Competition #3: StarQuest in San Diego

Welcome back readers! As I promised, this week's blog and next week's will be more exciting. This weekend is our very first "real dance competition". It took place in the University of San Diego in, you guessed it, San Diego.

It started on Friday when I was picked up early from school so we could get a head start on the road. We picked up my sister and then drove through a fast-food place for lunch. They got our whole order wrong, which set us back about half an hour. After that though, we were on our way.

We got to the hotel and got our rooms. We got settled in, and then we went to some of our other friend's hotel rooms and just had a good time. It was a pretty care-free night. We also watched the first episode of "Fuller House" on Netflix which was INCREDIBLY exciting.

On Saturday, we woke up at 6:30, and met our dance team for a Make-Your-Own-Waffle Buffet in the hotel at 7:00. We then went to the competition to watch the first solos. It was their first time doing a solo and they were super nervous, but in the end did great.

We then went back to the hotel rooms and just hung out and ate lunch while my sister and her team were getting ready. After 3 hours, we drove back to the competition to watch the group dance and a duet that made me cry.

After awards, we went back to the hotel room and, you guessed it, hung out. We then went back to the competition for the last solo. She danced beautifully.

We went back to the hotel room and had dinner and took a little dip in the pool which was REALLY refreshing. For the last time, we went back to the competition for the awards.

Here is the full list of the given awards:

• 2 Platinums
• 6 High Golds
• Second Runner-Up for Junior Miss StarQuest
• 5th Place Overall Out of 45
• 4th Place Overall Out of 45
• 9th Place Overall Out of 39
• "Best Costume" 
• "The 80's Rock!"
• "Smile That Lights Up the Stage"

And here is a full list of songs performed today:

• "Maniac" - Flashdance Michael Sembello
• "Every Heart" - Sara Haze
• "This is My Now" - Jordin Sparks
• "Alegria" - Cirque Du Soleil
• "Beautiful Girl" - Sarah McLachlan
• "Right Now" - Van Halen
• "You Can't Stop the Beat" - Hairspray Nikki Blonsky
• "My Wish" -Rascal Flatts

I'm performing tomorrow along with a lot of the other dances, so I'll let you know how I did next week. Thanks for reading!

Rehearsal Weekend

TWO BLOGS IN ONE DAY! WOW! I know. I know. But this one is less exciting. Don't worry though, we have a dance competition next weekend and you will get all the updates.

As I said, next week I will be driving to San Diego for a weekend dance competition. Today, we had a four hour rehearsal for all the dance competing. There are four group dances, one small group, three duets, one trio, and seven solos. So altogether we have 16 dances competing, and a good chance of winning.

At first, it was a lot of sitting around and waiting for other dancers to finish rehearsing, but then it was work work work. We ran through our dances several time and were done, but then had to make costumes. We had bought white shirts, and our dance is about a natural disaster. We got to cut up our shirts and dirty them up. To achieve this, we had to put dark foundation on them and smear it around. It was a lot of work, but it was fun to tear and cut up our shirts.

At the end, we got to see every dance performed, which was really great.

That's all I got. Come back next Sunday to see the results of the competition.

Loving to Dance

Welcome back! So, this week I'm going to talk about something a little more dance related. My dance instructor gave us the assignment to write down two reasons why we love dance. To just come up with two reasons was more challenging than you would expect. So, in this blog, I will be talking about why I love to dance.

A lot of people ask me why I love to dance. To me it's a pretty ridiculous question. Why do we love to breathe? Why do we love that our hearts our beating? Why do I love dance? Because it's a necessity to me. Without it I don't know how I would live. I'm not being dramatic; I'm dead serious. When you think about it, you don't love to breathe until you can't. Dancing is like breathing in that aspect. During the year, we all want to take breaks and stop dancing, but when a break comes along, even if it's just a day, I can't stop.

When I dance, I feel a freedom and a passion that I just can't put into words. It's like the whole world stops just so you can dance. The stress and anxiety of the outside world just dissolves, like it was never there. It is such an experience. You can't understand unless you HAVE experienced it.

Before you go onstage, you get an adrenaline rush like nothing else. It is the best feeling in the world. It's similar to being on a rollercoaster, and going up for what seems like forever right before the big drop, but completely different at the same time. When you dance, it's all up to you, as opposed to the rollercoaster mechanic. Everything depends on you in the moment. If you mess up, you can't turn off the music and try again, you have to keep going.

This reason is a little more deep. My grandmother was a dancer and it was something she loved to do. She was the one who introduced me to it in the first place, and the reason why I'm dancing. She passed away several years ago, and dancing makes me feel closer to her.

On a happier note, the last reason I love to dance is because I'm around people I love. My team, my teachers, and everybody else I dance with. Spending time with them is great. They are some of the funniest people I've ever met and I love hanging out with them.

Thanks for reading. This blog was kind of deep, but that's okay. Tune in later!

A Hectic Week: Part 2

Welcome back to blog! Sorry it's been so long but I have been busy, as the title says. 

So this week, was CRAZY!!! First of all, I was not feeling well all week and was not having it. So my week kicked off to a bad start when I had a cold. We also learned that we had a science test on Thursday, and a math, English, and history unit test on Friday. Besides that, we had an essay due on Friday as well. 

Besides all of that, we had dance without our teacher who was out of town. The pressure was on us all week. 

Monday was spent preparing to study for the big tests. As was Tuesday. 

Wednesday came and I skipped classes because I wasn't feeling well and to spend the time studying. I stayed up late studying for everything and writing my essay, but focusing on the science test I had on the next day. 

Thursday came around and it was time for the big test. Everyone was last-minute studying, not worrying about everything else we had to do that day. In history, we learned that the essay wasn't due until Tuesday, which made us rejoice. Science period came, and we were all nervously anticipating the test. When we got to class, our teacher started talking about the lab we had done the day before. Everyone took this as an opportunity to get some more studying time in. Others of us were watching the clock wondering how much time we would actually have to take the test. Time was running out to 20 minutes, 15 minutes. At the 10 minute mark, someone plucked up the courage to ask if we were actually taking the test. She replied with the fact that someone in our class had received pictures of the test and was studying those. It remains a mystery who it was, but the test was canceled and we learned that we will now be receiving 5 question quizzes which puts a lot more stress on studying. We went home that day disappointed and confused. We all spent that night cramming for the next day's tests. 

On Friday, we had three tests and everyone was feeling the pressure. We began the day with an English test, proceeded by a history test, and the day ended with a math test. Overall, our class felt good about most of them, but we were all nervous about our results. 

In other news, on February 15, 2016, the show Gravity Falls ended. It was a cartoon mystery show about a town in Oregon full of mysteries. It was incredibly entertaining and I'm sure all if it's fans (including me) will miss it. 

That's it! Tune in next week and thanks for reading.