reading everyone!!

Tomorrow = Intermediate Exam!

Tomorrow is the big day!

I am ...... SO ..... nervous. And also excited in a way, I guess. I mean, I get to go to Melbourne and dance in front of some well known ballerina. Plus, the location of the exam is pretty famous too.
AND I'll have a massive awesome hall to dance in, and get the chance to meet other ballerinas that will be doing the exam with me.

I am fairly confident with all my exercises, dance and pointe. It doesn't mean that I'm not completely nervous to the point of feeling sick.

Later today I am going to pack all my stuff and tripple check that I've got everything.
It's going to be so good to get into bed tomorrow night and know that it's over with for a nother year.

Actually, after publishing this post I am going to go back and read what I wrote on this blog the day before my exam last year.

As completely nervous as I am, I think that I'm just a bit calmer that the day before last year's exam. Although it's still over 24 hours away so that could all change.
I couldn't sleep last night - I just kept thinking of the exam, exam, exam, exam, exam. eeugh. I just want to get it over with right now.

I mean, I love dancing, and I like doing exams. It makes you work on exercises and have them perfect by a certain date. Plus, as I said earlier, there ARE advantages to doing the exam such as getting to dance to live piano music.

Anyways, I'll post on the 18th (the day after the exam). I won't be able to post tomorrow because we'll be getting back pretty late.

Bye Bye To All ....

News Flash

Well ......

I went to ballet today for an hour, and I've got an hours class tomorrow, and the next day, and on Monday, and on Friday!

ha ha

By the time my exam comes around I'll be very ready for it, I'm sure! It's only 11 days to go!!

The other teacher I went to see last Friday told me that I was not drawing my supporting leg in when I was doing pirouettes.
I practiced around the house, and at ballet today I noticed that it had actually made a HUGE! difference. Now I can do a double pirouette almost perfectly. I just need a little more practice .....

Bye for now!

Quick Post From Me

Hi Fans!

Today I went up to a town about an hour and a half away from where we live. I had a special ballet class there.
A while ago I went there for a class, remember. However, this time it was a private lesson, not like last time where I was in a class with lots of other girls.

The class was extremely intensive and went for over two hours! By the end of it my legs were shaking like jelly!
The teacher didn't mind my pointe work, but I thought it was pretty horrible. Because my legs were shaking so much, it was really hard to balance.
At the end of the class, when I was putting on my shoes, my legs were shaking so much it was embarrassing. I seriously couldn't stop it.

Despite the hard work, it was good and I'll be going up for another two hour class next Friday. When I got home tonight, I immediately got in the shower to help relax those muscles.
The long trip home was good, too. It gave my muscles a chance to relax.

The teacher said that I need to work on my double pirouettes. She said they were good, but they could be better and I needed more momentum to get me all the way around ...... twice.

She also said that I need to work on my pas de bourrees. Apparently I am not stepping into second enough, and my foot is going behind instead of coming in front. So I'll be practicing them on demi-pointe and on pointe over the rest of the holidays.

Apart from that, she seemed happy with my dancing and said that I was certainly ready for the exam. Tomorrow it's the first of October, which means it's only 17 days until the big day. eek!

Thanks so much to all the people who voted on my poll. The results were:

7% - I dance but not ballet

14% - No

78% - Yes

Be sure to keep an eye out for my next poll. I haven't put it on yet, but I will. Hope you all have a great weekend!

Inspiration Please!

Hey!!!

OK, so I haven't posted for like a month or something ridiculous. I'm so sorry. Every time I get on the computer (which is like ten times a day), I think 'ooh, I really should update my blog,' but then I just end up checking my e-mails or doing homework or something daft.

But tonight I am specifically on the computer to update my blogspot.

Another thing that has been holding me back is that I'm not really sure what to write about. I feel like it's time to do an informative post, but I'm not sure what to write on it. Do you have any suggestions for what I should do an informative post on?
What would you like to learn about on my blogspot?

