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.

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.

Keeping Fit During The Holidays

Holidays, ahhhhh how ballerinas look forward to them! A well deserved rest from a hard term's work of dance. It also gives your feet a chance to rest from those stiff pointe shoes.

But don't you worry that you'll get all 'out of shape,' for those few weeks you aren't dancing? Well, here's a plan.

Yes, you obviously deserve that rest. Your body need it, too. It gives you something to look forward to, and a chance for your body to recover. However, you don't want to get all unfit.

For the first week of these holidays, I let myself just sit back and relax. Then it was time to get into action. I strapped my pointe shoes on every day this week, and practiced for about twenty minutes to half an hour.

Now, that's not long or anything, but it keeps your feet in shape, so you don't go downhill during your few weeks off.

Also, I've done a bit of stretching. No more than five or so minutes a day, but it keeps those tendons working, so I can still do whatever I need to when I get back to class next week.

Thanks for reading/commenting, everyone!

P.S:

On the right hand side of my blog, just below this post, I recently created a poll. It is the first of a series of poll. I am wanting to know what you think of my blog (that's what this poll's about), what you want more of on my blog, and so on. Please vote!

So far, only five people have voted. Come on! Please, if you havne't, I encourage you to. This blog is for your benifit, so I want to know what you want more of.

You don't have to have a Google Account to vote, either. It's as easy as just clicking a button.

Thanks again.

Diary Update

I have noticed that recently, as in, the last few months, I have hardly told you anything about my ballet life.
I mean, sure, I've bee posting a lot. But they have all been 'advice,' articles. Personally, I think that's fine, and I'm sure you'd agree. In fact, it's probably better than just talking about me me me all the time.

However, I'm sure that you want to know what's I've been up to recently in my new ballet school.

Well, I've been having lessons on a Saturday morning. In these lessons I am working towards my Intermediate exam. I think I am doing OK in those lessons. I now know almost all the exercises, and am working to perfect them.

On Monday, I have a 'pointe class.' This whole class is done on pointe. Unlike my Saturday classes, I share this class with about six or seven other girls. I reckon I would be the youngest in the class.

They are all a good one or two years older than me. One of the girls is even at Uni! I don't really mind being the youngest, though. I fit in really well, and it's fun, too.

Our school is doing the musical, Cats. I overheard a conversation about a part in the musical where one of the cats does a solo dance. Apparently they don't have anyone to do that dance at the moment.

They were going to get a girl from year 12 to do it, because she dances, but I don't think she was all that keen on it.

My Mom went and talked to the music teacher at out school about it. I haven't heard anything about it since, but I'm hoping that I might get the part. How awesome would that be?

Fingers crossed.

So that's what's been happening in my dance life for the last term. I'll post soon ..... I promise !!

Looking For Another Ballet Blog To Follow?

If you are looking for another ballet blog, apart from 'My Pointe Of View,' to follow, I have written 'reviews,' on a few ballet blogs that I follow.

You can find these reviews under the 'Other Ballet Blogs,' page. They are all great blogs that I really enjoy following. And you know what, if YOU have a ballet blog, and you know that I follow it, there's a strong chance that I have written a review about it.

So go and check it out. I hope you will have as much fun as I have following these wonderful dance blogs. Even if you are not that into ballet, some of the authors also write about here day-to-day life. If they do, I mention it in the review.

Enjoy .....

How To 'Ice,' Yourself

If you have not a strained/pulled muscle, one of the first things you are probably going to do, is to put an ice pack on it. But did you know that there is a particular way to ice yourself?

Well ...... there is!

You see, if you put the ice pack on yourself for say, 20 minutes straight, then take it off, it will actually probably do more damage to yourself than if you just left it be.
Why?
Because if your leg, let's say, has a strained muscle and is at room temperature, then you go and wack a freezing cold ice pack on it, you leg isn't going to appreciate that sudden change in temperature.

