I've already lost track of how many rehearsals we've had... so this is just the next one!

HEYO team!

(and by that I mean team of faithful readers and first time readers alike... even though I like my faithful followers better, so all you new readers should probably step up your game if ya know what I mean)

I have officially lost count of how many rehearsals we're at right now, and even though I know it's not that many, I have decided to stop numbering them while I'm ahead, so now, I will just talk about the rehearsal we had on Sunday, March 26th...

Traves set up an open class/audition for some of the people who couldn't make it to the audition in February so we had guests! (wasn't quite sure how to feel about newbies, but I guess the more the merrier for the company, but probably less traveling since it's so expensive if he decides to add more dancers, I trust Traves, he knows what's best!) But anyway, 4 people came (we weren't expecting many because he didn't publicize it much), and we learned sections of previous pieces BDC has performed before. Some of the pieces we had learned in the audition we went to in Feb, while some were new to everyone.  We learned about 4 or 5 different parts and by the end of the 45 minutes we spent on it I was sweating pretty good (TMI I know, but at least now you know I got a good workout in case you were thinking that i didn't...).

(If you are interested in seeing some of BDC's past pieces you can follow the link to the BDC website repertoire, Any titles that turn red when you run your mouse over them can be clicked and will take you to the youtube address for that specific piece. :) )

After we learned and performed all the different combinations Traves introduced "the company" (US!). It was so nice to not have to be worried about performing for the audition because we were already in, and even cooler to be introduced to a group of strangers as a "company dancer" :). Traves filmed us doing a few of the pieces so he could have footage of rehearsal and dismissed the auditionees (I think I just made that word up...). I won't tell you how they were because I don't want to make any assumptions and be wrong so I will just have to keep you guessing until next week to see if any other people show up to rehearsal! (I guess I'll be guessing with you too because I won't know 'till then either...)

After a five minute break (Traves and our Managing Director, Bethany went in to another room to discuss/talk trash/awe/whatever-other-actions-fit-here about the auditionees (hey, if the word fits, use it! Webster dictionary has been adding words lately anyway...), BDC began our official rehearsal!

We spent most of our time going over and cleaning "Pulse". A lot of the parts of the dance that we have already learned are in a cannon (think "row row row your boat" with different people starting at different times) but we're only 1 count away from every other person so it gets SUPER confusing especially when you don't start on 1 like normal... I'm learning a part that beings on 4, which isn't bad until you stop counting because you think you've got it and you end up on the same count as someone else which isn't supposed to happen... oh dear I'm confusing myself just typing it, I should probably stop... one more try:  Just think about singing the boat song (easier to type than "row row....", wow I'm lazy!), someone sings normal speed and someone starts later but sings more quickly so you end at the same time... not only does it sound terrible but it gets real tricky and is overwhelming to the person hearing it all at the time time... Alright, one more attempt for those of you who still can't grasp it... Think about counting starting at 4 and going up to 8 then starting back over at 1 and going to 8 and so on... then think about dancing around like a madman/woman (your preference) and then random numbers and watching TV and not falling and listening to the radio all at the same time... ok I'm done trying to explain now, if you don't get it, too bad... moving on!

We then spent some time on our techy dance (remember the computer blowing up song dance that I described a while back? ya, that one). We're still in the process of naming it but here are some thoughts:

Since the title of the show will be "Bite" (like I described earlier, hourderves [or however you spell that ridiculous word]), it might be fun/funny to call this dance "Byte" (computer joke, haha), someone thought of "6 MegaBytes" since there are 6 of us and we're mega (I guess)... OR I was just recently told that there is a code of numbers that mean elite. I think it's 1337 but I've gotta double check with the boyfriend on that one. Anyway, I suggested that to Traves also but then we got in to a discussion about how many people would actually know what that meant... so maybe, if you're reading this and know what that means you should comment and let me know so we can get a general consensus? That would be super helpful... (this is the part where I feel like I should give you instructions for filling out my survey... nope, figure it out people! ;) ) Anyway, we didn't make much progress on the piece but we were able to clarify some things and it was fun. We're also starting to get to know each other better, which is one of my most favorite things (you all know how much I love new friends!), so that is exciting for me!!

We got to end rehearsal about 15 minutes early because Traves is setting a solo for one of our dancers which should be cool. And I got to shower and clean up for the dinner Daniella cooked us at her house up in the Carmel Valley area! (delicious lasagne BTW [pronounced bee tee dubs][grandma, this stands for By The Way], thanks Daniella!)

A sneak peek for next week, one of the girls won't be at rehearsal so we'll most likely be starting something new! YAY FOR NEW THINGS!

Also, Traves has been brainstorming a new idea which we will all take place in and has great potential... however this operation is TOP secret (that's right Matthew, now I have top secrets too! Maybe not government security clearances, but things that involve jobs! hah) and you cannot know until we are completely finished and the operation takes off, so, I just thought I'd share, keep you wondering, if you'd like to guess, go for it, I won't respond with answers but it might be cool to have more good ideas for more operations... so I invite you to share! I'll be sure to tell you when it's all OK to share, but until then, happy brainstorming!

A weekend of visitors and rehearsal #2!

Wow, a lot has happened in the last week, this is my best attempt at covering it all...

Since my last post/rant was based on the hot water issue on campus, I guess I'll start there. As soon as students started to return to PLNU, our campus dealt with the situation in the best way they knew how. They provided all the information they could and gave us opportunities to shower, which was more than they did over spring break, and for that I am thankful. Construction teams tore up the entire line from the top of the hill working their way down, and are still going!

