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.

I Am, Officiall, Ready For The Exam ...... Almost!

Hey All,

I will apologise again for the lack of updates in the recent weeks. Sorry. I have been very busy. However, I have a few minutes now, so I decided to jump on the Internet and update.

On Thursday last week, I went to a ballet class in another town, with another dance school. The girls in the class were actually doing the grade of ballet above me (Advanced Foundation 1), so they were all about sixteen or so.

However, we all did the exercises from Intermediate so that the teacher could look at how I was going. The other students and the teacher were extremely nice.

At the end of the class, the teacher called me up and said that she thinks I am ready for the exam. There are a few things I have to work on, such as getting my leg higher in one exercise, and getting more 'whiz,' on my double pirouettes.
Otherwise, I'm set to go! So that's great and exciting news.

One thing the teacher also said to me was that my pointe shoes were looking a bit 'soft,' but as all ballerinas know, you don't want to get a new pain just before the exam. However, she gave me a really good tip: get new pointe shoes now, and wear them at the moment. When the time for the exam comes around, just wear the old pointes, that are already broken in.
So I reckon that's what I'll be doing.

Thought just to share it with you all .........

Thanks for reading/commenting. Will post soon.

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 !!

The Exam!

As always, it wasn't as bad as I though. Though I was still shaking!!!
We stayed at my uncle and aunt's place about half an hour out of Canberra. Even though it is only supposed to take half and hour from their house to Canberra, we left really early (7:30), because we thought that there would be heaps of traffic.
We arrived at 8:15, but only found the building at 8:30. We sat in the car and listened to the Italian news until we saw my teacher.

I said goodbye to my family, then went into the building with my teacher.
There was a lady at the door who we had to give my photo ID and a letter that they sent us to. My teacher handed the lady my photo ID, then I opened my suite case to look for the letter.
I looked and looked and looked, but it wasn't there. My blood literally ran cold!
Thankfully, my teacher had a photo copy of the letter, and the lady said that was good enough.

Then the lady attached a number (8) to the back and front of my leotard. Don't ask me why.....

We then went into the change rooms and my teacher put the "light pink velvet hair ribbon" (she had picked one up for me) into my hair, then she passed me a package and told me to open it once the exam was over.

The lady came in and told me to "say goodbye to Mom and go into the warm up room." (the lady thought that my teacher was my Mom - ha ha!) My teacher said, "Ooh, I am your Mom, OK," then she told the lady that she was actually my teacher. I said goodbye to her and went into the warm up room.

I put on my flat ballet shoes, then did some stretches.
A little while later, another girl came in. Then another. I found out later that a fourth girl was supposed to come, but she never did.
We practices some exercises, then the lady came it. (I have no idea was the 'lady's' name was).
She showed us how we would enter the exam room, and what the examiner and pianists name was.

Then she left us. We warmed up for a while, then the 'lady' came in. She said it was time to go in for the exam.

We collected our pointe shoes (guess what, we weren't supposed to wear toe protectors - but we all took them in with us), then lined up at the door, ready to go in.

I WAS TERRIFIED!

The bell went and we all ran in. We said good morning to Mrs. Everson and the pianist (I can't remember her name).
Then we put down our pointe shoes and ran to the arr.

The barr seemed to be okay. One exercise the the other girls did a little differently, I just kept doing it the way I was taught.
We actually skipped a lot of the exercises, I guess that there wasn't enough time to do them all.

The center was okay, too. Except for the 'thing' (I just spent ages on the Internet looking up how to spell in, but google had no idea what I was talking about.) aka: jumble of exercises you have to do at the examiners command. I totally stuffed that up, and so did another girl - ooh well!

Again, we skipped a heap of the exercises. We also had lots of breaks, where we could go over to the corner and have a drink. There was a shelf with a water jug, cups a tissue box and a vomit bowl (thankfully none of us had to us the bowl).

The other girls did the dance a little bit differently from me. But again I stuck to what I was taught, and I think that I did it well - possibly..... (!!!)

Pointe wasn't actually that hard. One of the exercises at the barr we didn't do, and we only did half of each exercises in the center.

YAY!

Finally the exam was over. We said goodbye to Mrs. Everson and Mrs. Turner (I think that was her name - maybe no!) then ran out.

"No more exams for another year," I though. I got changed into some other clothes, then said goodbye to my teacher.

We went to BLOCH to get me some new pointe shoes, Demi pointe shoes and a new leotard. I got a fantastic pair of pointe shoes, they are sooo comfortable - well, as comfortable as a pointe shoe can get.
The demi pointes are soooo funny. They look just like a pointe shoe, but have nothing at the end. If you go on pointe on them, you actually wreck them!
I tried on litrally millions of leotards, all different sizes. I will have to take a picture the one I chose, and put it on my blog.

After BLOCH we went to the food court. Then headed home.

I am SO glad that the exam is over, and that I don't have to do another one for one more year!

Last few hours!!!

In 24 hours time I will be 40 minutes into my ballet exam! It makes me feel sick just thinking of it!
We leave for Canberra at about 4:00pm this afternoon. I usually love going away.
But this time it is a different feeling.....a kind of feeling of "Ooh, No!"

Yesterday was the last class before my exam. I had one and a half hours helping with the other classes, and just the day before I had ridden 23km on the exercise bike, so I was pretty tired by the time it was my turn.
I've decided not to do any riding or exercise today, I must keep all that energy for tomorrow!

What does make me feel better is the thought that in 25 hours time, it will all be over. Now more exams for another whole year! YAY!

Another thing that makes me feel better, is if I think, "After this exam, I have only got one more ballet exam before I can do my two teachers exams. Once the teachers exams are over, I can teach."
That would be cool.

I love ballet, but I don't actually want be be a ballerina or ballet teacher when I grow up. I would prefer to be a doctor. But I guess that I could do some ballet teaching when I'm at uni, for some extra money.

Last night my Mom sewed on the ballet ribbons to my flat ballet shoes. She had to unpick the elastics that were already on the shoes, then sew on the ribbons.
Mom was talking to be about what I should pack for the exam, while she was sewing. She got distracted, and started unpicking the ribbon she had already sewn on!
Mom got really angy and told me that it was her worst job in the world!
She said that it takes 20 minutes to sew each ribbon on and that she had four to do Then she told me that next time she had to sew ribbons onto ballet shoes, she was going to teach me to do it. HA HA HA! Should I be excited that I get to sew ribbons onto my ballet shoes, or not???

Anyway, half way through the sewing, my mom pricked her finger. She said that she was bleeding all over the ribbon, and asked me to go and get a plaster. I pretended to me a doctor, and rushed off to get a plaster to put on her finger.

Guess what, Mom pricked the same finger again. So I had to get another plaster for her. I don't think that I am exactly looking forward to sewing my ballet ribbons on next time!!!

Finally, the ribbons were on. Then my mom fixed the ribbon on my pointe shoe. It had come a little bit loose without me realising. Thank goodness mom did!!!

You are probably wondering what I will do with this blog once my exam is over.
Well, I will write about how the exam went, then, because I love being a 'blogger,' I will continue it about "The lead up to my foundation exam!" I think that's a good idea.

I will only find out what the results for my intermediate foundation exam are late next month. Depending on how good they are, I might tell you!

I had better go and pack my bag. Only.....23 hours left!