Musicals

Welcome readers! So this week I wanted to talk about something very near and dear to my heart: musicals! I know. You're thinking, "ew musicals. They're so cheesy. Why are you into them?" Here's my answer: they involve everything that I love. Singing, dancing, and acting.

Despite the stereotype, not all musicals are cheesy. Take "Les Miserables" for example. It is no where near cheesy. It's very serious, filled with symbolism, violent, and has a deeper meaning along with fabulous songs. Everybody dies except for 2 people out of over 100. The title literally means "The Miserable". It's pretty sad but it's such a good show. See it. Watch the movie. Listen to it. It's pretty darn good. 

Now there are shows like "Annie" which are very over-the-top with "everything will be fine in the end" and "don't worry, everything will be happy" where you think "what do you mean musicals aren't cheesy?" Yeah. This is kind of the epitome of cheesy Broadway shows.

My favorite show at the moment is "Phantom of the Opera". I think the songs are beautiful, the music is brilliant, and the story is great. It's a very dark show about a Phantom who is obsessed with a singer with a beautiful voice and will literally kill to get her. So yeah the show is not for the faint of heart. A little note: do not watch the movie version that is currently on Netflix with Gerald Butler, but if you can find it on YouTube or they put it back on Netflix, watch the 25th Anniversary with Sierra Boggess and Ramin Karimloo. The cast is phenomenal and yeah... I have no more words. 

There's one more musical I want to talk about... "Wicked." It was not my first musical, but it was the first one that really inspired me and showed me how much I enjoy musicals. If you don't know, it's the story of the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda before The Wizard of Oz. The dancing is really good. The songs are great (in fact, I learned the songs YEARS before I actually saw the musical). It's a really good show. 

Okay, I lied. There's one more show I want to talk about, and that's the latest show I've seen: "Beauty and the Beast." To be completely honest, I was not expecting very much from this show, but I loved it. The movie is very dear to my heart as are the songs, but the cast was perfect, the songs they added were amazing, and the costumes and scenes all worked out. Gaston had the perfect voice, Belle's voice was absolutely gorgeous, and the Beast's voice was incredibly powerful. It had that beautiful Disney quality that you just can't fake. 

Okay for real that's it. My suggestion to you is to find a musical that matches your style. A Disney musical, a dramatic musical, there's even this new musical where all the songs are rap called "Hamilton" if that's what you're into. If you're into very Broadway shows, go listen to or see "Into the Woods". There's a show for everyone. 

Thanks for reading. 

High School (Excessive Complaint Noises)

Hello readers! So today I'm going to be talking about something less exciting, un-related topic... HIGH SCHOOL (oohhh). I just feel like I need to get it out of my system to bear with me. Or don't.

Okay so on Thursday I toured a high school for the first time which really psyched me out. We had some tour guides (seniors) who were great, but were talking about college, like, the entire time. That really stressed me out. They were saying things like "you need to figure out what you want to do with your life now. And if not now, soon." I was just thinking "I'm still in middle school calm down I have NO IDEA what I want yet."

The guides also were amazing students. One took 4 AP classes in one year and had taken 10 overall. The other one had taken 8, but was involved in almost every club and organization in the school. It really made me feel like, "if they can do it, I can... but at the same time, do I want to? CAN I?" I had so many conflicting feelings.

We went into a bunch of classrooms, each with a different kind of teacher. We saw a funny one, a serious one, a sarcastic one, and a terrifying one. And the tour guides and the teachers would talk to us and relate their class to college.

Right after I got back to school, we had to take culmination pictures which was kind of nerve-racking. It was like they were saying "it's time to go now. Start getting ready for the future!"

Personally, I don't think we should be thinking about college in that magnitude quite yet. Our opinions and interests will change in a year, let alone four. Yes, I want my options to be open, but I also don't know what I want to do with my life. It's getting kind of personal, so I'm going to stop talking about this now. Thanks for reading!

Competition #5: Hall of Fame in Ontario (Days 2 & 3)

Welcome back! So in this blog I’ll be combining Saturday and Sunday’s competitions.

--------------------------------------------------Saturday----------------------------------------------

So on Saturday, we woke up at 7:40 for the first solo. My sister decided to stay in the hotel and live stream the competition. My mom and I went downstairs to eat lunch and then drove to the competition. Unfortunately I missed the first solo, which I was pretty bummed about, but I came just in time for the second one.