Here is a picture of the construction

Loma has and is currently paying construction workers (and physical plant workers, along with loma students!) for many overtime and weekend hours to ensure the problem is fixed ASAP. Flex (my apartment complex on campus) was the first to get their hot water back on Wednesday afternoon, then Klassen and Hendricks warmed up a few days later. Young Hall is currently still waiting for their hot water, as they are the furthest down the hill, but the construction team is working hard to fix the gas line down at the bottom of the hill. As far as I know, they're doing a great job... except when they sent an email saying they didn't replace an old pipe just because it didn't have a leak at the moment (pops says that's not good news... it's actually a pretty dumb decision), BUT other than that we're all putting up with the parking inconveniences (we get to park in staff/faculty spots... heh heh) and they're making good progress so I guess I won't complain!
As published in THE POINT WEELY (campus weekly newspaper) in "The Rules" section... "The term 'I have gas' has a whole new connotation at PLNU"so... I HAVE GAS!!!!!!!!!!!
So that's that...

NEXT

This weekend was FULL of visitors!!

My mom and dad flew in on Thursday morning. Dad had some business to take care of so mom tagged along and hung out with me. (At this point in my blog I will begin what I'd like to call "restaurant count"...). Thursday night we all went out to sushi at Sushiya (Restaurant Count #1)(their all-time favorite spot to go whilst visiting me, they might just love it more than me... those Spanish rolls do pose some fierce competition).

Friday=PREVIEW DAY! I woke up at 5AM and spent the day with prospective students (mostly herding them like cattle from one event to the next, but loving it none-the-less). Mom came and picked me up at about 12:30 and we spent the afternoon together waiting for dad to finish work. Friday evening we met up with Matthew's parents (who coincidentally chose to visit the same weekend) at Pizza Nova (Restaurant Count #2). We had a great dinner with the 6 of us (missing Camille and Brian of course), and received the news that it was snowing at home (at this point mom called all of her contacts at home to make sure the horses were warm... thank goodness...).

Saturday morning Mom and Dad came over to help me with their parential duties... Dad greased up my car doors, mom measured and fixed some clothes to be hemmed and returned. We then went to Seaport Village to have breakfast/lunch/brunch/whatever (Restaurant Count #3), walk around the shops and watch a terrible magician on the street (we legit-ly saw him pull a foam ball out of his pocket, through his shirt and in to his shoe...). Headed back to Loma and said our goodbyes. We had a great weekend together, but mom had to get back to her new favorite children, the horses... ;) (love you mom!)

REHEARSAL! Finally, rehearsal #2 for BDC 2011! We spent most of the rehearsal learning more of "Pulse". (Just in case you forgot... this is the piece I am understudying for), I'm a huge fan. The movement feels so different, kinda weird, but it looks great (we're learning from a recording of when past BDC dancers performed the piece many years ago). I'm getting really excited to work on even more pieces that I'll officially be a part of! We also continued adding to the technological piece (I'm for sure in this one). I don't think it has a name yet? Anyway, like I said last time, it sounds like a computer is about to explode, and somehow we're supposed to be able to count the music but also make it look goofy and techy and hectic... we'll see how that goes. It's good to spend time with my fellow company members, but I also wish we were required to take some of the same classes or something during the week so we could spend more time together and get to know each other better... or maybe that's just because I'm so social... haha anyway, one last thing I'm excited about... signing up for dance classes at Mesa College where I can pay less that $40 for an entire semester of multiple classes per week, instead of $15 per class 3 times a week... that will be quite fantastic I must say!

After rehearsal I met up with Matthew's family and we had dinner at Miguel's (Restaurant Count #4). YUMMMMM. They then all came to my place to try some of the chocolate covered cookie dough bites Matthew and I made last week, along with drop off a crap-ton (instead of a s***-load...) of grapefruit and the biggest lemon I have EVER seen. Haven't tried the lemon yet, but I'm a big fan of the grapefruit, I just have more than I'll ever know what to do with... haha.

Sunday we all went to La Jolla to meet up with Matthew's cousin Kristen at Rock Bottom Brewery for lunch (Restaurant Count #5). Kristen brought gifts (most were inappropriate but amazingly comical which made up for it all) and stories from China (she's been living there for the last 6-7 months and returned home to good ol' Amuurica just 2 weeks ago). After lunch we played at the gas station (who knew it could be so fun?!), the Microsoft store, and the food court at the mall... and then, when NOWHERE in the Fashion Valley Mall had brownies or chocolate, we settled on paying $5/ package of chocolate to satisfy our cravings, we saw "The Adjustment Bureau" (highly recommended, maybe because the girl was a dancer, but still... it was good!) (Favorite part of the movie: when Matthew leaned over and asked "is she really that good?" referring to her dancing...). After the movie, (Restaurant Count #6) we had a small dinner at Denny's.

Restaurants... holy dang i just want to make my own food again, ok not really, but it was a thought that crossed my mind, until I realized I was eating free food (well, at least paid for by the 'rents) that was prepared for me by someone else all weekend.

Anyway, thanks for reading the updates on my life, even though most of it wasn't about dance anyway... I appologize for my lack of comical comments and witty remarks, but I'm also currently watching "Dancing With The Stars" so cut me some slack friends... next time I'll deliver... you just wait.

Although these things have nothing to do with dance...

Alright, so unfortunately this post isn't about dance, but I can relate it so here we go!

As I've posted previously, PLNU's south side of campus has NO hot water... and today is day 6 of suffering through this inconvenience. Anyway, today is also the day that everyone else returns to campus from their spring break, which is why Loma FINALLY addressed the issue and provided alternate options for residents.