However, if you put the ice pack on for 5 minutes, then take it off for five minutes, then put it one for four minutes, then take it off for four minutes, until you are down to one minute, it would be a much better idea.

Just recently, I really hurt the tendons in my foot. My teacher said that I should ice my foot just like I told you in the paragraph above.
It actually really works, and is way better than just putting ice on it for 20 minutes straight.

Below are instructions on how to properly ice yourself, so you can print them out and keep them out and keep them stuck to your fridge or somewhere like that, so that when you need to ice yourself, you can easily glance at the instructions and know exactly how to do it.


INSTRUCTIONS:

1) Get an ice pack out of your fridge (not freezer. A frozen ice pack won't work as well as just a cold one.

2) Apply the 'ice,' pack to the injured part of your body for 5 minutes.

3) After five minutes, take the ice pack off for another 5 minutes.

4) Apply the ice pack for 4 minutes.

5) Take the ice pack off for 4 minutes.

6) Yep, you guessed it, put the ice pack back on your sore muscle for 3 minutes.

7) Remove the ice pack for another 3 minutes.

8) Re-apply the ice pack for 2 minutes.

9) Keep ice pack off for 2 minutes.

10) For the last time, put the ice pack on your sore muscle for 1 minute.

11) Now you can remove the ice pack for good. Rest your foot for another 7 -8 minutes. Do this at least twice a day for 7 days, or until your muscle is healed.


Thanks everyone for following. You are all awesome!

My Ballet Treasures

Hi Followers!

I would like to share with you today three of my most precious ballet treasures. Here they are, I hope you enjoy .....

My first pair of ballet shoes. I got them when I started ballet when I was only five years old. That was almost ten years ago! I have had them ever since!

This was my first ballet leotard that I also got when I was only five years old. When I got it, it was way pinker than it is now. I wore it for a year at class, then I used it for dress-ups for about four years afterwards!

And last but not least, my very first pair of pointe shoes. As precious as these shoes are to me, they actually weren't very good pointe shoes. The 'pointe,' was too small, so it made it very hard to dance on. These shoes bring memories of great joy ..... but also of great pain!

A Dancer's Diet

Being one of the hardest working athletes on the planet, ballerinas need a good, stable diet.


A rough estimate are that female dancers need at least 45 – 50 calories per kilogram of body weight. Having enough calories is very important. If your body doesn’t have enough, you won’t have the energy to get you through the day.


A dancer’s diet should be made up of at least 55 % carbohydrates. One – two hours before training, ballerinas should have a meal that mainly consists of carbohydrates. Also, during a long stretch of training, dancers should stop every 40 minutes or so to have a drink of something such as Gatorade or Powerade.


The body uses proteins to produce and heel body tissues. A ballerina’s diet should consist of up to 13 % proteins, so that it can strengthen your muscles so you can perform complicated dance moves. To get proteins, eat meats (including chicken) and beans.


Many dancers are scared that if they eat fat, they will put on weight and not be able to dance anymore. However, fats help organs to function properly, and help absorb vitamins. It can also be used as a secondary energy force. Fats should make up to a quarter of a dancer’s diet! ‘Good,’ fats are available in avocados, nuts and seafood. Preferably consume unsaturated fats, rather than saturated fats.


Minerals and vitamins help the body to function properly. Ballerinas should consume up to four servings of fruit a day to provide minerals and vitamins needed. Vitamins A, C and E are particularly useful in helping a dancer recover from a day of hard work.


Now, last but not least: water. Despite the fact that water doesn't contain vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates or calories, it is one of the most important parts of a dancer’s diet. Water help to keep your body temperature down, and keep your circulation consistent. Ballerinas lose a lot of liquid through sweat, so be sure to drink lots of it!

What's Inside My Dance Bag .....

My Waterbottle (Well, it's actually my brothers, but he doesn't use it, so I do!)

Warm up 'bunheads,' 'strap.' I do exercises with it before class.