Three more solos went and then there was a break before the duets, during which I watched some of our competition. The duets and the trios went on. This competition was a pretty emotional one because it was the last competition of the season, which meant that we were saying goodbye to some of the dances we’ve been performing for a little less than a year. We all tried to give our dances the proper send off.

After the awards for the solos, duets, and trios (results will be posted below), there was a 4-hour break before the groups. In that time, we went back to our hotel room, relaxed (got some Starbucks which is always a plus) and finally had to get ready to go on.

We got back extremely early so my sister and her team could run their dance before they went on. The first group went on and after that it was chaos. People were running back and forth, trying to change makeup and hair and get their costumes on.

One dance I will talk about in a little more detail than usual is “Imagine”. It was the first Select Group from our studio, which means people were selected specifically for that dance. They had been competing and performing the dance for over a year and this competition was their last time dancing as a group. I am extremely proud to say that “Imagine” had a great send off with not only a costume award, but also a First Place in their division and a Platinum (the highest you can get). It was very emotional, but since there were more dances, everyone had to suck it up and go on.

Everyone was frantic trying to get makeup and cuts done (our dance is about a natural disaster), but my dance finally went on around 8:30 that night. It was one of the best we had ever done and we were rewarded with Platinum! It’s the highest award our team has gotten and we figured that all these High Golds had been leading up to this award.

Awards started around 9:45. Here are the results from that day in no particular order (range from High Silver, Gold, High Gold, Platinum [I made a mistake in the last post; there is no award after Platinum for our category]):

• Twelve High Golds
• Two All-star Awards (invitation to Nationals in Las Vegas)
• Three Platinums (ME!!!)
• Entertainment Award
• Costume Award
• Platinum      
• Four 1^st Place Awards

And the songs performed to that day (these aren’t all of them, but I don’t know all of them… sorry):

• ·      “Every Heart” – Sara Haze
• ·      “This Is My Now” – Jordin Sparks
• ·      “Alegria” – Cirque Du Soleil Francesca Gangnon
• ·      “Maniac” – Flashdance Michael Sambello
• ·      “Flying Without Wings” – Ruben Studdard
• ·      “Uptown Funk” – Mark Ronson, Bruno Mars
• ·      “She Works Hard For The Money” – Donna Summer
• ·      “I’ve Got The Music In Me” – The Kiki Dee Band
• ·      “Stranger” – Active Child
• ·      “Clap Snap” – Icona Pop
• ·      “California Dreamin’” –San Andreas Sia

-----------------------------------------------------Sunday---------------------------------------------

I woke up on 8:00 on Sunday morning, but decided not to go down to the competition until the second dance and live stream the first one. I watched the first one in the morning but my sister and mom were still sleeping and they were running so far ahead that I just watched it at the hotel.

Then we drove home and I missed the other two little groups, but I’m sure they did great.

List of Awards Received:

• ·      Gold
• ·      High Gold
• ·      Two Platinums
• ·      Two 1^st Places
• ·      6^th Place

And a list of songs:

• ·      “Father” – Demi Lovato
• ·      “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” – The Hunger Games: Catching Fire Lorde
• ·      “Run the World (Girls)” – Beyoncé
• ·      “Dancing In the Street” – David Bowie & Mick Jagger

That’s it for this week. Thanks for reading!

Competition #5: Hall of Fame in Ontario (Day 1)

Hello readers! So this weekend I have a dance competition called Hall of Fame in Ontario. It spans from today to Sunday, so I will try to update daily and let you know what's going on.

So my sister's call time was at 3:00 (though people from our studio had been performing since 8:30 that morning), and being a Friday, both my sister and I had to leave school early. She left with one of her friends, so my mom picked me up early and we had to stop at our house and get gas and stop for lunch before we ever actually got going.

It took us about an hour and a half to get from LA to Ontario, and by that time it was already 2:30 and my sister wasn't even dressed, let alone had her hair crimped, had her costume on, or done her makeup. So we rushed around trying to get her ready before her call time. We didn't quite finish in time, but we were close enough and it was fine.

This competition live-streams the dances, so while we were in the dressing room, I was also watching the competition trying to keep up with the dances that were going on and keep track of time. I ran out to watch some of the dances from our studio, ran back to the dressing room to continue helping, and kind of went in a circle.

Finally my sister went on, and they did great. There was one more dance and then there was awards. The results of this day will be posted below.

