ATLANTA BALLET!!

Happy New Year's Day everyone! And the New Year's gift from me to you is my retelling of the Atlanta Ballet's Nutcracker!! Yay!:)

Brandon and I started off the day leaving around 11:15 AM and drove for over three hours! It was a fun ride and we both enjoyed every bit of it:)


When we finally made it to the ATL, it took us forever to find our specific parking garage. The Fox Theatre has different parking garages and they ALL LOOK THE SAME! So we spent 10-15 minutes trying to make sure we parked in the correct one! We did NOT want my car to get towed:)

Brandon and I literally walked for four and a half hours around Midtown Atlanta. There aren't any places to shop there; it's mainly restaurants and stuff. But we ended up finding stuff for our family for Christmas:) Random Note: Coming from such a small town, it felt so cool to act like I lived in the big city:) Every bit of it was awesome even if my feet did hurt the next day.


After all that walking, we decided to find a place to eat dinner. Luckily for us, there was this nice Italian place literally right next door to the Fox! It was super delicious! Brandon and I gladly ate up our dinner with delight:)


When we got to the Fox, the doors hadn't even opened yet, so we had to wait outside. But it gave us time to admire the architecture. It turns out, that my aunt help paint the Fox when it was getting restored. HOW COOL IS THAT?! When it was getting close to the doors opening, Brandon and I tried to get as close to the doors as possible! Neither of us have been in the Fox before, and everyone who has gone kept telling us how beautiful it was. We wanted to see what all the fuss was about!

We couldnt take pictures in the actual inside of the stage so here is a picture of the ceiling outside the stage!

When the doors finally opened, my jaw dropped at how beautiful the theatre was! They don't allow pictures to be taken inside the theatre so I don't have any to show you:( But I will try my best to describe it! The ceiling was designed to look like a night sky with twinkling stars and everything. And, get this, IT MOVED! Ever so slowly, I noticed that the clouds on the ceiling were rotating! I was blown away and the ballet hadn't even started yet! The stage itself was HUGE and had all of these side compartments that people could pop out of. To me, it looked as if it was designed after some castle. It was gorgeous.


Finally the lights went down, the orchestra began playing the Overture, and the curtain went up. I was beyond excited!!!

As much as I want to tell you guys about every little detail, I know that I can't, so I will just talk about the Battle Scene. I know, I know, shouldn't I be talking about Snow? Or Flowers? Or Sugarplum? Surprisingly, I began crying during the Battle Scene because it was so beautiful. Weird, I know.

There was just this one part in the scene that took my breath away. The big rats had come to cause havoc on Maria's dreams when Drosselmeyer came out. He told her to go into this puppeteer playhouse for protection. I thought to myself, "Well, that isn't really going to protect her well. That's silly!" Then, the playhouse began ascending far above the stage and I was just so mesmerized by it! I just thought that it was so beautiful, watching her ascend so gracefully into the air.

Then, she got down because she saw the Nutcracker needed her help. She took his sword and slain the Mouse King. And even though I have seen the Nutcracker since I was like 3, this felt like I was watching it for the first time. My breath was taken away at how much Marie loved the Nutcracker and would do anything for him! The dancer who played Maria, Alessa Rogers I think, danced the battle scene so gorgeously. She had these wicked arabesques and these beautiful banana feet. Her acting and talent made even the Battle Scene look beautiful.

(Marie got a HUGE Nutcracker)

As a whole, every bit of this Nutcracker was amazing. This was the first time I have seen a classical ballet performed live by professionals. Everything was magical. I cried about ten times because of the beauty of it all! All of the dancers performed so effortlessly and floated perfectly. It really inspired me to be even MORE focused on my dancing and my stretches list has definitely increased!


Well, have a Happy Dance-Filled New Year!


