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.

Competition #3 Cont. + Rehearsal

Welcome back to my blog! In this blog, I'll be telling you about the results from Sunday (including mine) and about the four hour rehearsal we had.

Our group got 3rd Place Overall against girls who are MUCH older than us and MUCH MORE experienced. Here are the rest of the results in no particular order:

• 3 High Golds
• 4 Platinums
• "Triple Threat"
• 2 3rd Place Overalls
• 4th Place Overall
• 2 5th Place Overalls 
• "Lovely Lifts"
• 1st Place 
• "Light as a Feather"

And a list of the songs performed to:

• "Uptown Funk" - Mark Ronson ft. Bruno Mars
• "She Works Hard for the Money" - Donna Summer
• "Flying Without Wings" - Westlife
• "California Dreamin'" - San Andreas Sia
• "Imagine" - Unknown (Sorry!)
• "Stranger" - Active Child
• "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" - The Hunger Games: Catching Fire Lorde
• "Father" - Demi Lovato

So yeah, we didn't win much. But I'm proud of the way we did. Our group's average age is 13, and we beat groups who's average age was 16 and 17. The groups we competed against danced an average of 30 hours a week and are homeschooled. Most girls in my group dance 11 hours a week and are straight A students and we beat those girls. Everyone performed great and I am so happy with our results. It's not about winning. It's about doing what we love and getting a great experience. 

So anyway, we had a four hour rehearsal on Friday at Calabasas High School. This was a stage rehearsal for all the younger kids who have not performed on stage yet, but the older kids (like me) had to come to set a good example and for the extra rehearsal time. I got back home from school at 3:30, had to eat, put on my costume, do my hair, and get there by 4:30. It actually started at 4:00, but I was the 12th number so I had time to spare. I got there and had one of my friends do my makeup so it would be done faster. The younger kids took almost two hours before they were done, so I didn't go until almost six. But after that I just sat and cheered on the younger kids. So that was about it!

Thanks for reading!

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.

Doctor Who

Welcome back readers! So, as you could probably tell by the title, I won't be doing a blog about my life or my writing this week. But, February kicks off competitions, so I will be doing more dance blogs then.

I'm dedicating this blog to my favorite television series: "Doctor Who". This is a science-fiction BBC original which has been running for over fifty years.

The show follows an alien known as the Doctor, a brilliant, quirky, but dark and mysterious Time Lord and his human companion traveling through time and space in his spaceship. It may sound like your average, cheesy, sci-fi TV show, but Doctor Who is really something special. It makes you create deep emotional bonds with the characters and events... which makes the show even harder to watch,

The Doctor is over 1,000 hears old and the way he escapes death is by regenerating. When he regenerates, the actor changes, which means saying goodbye to what is possibly your favorite Doctor and never seeing them again. It's absolutely heart-breaking seeing your favorite Doctor regenerate. And, usually, when the Doctor changes, so does his companion(s). The companion travels with the Doctor on his adventures. This show is heart-breaking because of all the good-byes you have to say.

There have been 12 Doctors so far plus the War Doctor. I have only watched the War Doctor and Doctors 9-12 in the new Doctor Who series which began in 2005 and is still running. The original series started in 1963 and ended in 1989.

The Doctor and his companion(s) go on adventures in his ship the TARDIS (Time And Relative Dimensions In Space) to different planets in different times. They meet different aliens and outrun death. The show constantly keeps you on your toes guessing what the Doctor will do next. There's a new adventure around every turn. The characters are hilarious and the plot lines and writing are genius. The show doesn't disappoint.

Thanks for reading! If you want to watch Doctor Who, both the original and new series are on Netflix. The new series is being taken off on February 1st, but may be put back on (fingers crossed; I'll let you know). Have a great week!

****I want to thank my friends Kimia, Marissa, Kayla, Hannah, Eva, and Karena for introducing me to this AMAZING show. Click here to read Kimia's, Kayla's, Hannah's, Eva's, and Karena's "FANTASTIC" blogs.

My Story: Chapter Two & Three

Welcome back to my blog! Last week, I posted Chapter One of my Wattpad-original story: "The Sky is Crying." So, this week I am going to post the second and third chapters because the second one is REALLY short. So, here you go!

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Chapter Two

Aubrey walked home solemnly, running ideas for her story over and over in her head. She had so many, but none of them seemed good enough to win the heart of her employer. 

She was about to turn the corner, when she noticed someone riding a motorcycle. They sped past her and knocked her over, as if they didn't know she was there. Aubrey shook her head in disbelief; she couldn't believe people could be so rude. 

When they reached the end of the street, they turned around and took off their helmet to reveal a young man with brown hair and a handsome face.

"Sorry love. Didn't see you there," he said in an accent. British, she decided. He proceeded to place his helmet back on his head and went back the way he came. 

Aubrey got off, shook herself off, and continued on her way.

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Chapter Three

"How was your day, sweetie? Did you get any more work on your story done?" Aubrey nodded her head in response. She was used to these kinds of questions. They were the same ones every day. Her mom wasn't a very creative person. She had no one to talk to, being a single mother. So, during dinner, Aubrey was asked the same two questions which were followed by a "brief" summary of her mom's day. She had learned just to nod; her mom asked the questions simply to be polite.