This really upset me. Not only have I been here ALL WEEK with no hot water with no options, but as SOON as everyone comes back to campus it became a campus emergency. Loma started sending out text messages and emails to accommodate. This is a good thing, and I completely understand why this is being taken care of now, but what about the rest of us that were on campus all week?! We legitimately didn't have a place to bathe... So, not only does this delayed response just irk me the wrong way, we get this email from the director of students, Dr. Caye Smith:

Greetings Students, Faculty, and Staff,

While the following message will have the greatest impact on south side residential students, we wish to inform the entire campus of this situation.

As we were initially responding to a few smaller issues with the gas line on the south side of campus, it was determined that rather than taking a Band-Aid approach and making small fixes over time, we needed to take a more holistic approach and replace the whole line that feeds the residence halls on the south side of campus. Unfortunately this means that there will be no hot water to Flex, Klassen, Hendricks, and Young Hall for next several days as the replacement is made.

Hot shower mobile units will be provided to affected residence halls. Additionally, the men and women's locker rooms on the south side of Golden Gym will be open around the clock.

Location of hot shower mobile units that will be operational Monday afternoon:

Two units in the parking lots between Klassen and Flex

One unit on the Young Basketball Court

Two additional units have been ordered, and we are in the process of confirming a Monday delivery. Locations will be:

Flex Housing  TBD

Hendricks parking lot

Please note that some parking spaces will be lost due to the repairs and the shower placement.

We had hoped to have the repairs resolved over the break. We apologize for the inconvenience. Your patience is greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,

Dr. Smith

EXCUSE ME?!?!?!

First: 8 more weeks until summer... I'm sure a "band-aid" will last until then... but NOOOOOOOOO we just decided to inconvenience EVERYONE with fixing it now since we've already drilled 843857403 holes in our pavement. 

Second: they're forcing us to bathe in trailers in the parking lots... yes, that's right, trailers... 

Third: Sure, they have showers for Young and Klassen... what about the other HALF of the people with no hot water?! Pretty sure we won't be able to ALL shower in the 3 trailers they have on campus so far..

Fourth: MONDAY AFTERNOON... soooooooo what exactly are the rest of us (especially the spring break-ers) supposed to do until then... after we've been 6 days without hot water... (I really hope all of us spring break-ers have friends across campus or off campus, 6 days would be a long time to not shower). 

Fifth: I am just genuinely mad. I honestly don't know how to handle my anger at the moment. I feel like Loma is dealing with this all wrong. I understand why they're doing what they're doing, but isn't there like a committee or something that discusses these things before they happen so they can knock out ridiculous decisions like these? All I can say is they better be giving us something to make up for the complete inconvenience this has been (especially for the poor people who haven't showered in 6 days). I wish I had the cajones to march up to their office and give them a piece of my mind, but I'm a wimp. Maybe I'll send them an email... but then again I know they're busy and it won't make a difference... maybe I'll send them an email when it's all over, just so they know, so it's on their conscious... I'll keep you posted about it.

ANYWAY, to cool off, I just thought I'd post some pictures of the AMAZING desserts Matthew and I made this week to make your mouth water. If you want the recipe let me know and I'll send it over. (It's a little too long to post, but don't let that fool you, the recipe was super easy!). I'm really proud of us for doing such a great job, these are DELICIOUS!

BDC website AND what I've been doing all week! Double-whammy!

(when you say "whammy" from my title, you should imagine Champ from the movie Anchorman... it will make it much better, and more similar to the way I envisioned people reading it)

FRIENDS!

I am officially on the BDC company website!

Here is the link, but when you click it you have to promise me you'll come back and read the rest of this blog, it gets better, promise!!

BDC website

I spent almost three days writing and re-writing and asking for opinions and dwelling on my bio for this website, well after the long drafting period I needed to send it in (I'm a very punctual person, so even if it wasn't perfect, I would've been more upset at myself for keeping it any longer than I already had...). I wasn't completely thrilled with it when I sent it in, but after a few other people telling me it looked good, I gave in and sent it off!

Along with the bio I wrote I was also asked to send in any action shots of me dancing. Considering I haven't performed in almost three years that was a little difficult (especially since Traves asked me for good quality pics that can be blown up for the website lol), I only had a few to send but I attached them all and let Traves choose. (Most of you know I am the most indecisive person in the entire world, glad I didn't have to pick the one for the site!)

For a week and a half I checked the website constantly, looking for the new "dancers" tab to read my bio and everyone elses, and finally, on Wednesday, I FOUND IT!

Can I just say, my company has a pretty amazing set of dancers! Most of the girls have danced in some pretty cool places with some pretty cool people... (while all I've got under my belt is some pre-professional stuff, wimpy little inexperienced Emily. haha).

Also, wanted to clarify, apparently there really are only 5 dancers. I don't know why 6 showed up to the rehearsal on Saturday (this really confused me), but I'm assuming she's a "project" dancer (unpaid/intern position) and will only come to some stuff? Not really sure, I'll let you know if I ever figure that one out...

Sadly, there is no rehearsal tomorrow, so you won't be getting much new news (hence the reason it is called NEW-S... I feel like there should be no such thing as "old news" because really, it should just be called "olds"... we'll have to bring that up with the dictionary company sometime soon. Also, on a side note, we need to talk to someone about the spelling of Brazil... all the brazilians have it wrong, they spell it with an S, maybe their government failed elementary grammar?)...

ANYWAY, here are some other things that have been happening this week, while the rest of PLNU was out having a great adventurous spring break Emily was...