'Dance Energetic,' ballet jumper.



Back up Intermediate CD - just incase my teacher forgets hers or if it's faulty.

Spair leotard (purple)

Two pairs of spair stockings. You never know when your pair might rip!

Ballet flats with ribbons

Another 'Dance Energetic,' ballet jumper

Toe protectors for when on pointe.

My saviour - Voltaren. Great for sore muscles, takes away the pain and heels them in no time. I use this stuff a LOT! It's availabe from most pharmacies in Australia.

Garnier Deodorant - another one of my saviours. Available from most Woolworths, Safeways and Coles.

Demi Pointe shoes. Most of my work is done in these.

Pointe Shoes. $100 from BLOCH

And last of all ..... My Ballet Bag! I fit all my stuff into this sweet little (well, not that little when it's filled to the brim) bag. I got it when I was in Paris for only 12 euros.

I've been thinking about writing a post about, 'what's inside my dance bag,' for a while now. So today, when my Mom was asleep and my Dad and little bro were out fishing, I decided to.

As you can tell by all the pictures, there's quite a lot of stuff. Some of it I hardly ever use, such as the spair stockings and leotard.

Other stuff, like my waterbottle, voltaren, deodorant, pointes ect, I use a lot.

So as you can imagine, my ballet bag is pretty heavy. Although I don't really care, because it's full of my favourite brands such as BLOCH, Dance Energetic and Bunheads.

When I get home, I always hang my ballet shoes up on the back of my door. This keeps them fresh and smell free.

Also, if you leave your sweaty shoes just sitting in your bag until your next dance class, then can grow mold.

Thanks for reading/commenting!

Sort Of On Holidays : )

Hi Followers,

I guess that since last Thursday I have sort of been on holidays from ballet. Well, I danced through the holidays, but I've got until Saturday off!
However, I'm going to be very temped to strap my pointe shoes on and do a bit of pointe this afternoon.

I think that I'll also do about an hour of stretching today. You know how you sometimes just get that feeling that you really need to stretch? Well that's how I feel right now!

You know how last time I posted, I said that there was a girl who was dancing with me, just for the holidays? Well, it turns out that she now lives in Alice Springs and is dancing with a company up there!
I felt really privileged to be in a class with somebody dancing at that higher standard, even if it was only for four lessons.

My ballet teacher is really great, too. I know that I have already said this, but she really is. She danced with the Australian Ballet for a few years, then came here and started teaching.

One thing that my teacher said that I really had to work on was, strangely enough, my arms. It's true that when you are doing a hard exercises that your arms/fingers will show it.
My teacher said that when I am working really hard, my thumbs stick up! Then after thirty seconds or so, my arms start to droop, especially in second position.

So, you may thing, well, just change it and do it properly. That's when I've been trying to do, but it's SOOOO hard. You will not believe how hard it is. Like ..... seriously!
I have been working on them in the last four lessons I have had with her, but still, my arms droop all the time!

My teacher said that it's just practice, practice, practice. She game me some pieces of paper to hold between my thumb and palm. That helped, but I'm still working on it. My goal is that by the end of the year to have perfect hands!

Thanks for reading/commenting, everyone! I will be back to post again, soon - I promise!

Yes - It HAS Been A While!