"Good," her mom said absentmindedly. "Better than mine anyway. I went to get groceries and while I was in the checkout line, realized I didn't have my credit card on me and no change. So I had to call the bank and asked them for my credit card number..." and, as per usual, Aubrey tuned out around there. 

"You know what mom," she interrupted. "I think I'm just going to finish the rest of my dinner in my room. Is that okay?"

"What? Oh, yeah of course. You... You go ahead sweetie."

"Great. Thanks." Aubrey walked to her room and closed the door behind her. She put on some music, grabbed her typewriter from her desk, and sat down on her bed. She just sat there with absolutely no idea what to write about. After a while she just gave up. She threw her typewriter under the bed and lay down. She closed her eyes and nodded off to sleep.

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Aubrey woke up six hours later when it was 1 o'clock in the morning and tried to go back to sleep. About half an hour later, she decided to go outside and think. She put on a warm jacket and, as quietly as she could, went outside. 

She sat down in the grass in her front yard, lay down and looked at the stars, looking for her favorite constellation: Perseus. Perseus was the famous Greek mythological hero who she greatly looked up to and admired. Not only did she love Greek mythology, but that story in particular. He killed Medusa using his cunning skills, rescued the princess, turned the evil King to stone, and lived happily ever after, which wasn't common in mythology. And being the nerd she was, she knew what quadrant it was in (NQ1), the number of main stars it had (19), and the brightest star (a Per). With that in her head, she soon dozed off with her head in the soft grass. 

She woke up to the sound of a motorcycle. Aubrey sat up groggily and looked around, the light of the sun shining brightly in her eyes. In front of her was the handsome brown haired boy who had bumped into her just the day before. He squinted at her, as if he was confused at her waking up. Then, he shook his head and smiled, but his helmet on, and drove off without a word.

Aubrey got up and started to run after him. Yelling, "Hey! Hey! What were you doing?" The brown haired boy stopped his motorcycle, the way he had when they first met. He smiled again. 

"Hello," he said,

"Hi," Aubrey said impatiently. "What were you doing in front of my lawn? And who are you anyway?"

"Um... Well, my name is Jake and I was worried about you. You were fast asleep on your lawn and when I tried to wake you, you wouldn't."

"And how did you know I was on my lawn?"

"I was coming home from my nightly rides and saw you."

"Well, thanks for being so concerned," she said awkwardly. "Bye, then," and she started to walk away. 

"OI!" Jake called from behind her. "Did you know you're a beautiful sleeper? The way you furrow your eyebrows in your sleep is really cute. And you sorta curl up into a ball and cross your arms."

Aubrey nodded uncertainly. "Oh. Wow. That's...wow." She shook her head and continued to walk away. She heard Jake start his motorcycle back up and started riding in her direction. He rode around a parked in her path.

"You wanna go out with me?"

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That's it so far, but I will definitely keep you updated. Thanks for reading!

My Story

Welcome back to my blog! I hope you had a great holiday season full of family, friends, and fun!

I am currently in the process of writing an original story called "The Sky is Crying" on a website called Wattpad, in which anyone and everyone have the opportunity to write a story, a poem, and novel, or even random thoughts and publish them onto the website, giving thousands of people the opportunity to have their piece of literature read. In this blog, I will be sharing the first chapter of my story, a romance novel. Please enjoy!

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Chapter One

And so the young girl proclaimed her love for him, thus ending the complicated relationsh- The paper was crumpled and thrown away. Aubrey didn't know how a real relationship worked. The longest one she had been in was a week in third grade. But now, she had to complete a romance novel. Aubrey was 17 years old and, young though she was, had been hired by a publishing company. They asked her to write a book about young love. If it was not up to standards, she would be fired. 

This was the first time she regretted her choice of a typewriter. She had always written with a typewriter for several reasons. One, she always felt comfortable in what she wrote, and never had the problem of starting all over because of a mistake. Two, she loved reading about the 1870's, when typewriters first became common, and she loved what the authors wrote on the typewriters, so using one made her feel closer to that period of time, made her feel like she could really make a difference with her writing. 

But with a typewriter, especially a model as old as the one she was using, you could not backspace. You had to start all over. Sitting next to her were dozens of crumpled papers, all with failed ideas. She put her head in her hands and and tugged at the temples of her glasses, the way she did when she was stressed out. 

The problem wasn't that she didn't know anything about love. She had seen plenty of romance movies and read more, but it was hard to write about something you had never experienced before, especially a realistic fiction book. Fantasy was easy; you could do anything you wanted. You could make up characters and places and creatures, but with realistic fiction, you had less freedom. The way things were in the world was the way they had to appear in stories. 

She was sitting against a lonely park bench, far away from all the commotion when she spotted a couple on a bench across from her. They seemed like the perfect couple: she was a beautiful blonde and he was a handsome, young man. They seemed deeply in love, holding hands and kissing every so often. They were so passionate and, for the first time, Aubrey wished she had someone too. 

The thought made her shake her head and slowly, tearing her eyes away from the couple, she got up and walked away. 

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If you want to read the rest, go to my story to read the other two chapters. I will be posting more of my story both on Wattpad and my blog, so stick around!