• not showering- as most Point Loman's know (because of the ridiculous amounts of emails you've been receiving) there has been a gas leak (more like 87485743052889 gas leaks) on campus... which means, no hot, not even remotely warm or even room temperature water for Emily, only ICE cold water, which is painful to even wash your hands in... today is the end of day 4. The maintenance workers were conveniently located right outside my apartment and I heard a bunch of them go home at 5:00, don't they know I SMELL because I haven't had hot water in FOUR DAYS?! Matthew and his roommates were nice enough to let me borrow their shower on Wednesday night, but in fear of taking advantage of their generosity (and becoming annoying), I have only showered once, in four days, which means every 2 days I am able to clean my body, which is simply disgusting. I have been heating my hot water with a small electric water boiler to wash my face twice a day (thank goodness I at least have that!). So I have decided that if this is not fixed in the next few days I will send an invoice to PLNU for the gas I used (which is now costing everyone a fortune) to drive to and from a place to shower, the gas it takes to drive up Young Hill (since they blocked the other way out of campus), the fast food dinners I've had to buy myself the last 2 nights because I can't cook anything without a stove, and the overall inconvenience, stress, and extra time to fix my hair in the morning so it's cemented to my head so no one can smell it through the breeze. Anyway, end of rant. Oh wait, one last thing. The housing coordinator sent out an email to the "spring break residents" that was forwarded from the gas leak guy which said "please instruct your residents on places to shower while we continue to fix this problem" and then nothing was ever addressed... so while the north side of campus has their hot water, we are still not allowed in those residence halls because they are locked for spring break. Ok, so now, while you are laughing at the ridiculous situation I'm in (enjoy reading about it and not being here having to deal with it, I would if I were you, I completely understand) I will move on to the next part of my spring break...
• stuffing envelopes- not just a few, THOUSANDS. I really don't mind this mindless duty every once in a while. Last spring the letter-folder-and-envelope-stuffer machine broke and so now those duties fall to the front desk worker, which is completely fine temporarily, but wouldn't you think the office would save a couple hundred bucks on student labor and buy a machine? Just a thought. I really do love that office, and if folding and stuffing those letters is what gets me a paycheck and possibly a job in the future, I will do it with a big fat smile on my face! And just to clarify, I am, in NO way, complaining, just stating that it is what I've been up to this week. To go along with stuffing, I have also been sticking (labels on to the envelopes), a little less tedious and dangerous (those paper cuts are rough). Oh and I also got to do counselor-esque things like working in CARS (the computer system that holds all our admissions info) checking on transfer application statuses, it was actually a really cool experience. Eric tried to use it to deter me from wanting the counselor job, and even though my eyeballs felt like they were bleeding at the end of the day, I found it extremely interesting.
• Getting to know my fish, Steve- I have recently realized that when Steve sees me at my desk and is hungry, he taps on the side of his bowl. What a talented fish! I wish I could say I trained him to do that...
• Attempting to become a better, more creative cook- I added the word "attempting" because on Tuesday they cut off my gas, so really I only got to "attempt" for 3 days... I bought an artichoke and was SO excited to cook it, if it goes bad before I get to, I'm adding it to the PLNU invoice I'm sending in... that thing was not cheap.
• Not doing homework- Ok, well I got a few quizzes out of the way, but that is seriously all I've done... on a scale of 1-10 my motivation is somewhere in the negative integer ballpark.
• Wishing I had motivation to do my homework- pretty self explanatory.
• Watching TV- I don't know why but this week has been packed full of NOTHING ON TV... Maybe they're all mourning the loss of Charlie Sheen's sanity, but none of my shows have new episodes. I was forced to watch "Outrageous Kid Parties" last night... I witnessed a 47 year old women drop $32,000 on a birthday party for a 6 year old, didn't think it was possible? Believe me, I just watched her flush an entire PLNU year's worth of tuition down the toilet, depressing much?
• Giving campus tours- which I LOVE! Not only do I get to walk around our beautiful campus and brag about it for an entire hour to people who want to hear it, but fun/funny things happen. Here are some highlights:
• A dad that works at William Jessup. This dad had so many ridiculous questions that the rest of his family didn't get a chance to say one word during the entire tour. This tour took an hour and a half because every person we walked by, he would stop to talk and ask them about the school, dude, you're with a frickin' tour guide, she literally has ALL the answers... Anyway, he was too busy trying to justify everything William Jessup does differently and comparing it to PLNU and then in his mind making WJ win every comparison (I'm picturing ninja battles between two representatives in his mind) than to actually pay attention to the things I was saying. His poor daughter was so nice (I'm assuming, since she didn't speak), but she'll probably end up going to William Jessup with the 799 other students that go there, without getting to choose because dad is a bit of a jerk.
• A girl who's more interested in the architecture and year the buildings were all build than the school itself, with parents who study maps for fun. (Ok, although that IS a true story, it actually is a highlight from last summer, but I just love it so much I thought I'd include it anyway)
• A boy who asked at the beginning of the tour, "are we going to go through the weight room on the tour?" (In my head my response went like this: 'YES, because everyone wants to walk through a smelly room with workout equipment and sweaty people when deciding where they want to go to college). Seriously?! Not to mention, the entire time he walked and stood veeeeeeeeeeeeeery close to me while stretching his arms above his head (and leaving them there for an awkwardly long amount of time while his shirt was too short leaving his 'happy trail' exposed) and motioning like he was bench pressing an invisible bar (in his head I'm sure this bar had lots of weights on both sides, but to me, he looked a bit silly) throughout the entire tour. 
• Finding out that Olivet Nazarene University only allows their students to wear shorts during the weekdays after 4:00PM. 
• A boy that asked me if I play sports (and I think he guessed soccer)... HAH. When I told him I was on a dance company he proceeded to guess it was a hip-hop company, where I laughed again and said it was a ballet/contemporary company. At this point he looked surprised and a little less interested in our athletic program. 
• A dad who was obsessed with the weather... granted, he came on the worst day (weather-wise) of the week, he literally brought it up between every stop during the tour.
• A dad and daughter that flew all the way from Colorado in the morning, to tour our campus all afternoon, and fly back in the evening.
• and now back to what Emily has been doing during her spring break...
• Watching Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull... twice... An extreeeeeeeeeeeeeemly unfortunate movie, and I just had to watch it because there was NOTHING else on TV and it was Indy... sometimes my love for Indy is not a good thing, this was one of those times. 
• Getting hacked on MSN IM. Cat asked me if she could use a picture on facebook, so of course I clicked the link to help answer her question, as did everyone else in the office, and now we're all paying for it... booooooooo. 
• Listening to people fall down the stairs I sit next to... when there are lots of people in an office wearing heels (and flats) walking up and down stairs, you're bound to hear at least 2 a day almost biff it all the way down...
• Being warned of a tsunami- Media, honestly, from the bottom of my heart, I thank you for the warnings, I really do, but when your 8ft wave warning turns in to 3ft waves, which turns in to nothing really changing at all, maybe let people know what to expect as the updates come through, instead of afterward. Just a thought.