We did very well at this competition. After celebrating, we went out to dinner for one of the girls on my team's birthday. I will not reveal the name of the restaurant we went to, but the service was really slow, we were getting the wrong orders, and the food wasn't very good. It took us an hour before we actually got our food. But that's okay we had fun anyway.

We got back to the hotel room and now, we are just relaxing (finally).

That's it for today. Below, I will give you a list of the awards received today and the names of the songs performed to. Thanks for reading!

Awards (from least to greatest is High Silver, Gold, High Gold, Platinum, Grand Slam):

• 9 High Golds
• Costume Award
• 2 Platinums
• 2 Allstar Awards
• 2 1st Place Awards

Songs:

• "My Wish" - Rascal Flatts
• "Supermodel (You Better Work)" - RuPaul
• "Dead In The Water" - Ellie Goulding
• "Beautiful Girl" - Sarah McLachlan
• "Colourless Colour" - La Roux
• "Heroes (we could be)" - Alesso
• "Spice Up Your Life" - Spice Girls
• "Jellicle Songs For Jellicle Cats" - Cats Original Broadway Cast
• "Right Now" - Van Halen

Competition #4 Cont.

Welcome back! So in this blog, I'll be talking about Sunday in my convention experience.

----------------------------------------------------Sunday-------------------------------------------------------------

So we woke up at 6:30 on Sunday, which was better than 5:50, but still early considering the fact we went to bed at 1:30.

We got dressed, did our hair, and left. Thankfully, there was no competition that day, so we didn't need to bring anything else.

We got there at 7:30 and met our team and waited for everyone to get there before classes started. The first class started at 8:00 and it was Ballet. Our whole team was exhausted and wasn't in the mood for any dancing, but we did it anyway. Ballet was peculiar. It felt more like Acrobatics than Ballet until the end. We were doing bridges and push ups until the last five minutes where we did turns. The teacher was even stranger than the class. She would kiss some of her students which was weird, but her credentials were good, so I'm not going to doubt her teaching skills or methods.

At 9:00, we had Contemporary. I enjoyed this Contemporary class more than the one we had on Saturday, but still not my favorite thing. I really liked the choreography, but he taught it so fast, a lot of us simply had trouble picking it up. 10:00 was (sigh) Hip-Hop. It was better that day because it wasn't so fast, the teacher went over it more, and we didn't have the pressure of auditions. So this Hip-Hop class was better than the last. The last class before lunch was 11:00 Jazz. Again, it was Musical Theater Jazz and I really enjoyed it. We had a lot of fun dancing.

We had lunch from 12:00-1:00. We were kicked out of the Teen Room because the Performance Group was rehearsing, so we had to eat with the Juniors. I was happy that this Lunch was an hour compared to the half an hour we had on Saturday because it gave us more time to just hang out and relax.

After a long Lunch, we had my favorite class of the entire weekend which was another Contemporary class. I loved the teacher and his whole vibe. The choreography was great and his teaching method was great as well. I really liked his class.

After the last class, we had a 45 minute break until the Best of Show Competition, Crew Performances, and the Scholarship Presentation at 2:45. It was mostly crews (including the girl from our studio who won the audition) performing until the Scholarship Announcements when something happened we did not expect... 4 people from our studio received scholarships. We had absolutely no idea that what happen. What's more, our studio won an award for Sportsmanship. It sounds corny, but it goes back to what I told you in my first post: our group loves each other. We cheer each other on. There's no cattiness and no fighting. And we cheer other teams on as well. It was good to finally get some recognition . Of course that's not the important thing, but it was nice.

We got picked up around 4:30 when it was over, went back to our grandpa's house, and just relaxed. We went home around 6:00 and had a relaxing night. It was nice to finally be home.

Well thanks for reading. Come back next time!

Competition #4: Adrenaline in Downtown LA

Hello everyone! Welcome back to my blog.

This last weekend, my team and I went to our fourth competition this season. But this one included a dance convention. For those of you who don't know what that is, a dance convention or workshop is where the competitors (usually divided by age) take master classes from people who are big in the business. This includes people who have their own dance companies, people who dance for big stars, who are big stars, or might have been on TV at one point or another in their careers.

The competition/convention spanned over the entire weekend, including Friday. Because it's so long, I'll divide it up into two smaller blogs (although they'll both be kind of long... sorry.

