BAT MITZVAH TIME!

Welcome back readers! So, this week was very exciting for me because it was the week of my BAT MITZVAH! HEY-YO!

For those of you who don't know what a Bat Mitzvah is, it's a Jewish Rite-of-Passage in which a 12/13 year old (for girls it's Bat Mitzvah; for boys it's Bar Mitzvah) reads from the Torah ("[in Judaism] in the law of God as revealed to Moses and recorded in the first five books of the Hebrew scriptures") and celebrate them coming of age, or becoming an adult. It's a HUGE celebration, where friends and family come and commemorate the event.

The week started on Thursday with my sister's ballroom competition (I will talk more about this another time). We got home after the competition at 10:00 and I still had to finish writing my speech for my Bat Mitzvah and studying (also, for your Bat Mitzvah, you read in Hebrew). I had an English, History, Math, and Science test the next day and I was absolutely stressed out. So, my mom and I came to the conclusion that I would take the first two tests and go home after that.
I went to school the next day and took my English quiz.

What my class and I didn't know was that our History test was not going to be the Weekly Notebook quiz, but a Pop Unit Test. My teacher explained how to take the test, and then passed it out. But, by the time he did pass out the test, my mom had sent a summons for me to go home. So, I never got to take my test. Fortunately, nobody else had time to finish them, so at least I won't be taking it all alone.

Our plan didn't quite work out as we had hoped, and I have to take three tests instead of two, but that's okay. At least it's not four.

I got home, and my grandfather, grandmother, aunt and uncle were at my house to finish making decorations for the party. I, on the other hand, was putting the final touches on my speech, studying, and resting.

That night, there was a Friday-night service at the Temple, and it's a tradition for the B'nai Mitzvah (both boy and girl) of that weekend to participate. So, we had to go to that service which, unfortunately for us, was about 2 times longer than the average. But, there were two bright sides. One, I met Dr. Mayim Bialik from one of my favorite TV shows The Big Bang Theory (she plays Dr. Amy Farrah Fowler). Also, my friend was there and we hung out. So, that happened, and I did well.

Saturday brought my Bat Mitzvah. I woke up early, and people came to do me and my sister's hair. I then did my makeup and got ready. We drove to the temple and spent about an hour taking pictures with a professional photographer. It was not my favorite thing in the world to be honest.

It was time for the Bat Mitzvah to start. I said my prayers, and got the honor of becoming a Bat Mitzvah. I read my speech and, along with making other people cry, I made myself cry. My dad had a beautiful speech as well (which also made me cry) and my mom spoke wonderfully too. The Rabbi and the Cantor congratulated me as well as complimenting me on my job well done, the final prayer was sung, and it was time to party!

Various guests of my party took my friends to the location of the party. I don't know about other people, but the five friends who came with me and I had a great time in the car.

When we arrived, we went straight to the ballroom, and it was beautiful. The color scheme was a teal blue (my favorite) and the theme of it was books. The tables were labeled Harry Potter, Rick Riordan (i.e. Percy Jackson, Jackson, Heroes of Olympus, The Kane Chronicles), Franklin, Junie B. Jones, The Maze Runner, and John Green (i.e. The Fault in Our Stars, Paper Towns, An Abundance of Katherines, etc.). All of my friends arrived, and the party began! We had a blast! It was one of the best times I've ever had in my life. I'm so happy with the way it turned out. We danced, ate, sang, played games, took amazing pictures, and more! Overall experience: AMAZING! Exhausting, but amazing.

Thank you so much for reading my blog! I will be back next week! Have an awesome week!



    

Music

Hello again! This week, I'm going to talk about one of the best advantages of being a dancer.

There are the obvious advantages, which include fitness and stamina. But there are a few more: balance, awareness of your body, coordination, and my favorite, musicality. Being a dancer, you learn to appreciate music more, the rhythm it has, the work the artist put into it, and how to relate to the music. You learn to really know the music.

For example, if you play me a song from a ballet such as Swan Lake or The Nutcracker, I could most likely tell you what song it is and what's happening at that moment in the ballet.

Also, as a dancer, you get exposed to different genres of music: hip-hop (R&B, alternate, etc.), classical, jazzy, musical, contemporary, modern, and more. But I don't choose to listen to those types of music outside of dance. I listen more to like top 40's music. Just because I listen to one type of music in my free time DEFINITELY doesn't mean that I don't like what I listen to in dance.

When I listen to music in the car or at home, I often find myself choreographing to the music, and coming up with a story to go along with both the song and dance, as do a lot of other people in my dance studio. We make up dances all the time, both silly and serious. 

So, music plays a very important role in both a dancer's life and learning. Music plays a big role in our lives, and without music, what would life be?

"Thank you for the music, the songs I'm singing

Thanks for all the joy they're bringing

Who can live without it, I ask in all honesty

What would life be?

Without a song or a dance what are we?

So I say thank you for the music

For giving it to me"

-ABBA

Halloween Movies

Hello! Happy Post-Halloween!I hope you had a frightfully fun Halloween!

Along with dressing up and going to a parade on my block, I spent the 13 days prior watching some of my favorite Halloween movies on ABC Family’s “13 Nights of Halloween. I wanted to share some of my  top 10 favorite movies with you!

Here they are (in no particular order):

1) The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) - The movie is about the how the holidays        were created and where they come from. This includes Christmas Town, Halloween Town, Easter Town, etc. Halloween is over, and the citizens of Halloween Town are celebrating another successful holiday. The king of this town, Jack Skellington, is being praised for another fine year, but then slips away, and it is revealed that Jack is bored of the same old holiday; it’s just become to easy. He’s anxious to find something new and exciting to do. While exploring, he comes across Christmas Town, and decides this year, he’s going to run Christmas, and he’s going to do it his way.

2) ParaNorman (2012) – Norman is a misunderstood boy who can see ghosts. When he learns of a curse that was put on his town centuries ago, he also learns that he the only one who can break the curse.

 

3) Hocus Pocus (1993) – After three centuries, three witch sisters come back from the dead, out for revenge and to suck the life out of all the children, and the only people who can stop them are two teenagers and a little girl.

4) Corpse Bride (2005) – When a self-conscious groom wanders into the forest practicing his vows, he accidentally proposes to a dead woman, who then rises from the grave assuming that they are really married.

5) Coraline (2009) – A young, sarcastic girl discovers another world where she finds things exactly the way she wants them. With perfect parents who would do everything and anything for her, and an amazing room, what could go wrong?

6) The Twilight Zone (1959-1964) (I know it’s a television show; leave me alone) – Regular people find themselves in supernatural situations and occurrences.

7) The Addams Family (1991) – An eccentric family is fooled by con artists who try to get the family’s money by portraying their long lost uncle.

8) Addams Family Values (1993) – With a new addition to the Addams Family brings love for Uncle Fester, who is a mysterious woman with a dark past.

9) Edward Scissorhands (1990) – A young man with a gentle heart and scissors for hands enters society and tries to cope with the rules of life

And last, but not least…

10) Mickey’s House of Villains (2001) – This is a childhood favorite of mine. In the House of Mouse, they play old Mickey Mouse shorts from the 1930’ s-2000, and ends with a trick from the Disney villains.

I have A LOT more favorite Halloween movies, but these were just some of my favorites. Obviously, I’m not into the horror genre, but you can still enjoy Halloween!

Well, that’s about it! Thanks for reading!