Alright friends, I believe I'm done for now, I will spare your eyes, I know it's a long post. Just thought I would update you on the week. I have one more tour tomorrow and I'll be sure to blog if anything fun comes along. I hope you have a great weekend, and for you fellow Point Loman's, enjoy your hot showers and the rest of your spring break, because both of those might end very soon!

Sad day, friends

Today I received a terrible, terrible email:


Hello Dancers,

It was such fun meeting and working with you.  There will be no rehearsal this Saturday March 12, 2011.  I will see you on March 19, 2011 ready to go.  Thanks again and have a good Sat off.

Traves



NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! I was so excited for Saturday and our next rehearsal time!!! 


Now I am sad, but looking forward to next week for many reasons (and also enjoying the present! [another shout out to my Positive Psych class!]):

• roommates return from break/Noelle comes back from Mexico (ALIVE!)
• no more LIT205 (I can read whatever I want and now I have Tuesday and Thursday afternoons to do whatever I want! Taking recommendations for good reads!)
• All PLNU students come back to campus so my hot water won't take forever to heat up
• Preview Day!
• parents come to visit (which means kayaking in La Jolla Cove!)
• Matthew's parents come to visit
• REHEARSAL! :)

Also, more sad news, I said Matthew was taking me to the zoo on Sunday, and he did, we just didn't actually go inside, because well, there was NO parking. (for my friends who frequent the zoo, you know that the parking lot is giant [although not as giant as SeaWorld's] so it must have been some special event because it was PACKED). So, we will have to go this weekend (since apparently now I have Saturday free...)


Anyway, just thought I'd keep you posted on that sad news... which I guess leads to more sad news, no rehearsal to blog about= no new blog (unless I can get creative, which is very likely considering I'm home alone)... well at least that's sad news for me, maybe not for you? Depends on who you are I guess... 


Hope you're having a great week, I definitely am enjoying not having homework and giving tours instead! (but doing my best not to scare off prospective students with my enthusiasm either ;) )


And I will leave you on a good note:
Chuck Norris's cowboy boots are made out of real cowboys...

addressing some "issues"

Due to multiple complaints (Mom, Camille and Matthew) I have addressed the "yellow is too hard to read" problem and from now on will post my thoughts in another color...

If you're having trouble reading the yellow in previous posts simply highlight it, makes it much easier.

And to Mom, Camille and Matthew... I hope you're happy, blind ones... I can read the yellow just fine! ;)

Rehearsal #1!

Today was my first rehearsal as a BDC dancer!!!!

There are 6 dancers in the company and surprisingly, I am the youngest one. All the other dancers either have a degree in dance or have danced with other companies... wow I sure felt young and out of place, but I guess we all have to start somewhere!

We did another Limon style warm up, which was probably the hardest thing I've done all week, and definitely shouldn't be, which means I need to start taking more ballet because I am WEAK-sauce!! I don't know if this is normal or not but my throat definitely hurt in a non-scratchy (more of a painful lump) kind of a hurt towards the part when I started sweating, I think I'm just out.of.shape...

After the warm-up we talked about the company and introduced ourselves (this is actually the point in which I realized I was the youngest one, not by judging everyone else's ages by how they look, because to be frank, that may be the thing I am worst at in my life, maybe.). So far so good, we're all in our 20s (except Traves, the artistic director) and love dance (thank goodness!). We have Traves (like I said, the artistic director), Liz, Katie, Mikale (I really just took a shot in the dark on how to spell that one...), Michelle, Sarah and me, that's BDC! :)

After the intros Traves told us about what he hopes to do this year with the company. He said that the past few years have been "lay-low" years (I'm assuming it means more like just getting by and not really thriving as a company), but this year is the "re-vamping" year so he's excited about the possibilities! He said he likes all different styles and types of dancing and choreography so we'll hopefully be doing a little bit of everything (except hopefully NOT hip hop... because I'm the whitest girl you know and trust me, it's not pretty...), so that's exciting. He is debating on how he wants to structure our performance pieces this year, his first idea is called "Bite" (like hors d'oeuvres [I googled how to spell that, just in case you were wondering]) because it would consist of many different little pieces. The second idea is the evolution of man, (pointedly [not ironically, in case you were in my lit class last semester] he's hoping for a performance at the natural history museum in Balboa Park) it will start out "gooey" and move through the different stages, come to an electronic "era" and then end in the "fall" of man. We will see what he chooses, both sound interesting to me at least...