-----------------------------------------------Friday-------------------------------------------------------------------

So I had a short day at school on Friday, getting out at 12:47. That gave me time to go home and pack everything my sister and I needed for the trip. We were staying at our grandfather's house which is only 20 minutes from the competition location: Hilton Los Angeles Airport, right next to the LAX airport. So in the packing, I had to include all the dance clothes I needed. snacks, makeup, hair stuff, and costumes. My sister got home from school around 3:30, so we had to finish getting ready and go to the competition.

It took us about 40 minutes to get to my grandpa's house, where we ate dinner and relaxed before making our way to the hotel for the competition. Neither my sister nor I were dancing that night, but we had to support our friends who were.

Unfortunately, by the time we got there, we had missed all but one of the dances performed that night. We stuck around for the time before that dance, and we watched the dance. It was performed beautifully. Our team has grown so much since last competition. We could not stay for the awards because it had gotten too late, so we went back to my grandpa's house around 10:30 that night. I texted my friends who did stay for the results of every dance, and our studio quickly learned that this competition would be difficult to score well in. The judging was harsh and the difference between a High Silver and a Gold was a matter of nine points. That could be two feet pointed or three legs straighter.

----------------------------------------------------Saturday-----------------------------------------------------------

The next morning, we got up at 5:50 in the morning, got in our dance clothes, did our hair, had breakfast, packed our makeup and costumes, and brought everything to the convention. There was no time to drive back to the house to get our stuff between the convention and competition, so we had to bring everything with us. We got to the hotel around 7:00, met our studio to receive our studio to receive our wristbands to get into the convention classes, checked in, and went in for warm-up and the opening ceremony at 7:30.

At 7:45 we had our first class which was contemporary. which was very hard. The teacher taught everything once, all at one time, and then we did it with music. It was hard to pick up, especially that early. I enjoyed the choreography, but it was hard to dance.

At 9:00, our second class was Jazz. It was a lot of fun because it was a  very different style of Jazz than what we usually do in class. The teacher was very upbeat and was a lot of fun to learn from. Her view on dance was insightful and it was great to take a class from her.

10:00 was Tap. I have only been taking Tap for half a year and am not very good at it yet, so that was a struggle for me. And the fact that there were so many people that I couldn't see the teacher's feet and could only hear the terms (some of which I don't know yet) didn't help.

Following Tap was (sigh) Hip-Hop at 11:00. I am NOT GOOD AT HIP-HOP AT ALL. Granted, I have only been taking it for a year, but I am a more classical dancer. Contemporary and Jazz and Ballet are more my thing. And this Hip-Hop was so fast I just could not keep up. To make matters worse, I learned at the end of the class that we would be auditioning to be on the "Adrenaline Crew and Performance Team" with this routine. That mean we would have to perform it in front of the teachers who would judge us. And my teachers new in advance and didn't tell us. That was not fun at all.

From 12:00-12:30 we had lunch, which was nice. We just relaxed and talked for the first time that day.

We had our final class of the day at 12:30... another Jazz class. I really enjoyed this Jazz class. It was more Musical Theater Jazz style, but it was very enjoyable. At the end of that class, we learned we would be auditioning that dance as well, which was nerve-racking.

At 1:30, we had our audition. We started with the Jazz. I did alright, but the girls in our group were so good, I knew my chances were incredibly slim. Following the Jazz, we did the (sigh) Hip-Hop auditions. I got through it mostly by laughing because, to be perfectly honest, I didn't really know what was going on.

The winners of the audition were announced and someone from our school got in because of the Hip-Hop audition. We were all so proud of her.

Everything ran really late, so my sister's team had half an hour to crimp their hair, so their makeup, get in costume, and get everyone together. It was incredibly tight, but it was somehow managed. With less than one number to spare, they were able to get backstage and perform the best they ever had. With five dances to change, they changed costumes and got backstage for their second dance. It was the last time they would perform this dance, and it definitely had a proper send-off with tons of energy and great technique.

The Junior Hip-Hop Team performed next. This was their first time performing this dance, and I was really proud of the way they did. They were followed by the Junior Jazz team, this was their first time performing as well. They did a Musical Theater number which was very fun to much. The Mini Company went next. They were much younger than the rest of us and I was incredibly impressed with their maturity.

