The Longest Summer
As I write this, I have already finished three summer intensives and almost one month of my professional track training with State Street Ballet and I didn't blog because the summer was utterly overwhelming in the good way.
I finished my first (and only) year with Joffrey Ballet School's Ballet Trainee program on May 27 with a performance that included some new choreography of La Bayadere and a dance to AC/DC's Thunderstruck (2cellos cover). It was an amazing time with some friends that I'll remember forever, but in the end, it turned out that JBS was not the right fit for me. Whether it was the school or just a girl who grew up on a dirt road making her way through Manhattan for a year, I'm not sure, but I am no longer studying there. I already miss some of my teachers.
I spent one bonus week in the Joffrey Dorms, sleeping, recovering, massaging my calves, and celebrating my 23rd birthday (!) before I moved 24 blocks uptown to Manhattan College of Music's dorms for the American Ballet Theater Collegiate Summer Intensive.
I spent three weeks in the ABT studios, getting physical therapy from ABT's therapist, dancing with teachers who'd known Balanchine and joined ABT after rejection from City Ballet (imagine ABT as your backup choice) and hanging with my girl Amanda who I met at Joffrey Summer 2016! We explored Manhattan together, drank coffee, and ate kale rice bowls and it felt like no time had passed in our friendship even though we hadn't seen each other for a year.
Also I walked out of the ABT locker room and almost collided head first with Maria Kochetkova.
The Saturday after the final ABT performance, I got on a plane for Phoenix, Arizona, and then a tinier plane for Santa Barbara, California.
I am a Cali girl, technically. A SoCal girl, specifically, and an OC girl even more specifically. I was born in La Habra, California (don't feel bad that you've never heard of it--no one has). I'm the daughter of two UC Riverside alums to boot. I hardly remember Cali, since we moved when I was two, but I've always felt at home in the Golden State. I thrived at Stanford Summer College in 2011 in Palo Alto, and I adored Monterey for MIIS Arabic Intensive Language Program (nerd alert), so I had high hopes for Santa Barbara.
And I was not disappointed.
I felt instantly at home with State Street Ballet and I relaxed the instant I landed at the Santa Barbara Airport. The summer intensive was very friendly and I was finally one of the big girls in the top level. I wore a tutu for the final performance and we did La Bayadere, so I even knew the dance before hand.
In Santa Barbara, I also did something long overdue--I got professional help for my Achilles tendon pain. I'd been the first student to sign up for PT at ABT and I'd been taping myself up with KT tape since March, but I went to an acupuncturist in Santa Barbara and I danced pain free for the first time since late February.
At State Street, we performed on a Friday night, and the next day I was on a plane back to Phoenix, and then on a plane from Phoenix to Philadelphia, and then I had to literally run to the plane to Albany, NY.
Ajkun Ballet Theater had the oddest summer intensive I've ever participated in. They focus a lot on their production (this year it was Carmen) but that can be wildly overwhelming. I eventually bowed out of the performance and just did the modern dance piece, but I still had a good time and roomed with some absolute sweethearts.
After Albany, I flew home, my parents took me home, and I unpacked and repacked in under an hour, took a shower, and then we drove to Madras, Oregon in the Path of Totality of the solar eclipse and went camping.
What an exhausting year. What a rewarding year full of friends and family and amazing experiences. Your girl is one step closer to the corps de ballet.
I finished my first (and only) year with Joffrey Ballet School's Ballet Trainee program on May 27 with a performance that included some new choreography of La Bayadere and a dance to AC/DC's Thunderstruck (2cellos cover). It was an amazing time with some friends that I'll remember forever, but in the end, it turned out that JBS was not the right fit for me. Whether it was the school or just a girl who grew up on a dirt road making her way through Manhattan for a year, I'm not sure, but I am no longer studying there. I already miss some of my teachers.
I spent one bonus week in the Joffrey Dorms, sleeping, recovering, massaging my calves, and celebrating my 23rd birthday (!) before I moved 24 blocks uptown to Manhattan College of Music's dorms for the American Ballet Theater Collegiate Summer Intensive.
I spent three weeks in the ABT studios, getting physical therapy from ABT's therapist, dancing with teachers who'd known Balanchine and joined ABT after rejection from City Ballet (imagine ABT as your backup choice) and hanging with my girl Amanda who I met at Joffrey Summer 2016! We explored Manhattan together, drank coffee, and ate kale rice bowls and it felt like no time had passed in our friendship even though we hadn't seen each other for a year.
Also I walked out of the ABT locker room and almost collided head first with Maria Kochetkova.
The Saturday after the final ABT performance, I got on a plane for Phoenix, Arizona, and then a tinier plane for Santa Barbara, California.
I am a Cali girl, technically. A SoCal girl, specifically, and an OC girl even more specifically. I was born in La Habra, California (don't feel bad that you've never heard of it--no one has). I'm the daughter of two UC Riverside alums to boot. I hardly remember Cali, since we moved when I was two, but I've always felt at home in the Golden State. I thrived at Stanford Summer College in 2011 in Palo Alto, and I adored Monterey for MIIS Arabic Intensive Language Program (nerd alert), so I had high hopes for Santa Barbara.
And I was not disappointed.
I felt instantly at home with State Street Ballet and I relaxed the instant I landed at the Santa Barbara Airport. The summer intensive was very friendly and I was finally one of the big girls in the top level. I wore a tutu for the final performance and we did La Bayadere, so I even knew the dance before hand.
In Santa Barbara, I also did something long overdue--I got professional help for my Achilles tendon pain. I'd been the first student to sign up for PT at ABT and I'd been taping myself up with KT tape since March, but I went to an acupuncturist in Santa Barbara and I danced pain free for the first time since late February.
At State Street, we performed on a Friday night, and the next day I was on a plane back to Phoenix, and then on a plane from Phoenix to Philadelphia, and then I had to literally run to the plane to Albany, NY.
Ajkun Ballet Theater had the oddest summer intensive I've ever participated in. They focus a lot on their production (this year it was Carmen) but that can be wildly overwhelming. I eventually bowed out of the performance and just did the modern dance piece, but I still had a good time and roomed with some absolute sweethearts.
After Albany, I flew home, my parents took me home, and I unpacked and repacked in under an hour, took a shower, and then we drove to Madras, Oregon in the Path of Totality of the solar eclipse and went camping.
What an exhausting year. What a rewarding year full of friends and family and amazing experiences. Your girl is one step closer to the corps de ballet.
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