Traves also told us that he really wants to take the company outside of San Diego. He wants to perform at things in San Diego for sure, festivals, shows, whatever else we find, but he also is hoping to travel (at this point I had to make sure I wasn't drooling). He said in the month of September, JetBlue (airlines) offers a deal that for $600 you basically have an unlimited ticket for the entire month, and if the company can find the dinero, he's thinking we can fly all over, New York, Boston, wherever else we can find performances! (I legitimately had an excitement outburst at this point, which was a bit embarrassing, but I definitely said [hopefully not yelled], "Yes!" at a random point in the conversation)... He also said that if any of us have connections anywhere that we could try to set up travel dates and such (Deirdre Hawkins will be receiving an email from me this week ;) ). Anyway, that was my excitement about that... I'm really hoping it all comes together that way, I am STOKED at the opportunity to travel and dance and not have to pay for it :) what a fantastic deal!

The rest of our two hours were spent rehearsing (duh). The first piece we started was a technological/electronic/computer-y sounding piece (at points it kind of sounds like a computer is about to blow up, although, as Matthew tells me, computers can't blow up... well, this one can...). Traves said this was the weirdest it was going to get and we started at that. Didn't get very far, but it's started which is super exciting! We then moved on to the next piece called "Pulse" which BDC has done before, but since Traves loves it so much and it was from a long time ago, we're bringing it back! Unfortunately I'm one of two understudies for this one (He wants at least 1-2 understudies for each piece, because "things happen", [smart man]), but it's a really cool piece, lots of rolls and cool effects (and the understudy role will rotate so I'll get a chance to be in something else for sure!).

So far the company is a blast to work with, and once we spend more time together and get to know each other better I have a feeling rehearsals and performances will be even more fun. Unfortunately I have to wait another entire week until our next rehearsal, but as my Positive Psychology (yes, that's a real class that I'm taking for units at PLNU) professor (shout out to Dr. Kim Schaeffer, aka Schafe-dog!) we must be excited about the future, but also present and happy in the moment, maybe for this whole next week I will just keep pretending I'm in rehearsal? Haha just kidding, but I really will be looking forward to the next one.

**DISCLOSURE** Just a heads up, it's spring break week here at PLNU, and I got clearance to be able to stay on campus (for some ridiculous reason ResLife kicks us all out during this break) so I can work in Admissions, so I am home alone ("home" being my on-campus apartment), and there is the possibility that I will get very bored, which may be the inspiration of any random blog posts that come up that have nothing to do with dance... just warning you! Matthew is taking me to the zoo tomorrow...

The Audition...

"You did it: you changed wild lament into whirling dance..." Psalm 30 [The Message]


Sunday, February 27th, 3:00PM...


oooooooooooooooooh boy I am nervous! I spent the afternoon in my bible and some time with God, which overwhelmed me, not with nervousness or excitement or anxiety, but with a sense of peace. If His plan is for me to be a company member, an unpaid project dancer, a homeless woman, or a disneyland aficionado (which I actually might be OK with...), it is in His plan and I there is nothing I want more than to follow it. 


I got to the studio with about 20 minutes to spare, filled out my audition form and spent the rest of the extra time with my heart in my throat, sweating before the workout even began, and stretching trying to calm my nerves, while also enjoying God's peace (if that even makes sense, being nervous and peaceful at the same time, but it did happen!). Mind you, I haven't danced more than 2 hours in the last 3 years, my thoughts: this is going to be rough! 


The audition started with a Limon style warm-up, which is just like what ballerinas do at the barre but in the middle of the room (with nothing to hold on to... rough stuff!). I was sweating half way through, it was hard not having taken a ballet class in a while, or maybe I'm just a sweaty person, either way... We then proceeded to learn 3 pieces of choreography from Travis Buttworth himself. The first was "easy", second was "hard" and the third was "slow" (his labels, not mine ;) ). They were all pretty fun! between each piece we performed them in small groups of four and rotated through so he could see everyone closely. 


After the dancing was over we all sat around and asked questions about the company. (like any interview, I was sure to have at least one question ready!) One girl flew all the way out from Indiana for the audition, she didn't even email and ask about it, just dropped $600 round trip to audition for a company when she can't even move out her until May when she graduates... I think that was just about the smartest thing she could have done... (sarcasm). Anyway, THANK GOODNESS Travis said he hated improv (as most dancers do, but ironically choreographers and companies LOVE to make dancers do it during auditions) so we didn't have to do that, and said that it was only right that we know the results of the audition "soon". (HALLELUJAH!!). 


I went home sweaty and tired, but anxious to hear from the company. Oddly enough even after the audition I was nervous! I showered and watched some TV to try to keep my mind off of the news I was waiting for. (nice try, pathetic attempt...) 


And then came the email, 7:06PM:

Hello Emily,

Thanks for your interest Butterworth Dance Company.  At this time, I would like to offer you a Company Member position with BDC.  Please let me know if you are interested in this opportunity.  

Rehearsals begin Saturday, March 5, 2011 at 2:00pm at APA.

Thanks again for your time and audition with BDC.

Traves

YAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! I can't even believe I'm a part of a professional company, this is too good to be true! 

