Abs

HAPPY 2012!

I just finished doing some ab exercises.

OK, so people tell me that I have got a good figure and everything, and I guess it's true ... ish, but what I really want are abs.

ha ha, and you are probably laughing now, but it's true.

I just bought a new Ipod Touch (it's really awesome, got wi-fi and everything!) I was browsing the app store the other day and found this a.m.a.z.i.n.g. app. It's called 'ab workouts.'

The app is free, and it's got a whole lot of ab exercises you can do to get those muscles working. Some of them include:

- Abdominal Holds

- Bicycle Crunches

- Planks

- Side Crunches

- Sit Ups

You can click on each exercise and it will tell you how to do each exercise properly.
I have found this very useful as it gives me lots of new exercises to do, as well as teaches me how to do them properly.

If you are wanting to get fit and/or get abs, I highly recommend this ap.

Something else that also helps me when I'm doing these exercises is music. I've got a whole lot of great music on my iPod, so putting this on when I'm exercising really helps, especially if it's got a fast beat.

Thanks for reading/commenting. I'll be back again to do another post soon.

New Colour Scheme

Hey Everyone,

Just a quick word from me .....

Well, as you may remember, recently I put a poll up saying 'This blog should change it's "look"'. The answers you could choose from were 'yes,' or 'no.'

The poll closed the other day. I can't remember the exact statistics, but it was something like 80% said it SHOULD change its look.

Since I want you to enjoy this blog as much as possible, I have decided to do as you suggested and change its look.
As you may have noticed, I set up another poll today saying asking what colour scheme you would like this blog to be.

Please do vote on this poll and tell me what colour scheme you would like. I will make my blog the colour that gets the most votes.

Thanks a lot, everyone :)

Concert/Exam Results

Hi Everyone,

OK, so I feel REALLY terrible for not updating in, like, ever. I could spent the whole post apologizing for it, but let's just get on with it, hey?

Last Friday my dance school had their first Christmas Concert for 2011. They had another two on Saturday (afternoon and evening.) I was, obviously, involved in all of them.
There wasn't a theme to the concert, it was just a whole lot of random dances put together.

In fact, our dance was the only classical one in the whole concert!

I think that I did a really good job of the dance on Friday night and Saturday afternoon, but unfortunately, on the night that my parents came and watched, I TOTALLY stuffed it up.
Thankfully they didn't really, well, notice. They said they enjoyed my dance and thought I was very graceful.
My Grandma said that she thought my arms were 'very nice.' ha ha ha. Do you remember how when I started at this dance school my arms weren't too crash hot? Well, thankfully that's all fixed now.

The concert was fun, although it got REALLY REALLY REALLY boring backstage. Most people had about four to six dances. Because we only moved to this city half way through the year, I was too late to join any concert classes.
Well, I did join one, but they had only started their concert dance just before I arrived - that's why I was able to join them.

However, I LOVED the part that I was on stage for.

I'm sorry I didn't take a picture of my costume. If you want to know the honest reason why, it was because I couldn't find my camera. I can't take a picture of it now (I found my camera yesterday), since I had to hand it back to the dance school last weekend.

My costume was a purple tutu with fake diamonds stuck in a 'V' shape on the top of the leotard. I had a little tiara to wear in my hair, plus pink stocking, pointe shoes etc.

There were five girls in my group; I think it would have looked great from the audience. I mean, all the purple.

Alright, onto something else now .....

Today at about 10 O'clock in the morning, I think it was, my exam results arrived.

eeeeekkkkk

OK, so I'll be upfront about it and tell you that I got a Pass. I know it isn't the best mark you can get, but I'm happy. I mean, as you could probably tell from the post I did after the exam, it really didn't go the way I was hoping.
I mean, the floor stuffed everything up and I wasn't feeling too great that day, either. Plus, I had just been sitting in a car for three and a half hours.

I really thought that I would fail, but it was OK. I passed.
I'll have to do a post explaining the different marks you can get and all that another day.

It's almost dinner time, I think, so I'd better get going and set the table. I'll do a post on Monday again.

Thanks for reading/commenting!

2011 Ballet Concert

Heeellllllooooooo!!!

I am proud to announce that my ballet school will be having their concert on the 3rd and 4Th of December. There will be three concerts in all. One on the 3rd and two on the 4Th.

Unfortunately, because I arrived half was through the year, I was too late to join any concert classes. However, the pointe class I joined is going to be doing a dance in the concert so I'll be in it. WOooH!

Because I am not ..... well ..... friends, as such, with the girls in my pointe class, I was sort of dreading the long rehearsals coming up. (4:00 - 7:00pm every Tuesday). I wouldn't really have anyone to chat to or hang out with.

However, one of my friends from my class at school is in the concert too! I didn't know this until about three days ago. Well, I knew she danced at the same school as I did, but I didn't think she would be doing the concert.

My friend is only in grade 2 (like, in ballet. She's in year eight at school - obviously) so we're not going to be in the same dances or anything, but it will still be fun to hang out with her during the rehearsals and performances.

Also, because school finishes at 3:20, Mom isn't going to pick me up just to drop me back 40 minutes later. (The rehearsals/concerts are at my school in our new auditorium.)
So I'll have someone to hang out with after school while we wait for the rehearsals to start as well.

It's so cool. I'm excited.

My friend was pretty relieved to hear that I was in the concert, too. She said 'Ooh, I was sooo not looking forward to all the rehearsals. I would have nobody to hang out with for like, 4 hours.'

So yes, that's my news. Our dance is coming along pretty well. We are obviously all on pointe so it's great practice. I got to try on my costume on Monday. It's a purple tutu. YAH!

I might just have to take a picture of it and post it on my blog you that you can have a look ......

Strengthening Your Feet

As many of you probably know, at the end of this year I will have been dancing for ten years. And as I'm sure many of you know too, I have only been en pointe for nearly three years.

I had to do seven years of ballet before I could go anywhere near a pointe shoe.
Why? Well, your feet need the strength before you can put all your weight on them. Plus, you rely a lot on them for your balance.

To make your feet strong for pointe, there are some exercises you can do to help strengthen your feet. I know you would have all heard me say this before, but you have to do lots of releves.

A lot of the work you do at the bar, especially the demi pointe work, is set to help prepare you for your pointe.
It's there to strengthen your feet and ankles so that by the time you reach a grade where you need to dance with pointe shoes, you will be well prepared.

Some other thing you can do to help strengthen your feet for pointe is to do ankle circles every day. Twenty-five on both feet in each direction.
Rolling your arch with a tennis ball also helps. Do it 35 times on each foot. Once with your foot parallel and then with your foot turned out.

If you are wanting to get stronger feet, I hope this post has helped you. If you have any questions or perhaps any other ideas on how to strengthen your feet for pointe, be sure to leave a comment.

Thanks everyone.

New Logo

I am excited to say that 'My Pointe Of View,' has now got a logo! It's it completely pretty? I am in love with it and decided to have the unveiling of the logo today. What do you think of it?

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!!