Acrobatics Team B followed the Mini Company. Compared to the rehearsal, it looked like a completely different team and number. They did so well. I had to get ready for my dance and did my makeup, so I missed the Pre-Teen Jazz dance, but I heard that they were really good. I was done in time to see the The Ballet Small Group. I had never seen the dance all the way through with the costumes and was pleasantly surprised at the grace that was presented with the dance. The last dance before awards was Acrobatics Team A (including my sister) and they were FABULOUS. It was a sassy number, and they performed it like they never had before. I was so impressed.

It was time for awards. I went on stage with my sister for the awards. They did well. Not as well as we had hoped, and definitely not as well as they deserved, but the competition was tough, and some of the people in her category were amazing.

It was finally time for my team to go on. According to the people watching, we did it better than we had ever done before. I was proud of the way we did and was excited to see how we did. I changed out of my costume just in time to see the Teen Hip-Hop group. This was their first time competing and I was pleased with their performance. The last dance of the night from our studio was the Small Group. I love their dance and think they did great.

We had about an hour between the Small Group and the awards so we just rested and hung out and talked. Awards started at 12:30 on Sunday morning, so by then, everyone was exhausted, though the minis had gone home three hours earlier. Like my sister's group, we didn't do as well as I hoped or think we deserved. But at the time, I was too tired to cared.

We got back at 1:00 that morning and didn't get to bed until 1:30. I fell asleep so quickly that I don't really remember crawling into bed.

Here's a list of most of the songs performed to these two days (I don't know them all. Sorry) :

• "Maniac" - Flashdance Michael Sembello
• "Every Heart" - Sara Haze
• "Alegria" - Cirque Du Soleil Francesca Gangnon
• "Uptown Funk" - Mark Ronson
• "Colourless Colour" - La Roux
• "She Works Hard For The Money" - Donna Summer
• "I've Got The Music In Me" - The Kiki Dee Band
• "Flying Without Wings" - Westlife
• "Father" - Demi Lovato
• "My Wish" - Rascal Flatts
• "Beautiful Girl" - Sarah McLachlan
• "Right Now" - Van Halen
• "You Can't Stop The Beat" - Hairspray Elijah Kelly, John Travolta, Queen Latifah, Nikki Blonsky, Zac Efron., Amanda Bynes
• "Heroes (we could be)" - Alesso
• "Jellicle Songs For Jellicle Cats" - Cats Original Broadway Cast
• "Dancing In the Streets" - Martha Reeves & The Vandellas
• "Spice Up Your Life" - Spice Girls
• "Clap Snap" - Icona Pop
• "California Dreamin'" - San Andreas Sia
• "Stranger" - Active Child

And a full list of the awards received those days: 

• 22 Golds
• 2 High Silvers
• Performance Team Membership

Stick around tomorrow for the second half of this post! Thanks! 

Sherlocked

Hello everyone! Welcome back to my blog! This week I will be talking about a new show I have just been introduced to called "Sherlock".

"Sherlock" is a modern take on Arthur Conan Doyle's classic book series "Sherlock Holmes". While you may be thinking: "modern adaptations of 'Sherlock Holmes' are never good," this one is. All the characters from the book that you love and hate including Dr. Watson, Mycroft, and even Moriarty, are included. They don't try to hard, and make it more like a real mystery show. The personalities are the same; Sherlock is arrogant, Dr. Watson is a war veteran who has been shot in the leg and so on and so forth.

The show stars Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holmes and Martin Freeman as Dr. John Watson. The acting is fabulous at the least. The characters pull you in and the show itself is BRILLIANTLY written. The plot lines pull you into the story and mystery makes everything better.

The show is obviously a mystery but there is no doubt that it has its funny moments, as any great show should. I would recommend this to everyone who likes a good story. I'm not a huge fan of the murder mystery genre, but I'm in love with this show. You don't need to like the genre to enjoy the show, you can love it anyway. I encourage people to give the show a shot. It may not be for everyone (what show it), but I implore you not to judge it right away.

Going along with Sherlock and Watson on their investigation is so much fun that you can't help but to try to solve the case with them, even if it's sometimes impossible for us normal human beings.

The show is on BBC/BBC America and will return in 2017. The episodes that have aired are currently on Netflix and Amazon if you would like to watch it.

Thanks for reading. Come back next week for more!

P.S. Thank you to my friends Marissa and Kimia for introducing for this show. You should go check out Kimia's blog, it's awesome.