The next day I get another email from BDC asking for some action shots and a bio for the "dancers" page of the website. I spent two days creating a bio (the perfectionist in me had a hard time with this) to be published, meanwhile I'm all smiles :)

I will post the link to the website when it goes up, but for now my bio goes like this, hope you like it!:

Emily James was born and raised in the small town of Placerville California. She began dancing at the age of 10 and spent 8 years performing in statewide dance competitions. Emily has trained in jazz, tap, lyrical, musical theatre, ballet, as well as her favorite: contemporary and modern dancing. In 2006 Emily joined Folsom Lake Civic Ballet Company and iMPACT Contemporary Dance Company where she danced in many benefit performances and shows working with her artistic directors Deirdre Hawkins, Jamie Hancock and Ben Schreivogel along with well-known choreographers such as Gustavo Zajac, Martha Kelly-Fierro, Ben Bowman and many more. She is currently studying Broadcast Journalism at Point Loma Nazarene University and plans to graduate in May 2012.

And I know you've already seen these pictures, but these are the ones I sent with the bio:

Anyway, I am now all caught up with my blogging. Tomorrow I meet the rest of my company and I am beside myself excited (most of you know this can be a bit much sometimes, which I hope doesn't come out to my company until they know me a bit better... [this kind of excitement often scares off people in the admissions office because I also get excited to tell people about PLNU during campus tours and talking to families]). Although I'm excited, I have been constantly reminding myself how thankful I am for my passion and opportunity God has given me to be involved in something as great as this! 

In-betweensies

"A time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance..." Ecclesiastes 3:4

Dance was always available to me. Whatever I wanted to do with it, I was able. I was extremely blessed to be supported in my passion (and paid for). Through dance I always had great friends, a workout, and a release from the stress the world put on me. Dance was my way of praising God, whether I realized it or not, I danced for Him.

When I came to college (only He knows why He put me in a place without dance), I suffered. I didn't have any way of getting to dance (no car for freshies!) and even if I did I didn't have the money to pay for classes, my body shut down on me, and my faith suffered immensely. I considered transferring, but God continued to test my patience and kept me exactly where I was...

About three times during my freshman year my RA Johanna let me borrow her car to take a class nearby. This class was terrible! I don't know if it was the stiff movement, weird music, yoga teacher trying to dance or what, but I hated it... however, like I said, I went about 3 times, I paid $15 each time, for a terrible class, because I was THAT desperate to dance!

My sophomore year I was blessed to have a car on campus and a few girls to try classes with. I took some good classes and some bad classes nearby and couldn't find a place I loved enough to call "home" (nor could I afford it!). The summer before my junior year at PLNU I stayed on campus to work in the Admissions Office (which I LOVE with all my heart!) and finally took a leap of faith to try a studio further away on my own.

Academy of Performing Arts is in La Mesa, San Diego, about a 25 minute drive from PLNU's campus but well worth the drive! I began taking a weekly class with an instructor that I really liked, he even worked with Mia Michaels! (In case you haven't figured it out yet, she's my favorite). Anyway, this studio is aimed at adult dancers and high school kids who want to go in to the professional world of dance. All the instructors at APA have extensive professional backgrounds, they host master classes almost weekly, and have a few professional companies in residence. I follow them on Facebook and Twitter and attended class weekly at the studio, simply staying in touch with the studio opened LOTS and lots of doors!

In January I saw APA start to post about auditions for Butterworth Dance Company (BDC), couldn't make it because of a wedding, but February came around and (the media junkie that I am, I now follow BDC on fb too) BDC started advertising for auditions at the end of February.

I am a cheap person, fast food dates are great, I'm a sucker for sales, and I will take almost ANYTHING someone hands me if it's free, heck I might even go ask for it free! Well, this poses a problem when you're spending $15/week on an hour and a half long dance class ($14 for the class, $1 for the new song I fell in love with every week discovered in the class, + however much gas costs...), that is quite a bit of money... My cheapness and my stubbornness came together and convinced myself (wow, even I can sway myself... that's a little scary) that I would attempt the audition. BDC was looking for paid company members and unpaid project/intern dancers. I figured, paid would be ideal but not realistic since I am in no shape to keep up, but even the project position... FREE! I don't have to pay for class AND I get to perform, that's a win-win-win ("The Office" reference for my good friends out there) for me!

February 27th, I went...

how it all began...

Throughout elementary school I struggled to find my "thing". Soccer, basketball (that was a BIG bust seeing as I was terrified of the ball), gymnastics, karate, you name it, I took a shot at it, I even went through this really cool rollerblading phase... I just couldn't find my fit, until...

One day in the 4th grade my best friend and neighbor came to my house and told me all about her dance class that she had been taking all year and the upcoming recital. I thought nothing of this until later that day my mother decided it might be another "thing" to try, our conversation went a little something like this: 

Me-"Absolutely not! I will, under no circumstances, stand on a stage in front of all those people and look like a fool!" (Mind you, I was a painfully shy 10-year-old)

Mom-"What if you just took the classes and didn't do the recital at the end of the year?"

Me-"What's the point then?"

...no response...

In my head (I'm assuming... I was 10, my memories are a little blurry) my thought was: 'well, if I don't have to do the recital at the end of the year I don't really have to try in class and can stop going as soon as we start learning the dance to be performed... maybe I'll do it just to say I did and call it quits after a few weeks' (after all, that's how most of the other trial runs went). So, I said "OK!"

I convinced my cousin Marisa to take a tap class with me, more like tricked her, but we went, and mom tricked me in to a jazz class as well. I guess that's what I get for tricking the cousin... well played mother, well played.

I honestly cannot tell you what happened that entire first year of my classes (other than trying to practice my tap moves with Marisa on the playground at school but failing almost every time when she would just scuff her feet around and proceed to blow me off because she was embarrassed by me), but I can tell you that it ended in two very unflattering leotards with sequins, fringe, feathers and elastic correlating with the songs "Zoot Suit Riot" (this leo was neon pink) and "I Won't Dance" (Ironic right?!) (black gold and silver leo for this one, with the shiny tap shoes of course...). I still can't believe I genuinely FORGOT about the deal with my mother and went through with the entire year AND the recital, once again, touche mom, well played. 

