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