SORRY, I HAVE NO IDEA WHY IT IS POSTING IN THIS ALL SQUISHED UP FORMAT. JUST KEEP WITH ME FOR NOW, I WILL TRY TO GET IT TO WORK PROPERLY FOR NEXT TIME. SORRY ...... I AM REALLY IRRITATED WITH THIS COMPUTER RIGHT NOW! Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiii Everyone! I'm really sorry that I have taken SOOOOO long to post. You see, because of the move, we havne't had our internet up, so I haven't been able to blog. But, FINALLY, today it got set up. I admit, I was the first person to rush to the computer and jump on the internet .... aah, my life's back! We arrived in this awesome place on the 17th of March, today is the 17th of April, so it's been a month. Long story cut short, I LOVE it! It's way bigger to the town we were living near before we moved, so it's a big strange, but it's also TOTALLY awesome! I started at a really good school a few weeks ago. It's great, and I have made a whole lot of lovely friends there and I am loving every minute of it (well, almost :) ha ha Just last week I started ballet. My teacher danced with the Australian Ballet for a couple of years, and is the most amazing ballet dancer. She's also a really good teacher, and tell you exactly what you have to work on, but I am really missing my previous ballet teacher - a lot. During the holidays I am dancing for an hour in the morning, twice a week, but during school term, I will dance on Saturday mornings, and have a pointe class some other time, too. Fun, Fun! Sorry this post has to be a short one, but I think my family is off to the beach, and want me to come with them. Chat Soon! P.S: Thank You SOOOOOO much for all the comments everyone kept posting, even though I never replied due to having no internet. Don't worry, if you go and have a look now, I have replied to all of them, well, most of them! Thanks again, it always makes me feel fantastic whenever I see a comment waiting for me! xxx

Just Some Ballet Pics .....

I've Got News .....

Yes, I do indeed have news!
Actually, I have two lots of news. I know they may not be particulary ballet related, but they are still exciting, and will probably have an in pact on my dance.

Okay, first lot of news: We're Moving! It's not a small move either, we are moving states.
At the moment we are living in New South Wales, but we are going to move to Victoria.
When my mom told my ballet teacher, she almost burst into tears. It will be extremely hard to leave the ballet school I am at at the moment, since I am good friends with the teacher, and she's also really good, too.

Mom and briefly looked on the Internet for ballet schools in the new town/city we are moving too. She has found one, but we still have to actually go and look at it.

So that's the first lot of news, the second lots is ..... well, this isn't really ballet related at all, but still, I'm really excited to tell you:

I have been selected to swim in the level just below state! I only found out today. I am so excited, nervous and ..... shocked. The carnival is next Friday ( the 25Th of February), so I've got to start training hard.

I will be doing the 15's Girls Backstroke 50m. Last Friday, when I swam the same race at our school carnival, I was 59.8 seconds, and came second.

I hadn't even practiced for it! I wasn't even sure that I was going to swim in the carnival at all. But I did in the end, because the water looked so nice and cool. It was a hot day, you see, and lots of my friends were swimming, too.

To tell the truth, I actually have a phobia of deep water! I have never been fond of the stuff, ever since I was little, but it has just got worse with age.
My Mom actually had to send a note to one of the teachers last week at sport (we went to the pool for sport last week), to tell them that I had a phobia of deep water, and not to make me go into it if I didn't want to.

So that's my news. I know the stuff about swimming isn't really ballet related, but I still wanted to tell everyone!

Thanks for reading/commenting, my friends!

It's Official - I'm the worst person at keeping my blog posts up to date. In the universe!

Hay All,

Sorry - I never seem to blog anymore. I have actually been really busy at the moment.
However, I went back to ballet on Monday. The next day, my thigh muscles were SOOOOOOO sore. I know that I stretched heaps in the holidays, but still - they ached!

After ballet on Wednesday, I showed my teacher how close I was to doing the splits. Pretty close! I simply can't wait until I can do them properly. I guess you have just got to stretch, stretch, stretch!!!

Thanks for reading/commenting!

No, I Haven't Been Abducted By Aliens!

Happy 2011, Everybody!

Yes, as all of my followers would have noticed, I haven't updated since last year. Sorry, but I actually couldn't! Since it was Summer Holidays, we went away to Sydney, Italy and Northern Ireland.

Now, let's think ..... what did I write last time I posted? Ooh yes, that was it ..... trying to do the splits. Well ...... ha ha. When we got to Sydney, I was so busy socialising, I didn't practice at all. However, I don't think I was set back that far.