So I promise that the next post I do will be an informative one, but for now I have no inspiration. Come on guys - I'll write about WHATEVER you would like me to (regarding dance) in the next post.

Anyways ......

Going onto a 'diary update,' now. Mom and I filled in the exam form the other night. My exam is going to be some time in October.
We didn't know this, but it turns out the exam is in Melbourne. It'll be a bit of a drive, but it will still be fun. I can't say that I'm looking forward to it - exams are too scary for that - but it'll be OK.

On Saturday Mom and I headed up to the local ballet shop to get some new pointe shoes. My other ones are not too small for me, it's just that I've overused them so now they are pretty hopeless.

The ballet shop didn't have the ones we were looking for, but they have ordered them in for us and hopefully we will have them in the next couple of days. It was so quick and easy it was hard to believe!

Where we used to live, we would have to travel a few hours to Canberra and go to the big BLOCH store there. We would spend ages in the shop looking of the right pointe shoes.
However, this time, because I know what I'm looking for, it was basically just in and out of the shop in ten minutes.

Awesome.

I will post soon. Please remember to comment and say what you would like me to write about.

Intermediate Foundation Ballet

Hi again! Sorry I haven't updated for a while.

I have got being upset and angry with myself about my exam marks, but I haven't changed my mind to practice at home.
Unfortunately I have only practiced once in the last week. ha ha - I feel really bad about that.
Straight after this I am going to go and practice.

What I have managed to do it ride 66 km on the exercise bike in three days and walk up and down our drive about a million times (it's quite long, too).

Yesterday I was practicing my arabesque with my leg up on the window-sill and up on demi pointe. I think it set my back off, because now it is really sore and in spasm. Sigh!

It won't stop me practicing right after this, though!

(As I sit here writing this, my brother is watching me - irrrrr. He wants me to write about him. When I asked him what he wanted me to say about him, he just said "Just say that I am a very talented ballet dancer." ha ha)

You know what, I just noticed that since I started intermediate, I haven't really written about it at all.
However, it is going well. The new pointes are AMAZING! I fell like I can do anything on them. I just with that I could have had them before the exam.

Most of the exercises on demi pointe are really hard, but, as I have said before, It is good to be able to do something new!

4 More Sleeps!

The heading probably makes it sound as if I were excited - but I'm not.....I'm extremal nervous!
I have only got 2 more classes before the exam.....saying that makes me even more nervous!

We went to a large town some kilometres from where we live, on Friday. We got new ballet stockings, and ribbons to sew onto my flat ballet shoes.

On Saturday we looked and looked and looked for a "light pink velvet hair ribbon, about 1 cm wide," that I have to wear in my hair. Don't ask me why!
After ages of searching, we eventually found one. It was light pink, but now velvet. We bought it anyway, then kept searching for one that was actually made of velvet. We ended up finding one in the shop next door, though it was not 'light' pink, we bought in.
I have to show them to my teacher today, and she can decided which one is the best.....like the examiner is going to care, anyway!!!

On Thursday, guess how many kilometres I rode on the exercise bike.....15! I know, I was pretty bored by the end of it.
It sounds like a lot of kilometres, but it really isn't that hard, if you can get past the boredom. It's not so bad if I'm watching TV while I am riding, or listening to my Ipod.
Once I went through a stage where I would do something ridiculous like 25 km per day. It took up so much time and I got tooooo seriously bored, that I stopped.

Later on today it is my second to last ballet class before the exam! I think that we are just going to start the music and keep going, not stopping it at all!

10 Days To Go!

Mom ordered my ballet stockings today. I have obviously got some, but they are full of holes and are not nearly fit for an exam.
My teacher said that my leotard is OK, so that's good.
We still have to get ribbons for my flat ballet shoes, hair net, bobby pins and.....yep....., I think that's all!

I have been practicing the splits a lot, but I know that I won't be able to do them by the time the exam comes around. Only ten days time! I am SO nervous.
I keep telling my self that I will be just fine, I know all my exercises and can do them all really well. It doesn't stop me feeling nervous, though!