The next year I ironically decided that I wanted MORE! I "auditioned" (everyone made it...) for one of my studio's competition teams (jazz & lyrical) and ended up on the lyrical team. (We danced at local and statewide competitions and weekend-long conventions). I spent the year running across the stage to the song "Only Time" by Enya and "Once Upon A December" (yup, the one from the movie Anastasia) (and yes, that was a hint that even the newbie that I was, knew it was terrible choreography and song choice, even back then...), but I made it, and went back for another year...

*A bit of background: our teams were divided in to two groups for each team, we called them the "biggies" and the "littles", I was a "little"...*

Year 3. The lyrical team ("biggies" and "littles") was combined due to lack of dancers. I also got on to the jazz team, which posed a sort of a problem... All the girls my age were now "biggies" while because of my lack of experience (they had all been dancing since they were 3, meanwhile Emily is on year 3 of dance), I remained a "little". I watched all of my friends dance fun, exciting choreography while I was stuck with girls much younger and inexperienced. This forever ruined the songs "I Love Rock 'N Roll" and "Get This Party Started" for me (first visualize shiny red pants and a pleather half-top with the word "ROCK" on it... now try black baggy pants and a dew-rag and Emily attempting to look "ghetto"... if you visualize correctly you should have at LEAST chuckled if something didn't come out of your nose...). Whilst suffering through being a mature "little" (I was fortunate enough to step in once as an understudy for the "biggies" when a girl broke her foot before a competition) I was also placed on the brand-spankin'-new tap team, which was another great experience (of which I met one of my favorite past-time personalities... Donae [if you danced with me at this time you will know who I'm talking about, if not, just imagine the most absurd facial expressions known to man, multiply by 27, put them in stage makeup and under lights and wallah! You think I'm kidding... I'm not.]). 

The next year, along with the 3 competition teams I was involved in, my parents convinced me (they seemed to be doing this a lot now that I think about it...) to tackle the art of performing solo. I wanted a lyrical one, parents wanted a ballet one, and in order for me to agree to ballet I threw jazz in to the negotiations and ended with all 3. I got around the classical ballet solo my parents wanted by choosing the 007 theme song en pointe (those hard shoes ballerinas wear...). First year with a solo and I did 3... still can't decide if that was crazy-good or crazy-insane, but I made it through. I almost forgot to mention, I was upgraded to permanent "biggie" during this year, life was good.

These pictures aren't my first solos, but they're back at Foothills so I thought I'd post them. The tan/yellow dress was my 2nd year (when I decided 3 was too many, I settled for just one), green dress was actually a group dance (but a solo picture haha) that same year. Red shirt pictures are from my solo the following year, I believe I was a freshman or sophomore in high school at this point.

I will spare you the agony of reading through the rest of my life, year by year, until my current age of 21, but summarize that I spent 6 years total at Foothills Dance Studio, 5 competing and winning many large shiny trophies for the trophy shelf that ran out of space and expanded to any other surface in the tiny studio, and now reside in the possession of the new studio owner who tried to give them back to me 3 years ago when I came to teach a summer intensive because she felt bad throwing them away... (sorry, I do realize that was an extremely long sentence, hopefully you took a few breaths) The last two years our teams sort-of fell apart so I usually performed my solos at various competitions around our area. Once again, the 'rents convinced me (gosh I'm easily swayed apparently) to start taking classes in the city at a very well known dance studio. This is when dance became a big deal...

I started taking ballet from Deirdre Hawkins at Hawkins School of Performing Arts once a week. Deirdre asked me to be an understudy for an upcoming performance for her ballet company and I accepted in order to make friends at the new studio. (Who knew a dance related to a clock could be so helpful?!). The next year I was placed as a principle dancer on the Folsom Lake Civic Ballet Company (FLCB) along with (after an audition) becoming a principle on iMPACT Contemporary Dance Company, both of which are under the umbrella (along with Sound Out Tap Company) of Stages Northern California Performing Arts, the only non-profit pre-professional dance company in Northern California. This commitment required about 30 hours per week of technique and rehearsal classes for me, added on to a full load of my junior year of high school, (oh ya, fun fact: I also got mono in the beginning of that year... that was just a hoot) but I LOVED every minute of it. We put on a full length ballet, "Coppelia", and all the companies came together for "Evening of Dance". We also danced at random functions such as the grand opening of a shopping center, Macy's community day, "Light the Night" fundraiser for Leukemia & Lymphoma, Stein Mart's grand opening and many many more. It was a great experience for me and opened a lot of doors to expose me to the possibilities of dance.

My senior year of high school I decided to enjoy being a high schooler so I cut back to just one company, iMPACT. This, surprisingly, only cut about 10 hours out of the equation but I was at least able to go to my senior prom and sporting events (as a spectator! geeze) (although, I did forget to mention, one of those "in-between" years I ran high school track... sucked at everything but hurtles because I was the only one flexible enough to do the splits over every one.). ANYWAY, this year I was paid to choreograph a solo for a student that was an apprentice on iMPACT and also received the "runner-up" position to a hefty dance scholarship through audition. We produced our full length contemporary show "eMOTIONal Destinations", which was the best show I have EVER been a part of.  Oh, and I also got to take a class from MIA MICHAELS (my FAVORITE choreographer in the entire world), she looked me straight in the eye and gave me a critique and I will forever cherish the moment she hugged me.

 ya, that's Mia...

And then I chose Point Loma... those Nazarenes don't dance. at all...