Hugs, Kisses, and Big Rats,
Anne:)

Jenifer Ringer: Every Dancer's Hero

If you are my friend/follower on other social networks, I apologize because this will be the THIRD time you have heard this story! Anyways, most dancers should know by now about the Jenifer Ringer controversy. She dances with the New York City Ballet and this Nutcracker season, she is casted as the Sugarplum Fairy. A critic, Alastair Macaulay from the New York Times, wrote that Ringer looked as if she had "one sugarplum too many." Ringer, in the past, has been very open with her eating disorders and to receive such a comment set the dance world on fire to defend her.

I found this video which has Ringer on the Today Show discussing the issue. Watch and see why she should be your hero!
Hugs, Kisses, and Girl-Power!
Anne:)
PS: i couldnt get the link so work so just copy and paste. sorry for the trouble!
http://blogs.babble.com/famecrawler/2010/12/13/jenifer-ringer-reacts-to-critic-on-the-today-show-video/

My Worst Audition

That's right, I said it. I, Anne, had the WORST audition last week when I auditioned to be in the Darton Dance Department. The audition required of me to take a ballet barre, a modern across the floor, an interview, and a 2-minute solo piece (of course, mine was only 1:05, but it was ok!)

Just like at any audition, we all had to wear a number somewhere pinned on our leotard. I picked the number 2 without fully processing I was the second person in the line-up and the second person who would be performing my solo. I tried not to let that stress me out, even though it really did!

Anyways, the audition started out fine with the ballet portion and the modern across the floor. I was feeling pretty good about myself. I was really excited about my solo because a) it was a solo I have already performed, b) I was the only one in this go-around who was doing classical pointe, and c) I was dancing to the Spanish variation from Nutcracker (please see post about how I wish I was Spanish.)

When it was my turn to perform my solo, I gave Jenn my CD and went into my starting position. The CD player was on the floor and every time I jumped near it, the CD would skip. I was COMPLETELY off the music the whole time. I was doing four fouette turns in my dance, but because my music skipped, I could only do two but I didn’t even have time for those. My music stopped mid-turn. It was so bad! And, not to mention, one of the judges was a dancer with the Atlanta Ballet! I was so embarrassed! I tried to not let my music situation affect my interview, but as soon as I walked out of the studio, I called my boyfriend and just cried on the phone for the longest time.

Being the fantastic boyfriend he was, he knows how to handle an Emotional Anne, he comforted me and reassured me that I should be a dance major and pursue dance as my career. He had to reassure me because when Emotional Anne comes out, so does the Melodramatic Anne.

After the auditions were over, I stuck around to talk to Jenn and apologize for my horrendous audition. "Are you kidding?!" she said. "The judges loved you!" You have no idea how much better that made me feel! I was so happy!

Even though I still consider it my WORST audition, I need to remember that I judge myself harder than most judges will for me. I am my own worst critic, true story. I need to not freak myself out when little things (like a CD skipping) happen. Mishaps like this happen everyday and I need to be sure that my dance ability and love of dance shine through all of those unfortunate events.

Ok, so I am a very spiritual person. And that day, I was NOT dancing for God. I was dancing for myself and it went bad. One of the things that my boyfriend told me was that God put me on this earth to dance, and even if I did a HORRIBLE job, He is still proud of me and loves me. How cool is that?

What I’m trying to say is that having a bad class, bad audition, or a bad performance should not stop you from doing what you love. If you believe you were put on this earth to dance, then by jove, dance! What are you waiting for?!

BOYFRIEND BRAG!!!! I meant to say this a long time ago, BUT my boo surprised me with tickets to see the Atlanta Ballet's Nutcracker Boot Boot Hoot Yeah! All he does is win!

Ok, so I have two pictures this week: one is my winner of a boyfriend, and the other is a result for typing in "sad dancer" into google images!

Loser (because she let a bad performance affect her love of dance)

WINNER (for allowing me to see 3 Nutcrackers!)

Hugs, Kisses, and Sugarplums!
Anne:)