The foundation ballet class on Friday went well. We had it in a smaller hall, just down the road from the one that I usually do ballet in. I know I have said this before, but.....foundation is REALLY hard, even though is's fun!
After doing intermediate foundation for one and a half years, it is nice to have a change. I am kind of getting a little bored of the exercises!

Yesterday, we had to have ballet at the "Little Hall" (as I like to call it) again. The building attached to the "Big Hall" had gone up (or should I say down) in flames just a couple of nights before.
There was nothing wrong with the "Big Hall" but it had a "Do not cross" sign up, so we obviously couldn't dance there! Poor old hall!

So.....back to stretching, and getting ready for the exam. I think I will go and ride the exercise bike now. 7 kilometres.....maybe 10???

I Know When My Exam Is!

Can anyone guess what date my ballet exam is? I have actually written it on my blog, just in a place you wouldn't really think to look.....It's under "About Izi the Awesome."
My exam is on the 27 Th of August at 10:05 in Canberra. That is.....15 days away. I am really nervous!

I have to bring a photo ID thing to the exam so that the examiner can see that I really am who I say I am, not just someone pretending to be me.
The photo is of me when I was in Northern Ireland last year, outside in the 2 degree weather. The photo had to be four by four centimetres, so most of them were either way too big or way too small.

This week at ballet it has been pretty good. My teacher lent me some thicker toe protectors which REALLY make a difference to the pain when I go on pointe. It is actually quite amazing!

Tomorrow I am going to ballet at 11:00 am. We will be doing the next grade up (foundation), so that my teacher and I can get familiar with the syllabus. Yesterday I found out that there is something like....let me think....12 pointe exercises next year - ouch - But I guess that it will be good to get a head start.

By The End Of The Month, I Will Have Done My Exam!!!

Because I missed ballet on Wednesday, I decided to practice today.
I went into our study, got into pants that I could actually move in (I had jeans on at the time), put my ballet shoes on, and started.
I did all the barr and was really impressed to see that I could do demi grands ronds de jambe without my leg clunking half way through. Once I realised this, I couldn't stop doing it.

One thing I REALLY need to work on is the splits. I can't do them. Once when I was in grade 2 I could almost get down there, but now that I have stopped practicing, I obviously can't do it.
I put on the music to the adage and stretched and stretched and stretched. By the end of it I felt like I had had a very good workout.

Tomorow it is ballet. I have decided that no matter what state I am in, I will go. It is too close to the exam not to.

When I just then wrote "too close to the exam" I just realised that by the end of the month, my exam well be finished.....IT IS AUGUST, I WILL HAVE DONE MY EXAM BY THE END OF THE MONTH!

My Dream, I Mean, Nightmare!

When I went to bed last night, I must have been thinking about my ballet exam or something, because I had a dream about it! Actually, it was more like a nightmare.
It went like this:

You know how I will be taking my exam in Canberra, well, In my dream, I kept telling my Mom that we had to leave for Canberra or we would be really late for the exam. She kept saying "Ooh, No, It will be okay, we will leave in an hour and a half".
Anyway, when we finally did get to Canberra and find the place I was to be doing my exam at, we were really late. Infact, we were too late for me to get into by ballet stuff or do my hair.
So, I go into the exam with my jeans, thongs, shirt and sleveless jumper. (I also had gloves on, the tipe of gloves you wear when you collect fire wood- don't ask me why)

I started doing the bar, and it was OK. But when I it was time to go into the centre and do releves dessus and dessous, my feet just didn't want to work properly. Firstly I kept tripping up, then I got the wrong foot, then the wrong arm, then the wrong this and the wrong that and it kept going on and on and on and on and on.....

IT WAS TERRIBLE!

Thankfully, my dream stopped and about that point. But guess what.....I dreamed it all over again (this time without the gloves on).

After dreaming it the second time, I woke up and started coughing (at the moment I have got a really bad cough).

Let's hope that my real ballet exam isn't anything like my dream, I mean, nightmare!