I obviously couldn't practice on the plane from Sydney to Italy, though I did consider practicing during the stop over in Dubai.
Strangely enough ....... I didn't. ha ha, well, they wasn't really any place to practice without millions of people staring at you and wondering what you were doing.
And yes, I admit it, I was also too busy eating whopper burgers (yes, in Dubai) and looking out the huge windows at the tallest building in the world.

I did practice in Italy a lot, and in Northern Ireland a bit, too. But ...... I haven't practiced for a few days now.
However, I am determined to be able to do the splits by the time I get back to ballet next week - so wish me luck!

Back to school tomorrow. We all know what that means: getting up early, working hard, home work and more! But I guess it will still be fun.

Will not wait five weeks to post again! Thanks for reading/commenting everyone!

It's All Over For The Year!!!

The concert was awesome!

It went for 45 minutes - which was actually quite long! Last years concert (I think it was the first concert the ballet school had ever had, it's still really new) only went for about 20 minutes.
This years concert was much grander!

Last year, the hall was pretty small, there was no special sound system, and no curtains. But this year ..... the hall was all renovated and new (bigger, too) the stage was bigger (I think .... - still good enough, though), there was a huge sound system, electric curtains and ..... it was just awesome!

There were also loads more students this year than last year. I am not exactly sure how many are in the school, but I would say about 40. Last year there wouldn't have been nearly as many.

Anyway, let me not tell you about the actually concert. Well, all the students were asked to arrive 1 hour before the concert was supposed to start. They were also all asked to come with their hair and make up done.
So, all my teacher and I had to do (and other helpers, too) was get the costumes for everyone, and fix up a bun or two.

I ran over a dance with one of my groups, then ...... it was time to go on stage. They were cute, what with all their hair and make up on, and their amazing costumes.
Of course, up there on stage in front of 80 - 90 people, they were very nervous, but they still did well.

Unfortunately two of the groups went onto the stage way too late in the final. But it didn't really matter, they were only about 4 - 6 years old.

Finally, after what felt like forever, it was time for the older students to go onstage. I think that I was okay.
My pointe work was good - I thought, but that was just me thinking that, so who knows what it looked like from an audiences pointe of view. I have really noticed that, since doing all the work for my concert, my pointe work has improved dramatically.

The other older students were great, too.
Apparently one little boy (I know him) said to him Mom, "Mommy, what's the wolf going to do?" His Mom just said to him, "Don't worry, he's just pretending to be a wolf." Then the little boy turned to his Mom and said, "Mommy, what is Izi pretending to be, then." Him Mom explained to him that I was Peta, and that the wold wasn't going to eat anybody, it was just acting.
ha ha - so cute!!!

Anyway, after the concert by teacher brought me and another girl out onto the front of the stage, and told the audience how we had done exams this year, and said that we had done "very well," ha ha - thankfully she didn't tell them about my marks.

Then, one of the Mom's of the girls who I help out with stood up and thanked both my teacher and I (and another lady who had been helping with the concert in the last few weeks,) and gave us all flowers.

(At the moment, I have the flowers in my bedroom. They smell sooo strong and I just love the smell.)

Once everyone was aloud to get up and go outside for afternoon tea, my Mom and Dad and Grandparents, (who had come down to watch the concert) all started taking pictures of me and my flowers and my teacher.

ha ha - I felt famous.

So ..... ballet is finished for the year, and we now have 7 whole weeks of holiday. Although I am going to keep practicing my pointe and other work through the holidays.
I want to keep my pointe up, I really feel like I am improving at the moment, and I also want to be able to do the splits by the time I go back to ballet next year.

So, if you are following my blog, stick around, I will be updating every week.

Thanks so much to everyone for reading/following/commenting on my blog over the last few months - I really appreciate everybody who does.

Thanks again

Izi x

P.S: Sorry, I don't have time to read through my work before I post it on the internet today. ha ha - there were probably be heaps of mistakes. Anyway, hope you still enjoyed.