New Years Resolutions

Can you believe its January tomorrow? I can't! This year has gone so fast!

Sorry I haven't posted in a while, have been busy with christmas and everything...

Hope you've all had a good christmas, I know I have! I got a camera, so there might be some more pictures going up from now on, I'm not certain.

Anyway, so what are your new years resolutions?

Mine are pretty much all dance and health related. Basically, by the end of the year I want to be a lot healthier, fitter, stronger and more flexible, and an all-round better dancer, so my resolutions are all goals to help me achieve that.

I've recently found these websites that give you a routine to do 3x a week and after 6 weeks, depending which one you do, you should be able to do either 100 press ups, 200 sit ups or 200 squats, without a break. So I'm starting with the sit ups and press ups and I'll keep you informed on how its going.

The sites are http://www.hundredpushups.com http://www.twohundredsitups.com and http://www.twohundredsquats.com

I'm also sorting out a flexibility and strength routine which I'm going to do a minimum of 3x a week. Which again I'll keep you updated with.
Well, I think thats all for now, I hope you all had a fab christmas and wishing you all a great new year :D

PS please comment below :)

Cute Evian Advert

I don't know if you've seen this before, but I thought it was just too cute not to post! :D

Dancer Profile - Natasha Oughtred

Name - Natasha Oughtred

Age - 24

Born - Hull

Training - “It all began when I was three-and-a-half. Wherever there was an audience, I would start to dance – if I was in the supermarket I would spin around. My parents felt I needed to do something with it, so I began dance classes in Hull with Vanessa

Hooper. After the first class, Vanessa's mother said 'You're going to lose that little girl to the Royal Ballet School'.”

Companies - Royal Ballet (Soloist)

Birmingham Royal Ballet (Principal)

Repertoire - Frederick Ashton: Daphnis and Chloë (Chloë)

George Balanchine: Concerto barocco (lead role)
David Bintley: The Shakespeare Suite (Juliet), Take Five ('Three to Get Ready') and David Bintley and Gali Samsova's production of Giselle ('Harvest pas de deux') John Cranko: Card Game (Two of Diamonds)
Marius Petipa: Paquita (Fourth solo) Peter Wright's production of The Nutcracker (Sugar Plum Fairy, Rose Fairy),Coppélia ('Prayer') and Peter Wright and Galina Samsova's production of Swan Lake (Odette/Odile)

Some questions from interviews -

What motivates you at 8am on a Monday morning?It's less about motivation and more about necessity at 5.45am when I drop my fiancé, Simon off at the station and say goodbye to him when he goes back to London for the week. It's hard getting up but I enjoy the time I have after that before I go to work. It's a chance to get myself straight for the week with paper work etc so I can be focussed on work. But other than on my early Monday starts, my driving force is work. I love what I do and the

day I don't want to get up and dance is the day I retire.

How do you prepare your shoes?
Until last season I would spend almost 45 mins on a pair of shoes- darning the tips to form a platform, sewing elastics on the backs... I seemed to be forever sewing. Then my workload increased when I became a First Soloist and now I ha

ve taken to just sewing the ribbons on, shaving the sole with a Stanley knife and off I

go. Now the shoes are ready in 5 mins - it's great!

What is your daily routine at the moment?
I get up just before 8; drive into work to arrive at 9. I go aqua jogging most mornings - it's great for stamina building and waking you up. We are very lucky to have a pool in our Jerwood Centre at Birmingham Royal Ballet. After I've showered there is just time for a 30 min session of Pilates before class at 10 30. Class lasts 1hour 15 mins and then I have rehearsals until 1 30. At the moment I am busy learning 'The Dream' and 'Two Pigeons’, both of which I love. We then have an hour break when I eat my lunch that I brought in with me whilst frantically sorting out wedding plans for this summer! Rehearsals go on until 6 30 and then I go and stretch and ice bath if I need to. I drive home and then I have a quick supper so I can get outside and do some gardening before its dark. It's the perfect way to unwind. I speak

to Simo

n on the phone and then I head off and then I try to get to sleep by 12ish.

Who inspired you to dance?
I was given a video when I was 5 or 6 of Anthony Dowell and Natalia Makarova dancing Swan Lake at the Royal Opera House. I watched it so many times that it's a wonder I didn't wear it out. Back then I particularly enjoyed watching the Neapolitan dance. I remember raiding my Mum's dressing table for ribbons to tie round my arms - just like the costume on the video and banging a toy tambourine round the house. The video of Swan Lake was not only responsible for inspiring me, but it also gave me grand ideas. I amused my mother greatly when she was running me through my first ever ballet solo;
"Now what must you do at the end of your dance when

the music has finished?" she asked
"Pick up my flowers!" I replied earnestly.

What is your best piece of advice?It is so important to be happy where you are working and who you are working with because without this it is very hard to develop as an artist.

Which role has tested you the most and how?I think Swan Lake has been the biggest test to date. It was my first full length ballet as the lead and not only is there many technical challenges but there is also such an aura surrounding the role Odette Odile. I had seen so many fantastic performances of it during my time at the Royal Ballet that it was a little daunting setting about creating my Odette Odile. Needless to say the video of Makarova came out again! I loved the process in the end as there is so much room as an artist to develop these roles.

What are you most proud of?
That I am pursuing my dream.

Remembering Combinations

If you're anything like me, then you'll struggle with remembering those long combinations that your teacher reels off.

Well here is a new technique for you to try, it comes from Lauran Callan (or d4j on dance.net - if you don't know what dance.net is, you should go on it, it has loads of information, tips and really friendly people)

So here we go...

We all know that feeling, when your teacher comes up with a really long combination and you're thinking, "There's no way I'm ever going to remember all this!"

Imagine your teacher gives you a combination with about 15 steps in it. So normally I imagine you would try going from the beginning and remembering it all. So your thought process goes like so, ok I do this, then I do this, then there's this step, then this one, then after that there's this, and then arrrggggh?!?! What's next!?!?!

So graphically it would be

XXXXX......?!?!?!

Instead try this.

Obviously you won't be able to pick up the whole thing, but try picking up a main step from the beginning, then a couple of steps from the middle, then a step or two from the end.

So it would be like this

X...?...X...?...X

So you sort of know how it goes, you know how it starts, you've got some sort of idea for the middle, and you know you can finish it up well. Don't worry about all the bits in the middle that your not really all that sure about. But the main thing is don't stop moving even if you're not sure what you're supposed to be doing. Even if you just walk, run, bouree, jump around, whatever you want, just keep going to connect the movements that you know. If you go about it the old way you'd go until you knew it, then just stop at the bits you don't know, this way you have to keep moving, so you'll pick more of it up.

So now, try and add in the moves that come after the moves you know

So now you know this much

XX..?..XX..?..XX

And if you keep going over it, you'll soon have this much

XXX...XXX...XXX

Then this much

XXXX..XXXX..XXX

Yep that's 12 out of those 15 steps!

So it not too long you'll soon have this much

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

And yep, that's the whole thing!

Even if you don't get to keep going over the combinations until you pick it all up, then it doesn't matter. And soon you'll be using this technique naturally, and will be able to do it quickly. And in not too long you'll be able to start with having 3 or more steps in each section, so it won't take long to pick up the whole thing.

Its always a good idea to get your brain to work in new ways. This technique won't necessarily work perfectly with you, but if you don't try, you'll never know. So give it a go and let me know what you think! :)

Thanksgiving Video

I believe that it is Thanksgiving in the USA tomorrow? I may be wrong, please correct me. (We don't do thanksgiving in the UK). So anyway, here's a sweet little thanksgiving dance video to cheer you up :)

Alternative Ballet Careers - Part 1

Ok I thought I'd do a post on the different options of Ballet-Related Careers available.

Now of course there are the obvious ones like a performer or choreographer, but here's some other options that you might not have thought about...

Dance Teacher - Whether you own your own studio or work for someone else, in a school or a studio, for recreational students or pre-pros there are so many different options available for teachers

Writer - You could write be a dance journalist and write dance reviews for magazines, write features on any dance topic, or be a dance historian and write about dance history, or even write biographies for professional dancers.

Physical Therapist (Physio) - Physios normally work

with people who have had some kind of fairly serious injury and need treatment to get their bodies working properly again, eg a badly broken leg, torn ligaments, that sort of thing. You can specialise in sport physiotherapy and treat people with

sports injuries.

Benesh or other notation professional - Benesh notation is a way of writing down dances (see image below) and there are whole schools dedicated to teaching it. Not many people know Benesh, but it is very useful for dance companies to be able to write down their dances, so someone who can read and write Benesh would often come in useful. There are also some other forms of notation such as Labanotation, which also has schools dedicated to its teaching.

More coming soon...

Yey me!

Today I took my (BATD) Blue Riband Tap Medal Test.

It is the Medal Test equivalent of Grade 4.

If you don't know what a medal test is, it is when you just perform some dances to the examiner and then you get an amalgamation or for tap you get a timestep combination. Its used as a practise before you take an actual exam as you don't have to do lots of exercises, you just do dances.

Anyway, I got highly commended :D

It goes -

Highly Commended

Commended

Pass Plus

Pass

Unsucessful

I only found out on friday that I was taking my exam today!

The examiner was really lovely, and I'm really pleased with myself :)

I wish I was there!

Watch this video!


Don't you think it looks like so much fun! :D

It was at Bondi Beach, which is one the east coast of Australia and is in a suburb of Sydney.

It happened on Sat Nov 14th 2009, and was organised by DJ Dan Murphy. It stars one of Australia's most famous drag queens - Joyce Maynge.

And if you didn't get through to the end, its advertising a mardi gras on the Thursday, 4th March!

Ok, not particularly ballet-related but...

Its Pudsey Bear Night, or Children in Need Night, or whatever you want to call it.

If you don't know what I'm on about, turn on your TV and go on BBC right now!

So far they've raised over £4,000,000 but if everyone donates just a few pounds, think how much money they can raise!

For more information on Children in Need, go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/pudsey/ :D

Lady Gaga and the Bolshoi Ballet

Not really a combination you'd expect is it!

For her new track 'Speechless' Lady Gaga performed with the Bolshoi Ballet. It was at the 30th Anniversary Party for the LA Museum of Contemporary Art.

Here's a clip of it. (Beware there some flashing lights and things at the start)

She is promoting ballet, but the track is actually a plea to her dad to get open heart surgery! She says "I have a lot of fans who are really lovely, young, troubled fans, I want to remind them that you only get one set of parents."

So promoting ballet, and telling children to remember how good there parents are!

Here is a link to the article

http://www.aceshowbiz.com/news/view/00028898.html

Hope you like it

Intro

Hey and welcome to my blog!

I'm Caz and I'm 13. I've been doing ballet since I was about 7 but only really got interested in it this past year.

This blog will cover everything dance-related but will be mostly ballet.

So yeah I think it will probably be a mix of all sorts of stuff, and hopefully most of it will be, at least, partially interesting!!!
I think thats all to say for now, any questions or anything, feel free to leave a comment and I'll get back to you!