In Review...

What a year. I'll start at the beginning. I turned 16 at the beginning of the year (YAY DATING!!). As it was, I didn't really have time for anything besides school and ballroom. Competition season was in full sway. I competed with my high school team at The Gem State Classic in February and The National Dancesport Championships in March.About two weeks before Nationals I was hired for my first real job at a local plant nursery. It's a perfect job for me as it was very flexible with my schedule and it closed at a decent hour so I could keep up with school. But besides the hours, My boss and co-workers are great. They are funny, hard working and honest. I was very blessed to find such a great job. After ballroom competitions were over, we moved on to prepare a concert for the end of the

year. It was a huge success for the coaches and all of the students. We had such a great time and all the late night practices and early mornings paid off double.

And then.... School was over for the summer. I continued to work at the nursery and my competition partner and I started cracking down on practicing. We worked with our wonderful coach, Nicole (amazing!), and she did all of the choreography for our pre-champ events (Waltz, Quickstep and Tango). We worked really hard and we're getting pumped for competitions in the spring!! I'll let you know when they are.

Mom and Dad and I went on a few great trips this summer. We went to Yellowstone for a few days and it was great!! We saw a bunch of cool wildlife and it was great to get away for a few days.

And then.... I was a Junior (School started again). This meant that LHS Ballroom started again and it was the only reason I would have ever gone back. Ok not really. I signed up for AP Biology which has since proved to be a huge mistake. I mean, is a trip to Catalina over spring break really worth the THREE textbooks we read, college level labs, and endless vocabulary quizzes?? REALLY??? Oh well, I'm stuck and I'm going on that trip to Catalina:).

In October I competed in Ballroom's annual "Dancing With the Athletes" Event. I was paired up with our Varsity Football Team Captain, Bubba (not his real name but he prefers that to Richard). But the best part about the whole thing was that by the time we had our dress rehearsal, he had broken both his arms in recent football games which made it very difficult for him to dance. But he was a trooper and we danced anyways.It was a BLAST!!

From about mid September to the end of November there is a minor Competition season. For ballroom, we have to compete once a semester in order to pass, but due to a costuming catastrophe and a few other circumstances, my partner and I couldn't compete in our open event. We ended up dancing in a syllabus quickstep event for our grade which was a blast, but no matter what we are definitely competing open in the spring.

And now I only have two more days till Christmas break and I'll be seventeen in twelve days. oooooh!! So yeah....

Slow Slow Quick Quick Slow

Saturday, November 14th:
6:00-8:00 am: Standard Medley Practice
9:00-11:00 am: Work (Thank you Amanda for taking the rest of my shift!!)
11:30 am-5:00 pm: 2009 BYU Dancesport Semi Annual Championship
6:00- 11:30 pm: Sadie Hawkins

It was a busy day. I had practice for two hours, work for two hours, and then it was off to competition. Sam and I competed High School Syllabus ISTD Standard Quickstep (Hence the title). We made it through 3 of the 6 rounds. It is fair to say that I was very nervous. Now that it's over though I can say that we had a blast, but while we were waiting in the on deck area, about to go onto the floor, the only thing running through my head was, "Why do I do this? This is NOT fun!!!" But it was:). After our event was over we got to stay and watch Jess and Chris Compete Open Pre-Champ Smooth. They did great!! Then Sam and I came home. I had about an hour to undo my ballroom hair and make-up for Sadie Hawkins (which was a blast!!). We went to dinner and then we left the dance at about 10 because we could barely stand up for being SO TIRED!! We went back to the house and watched part of a movie and called it a night at about 11:30. It was a busy day but it was super fun!! :)
p.s. Sam and I will be competing a LOT more in the early spring (feb-mar ish). I will post the dates of competitions if anyone is interested in coming!!

Dancing With the Athletes

Just a few rough details:
october 1st probably around 7 p.m. at the high school. i don't know if i'm dancing yet. i'll post more details soon. i would love for everyone to come. it's gonna be fun:)

Back to School

Regretably I've returned to school. It's not like I have much control over that aspect of my life, but all the same, I am returning with less than a sense of enthusiasm. I've found that my classes are going to be a lot harder than I thought. AP Biology for example....... I probably don't need to explain. Most of you know what AP biology with Mrs. Russell includes. Pre-Calculus feels like rocket science and spanish 3 sounds like gibberish. Besides classes, ballroom will be a challenge this year too. I'm finding as a captain that getting people to cooperate is harder than helping people understand steps. It's getting people to show up to a 6 a.m. saturday practice with coaches rather than actually working once their there. It's getting them to show respect for the coaches and their extensive knowledge rather than making sure they all have the right skirt or pants. It's getting them to be quiet for more than 3 minutes rather than standing in proper dance position. We are trying to keep the name of "Lehi Ballroom" as clean and unscathed as possible and it's proving to be quite difficult. There are of coarse also good things about ballroom. As of last friday, we are going to be going to the Gem State Classic in Idaho to compete like last year. We will also be attending Nationals and going on a performance tour to Ceder City and St. George. I'm really excited. We are around half way done with both medlies and already have two numbers choreographed, finished and with places set. We really got a good start this year and I'm confident that we'll do a lot better. Mom is even working on costumes already:) anyways.... enough of that. That's what's up. So yeah....

just to clarify

i know that this doesn't mean much to anybody, but i just wanted to clarify. i was reading a few of my old posts and realized a lot had changed in my plans for competition next year and that a lot of the info you have has now changed. :( sorry.
anyways... so my partner and i decided that we were going to compete open standard 5 dance and open smooth 4 dance.
in competition you can either compete syllabus or open individually.

syllabus: when you compete any of the dances in any of three levels of difficulty. bronze (being the simplest) , silver (being the next in difficulty) and gold( being the most difficult). you wear a white top and black skirt/pants. no lifts no props. judging in priorities is technique and then performance.

open: when you compete certain categories like standard, smooth, rythm and/or latin. in each of the categories there are either four or five dances. in champ you dance all of the dances. but in pre-champ, you only dance 3 of the dances, and you do not compete with with the champ dancers. you dance in costume and can use whatever steps you want to some degree. no lifts, no props ect. judging in priorities is performance and then technique.

in open you can dance any of the four categories standard, smooth, latin and/or rythm

standard 5 dance: includes waltz, viennese waltz, foxtrot, quickstep and tango. even though it's open, you don't have a lot of freedom. you are in closed dance position most of the time and you rarely leave it. i will be in a formal ballroom gown. :)

Smooth 4 dance: includes waltz, vieneese waltz, foxtrot and tango. no quickstep. darn. in smooth you have a lot more freedom than in standard (aka you dont always have to be in closed dance position). you wear a different, more casual gown than in standard.

so my partner and i have already started our choreography lessons with our lovely coach nicole! :) she is wonderful. we are working on the waltz right now. i like it. and we are also working on finding a technique coach.... yeah.
so that is what is going on right now and if it changes again, which is likely, then you will all be the first to know about it. :) so yeah...

miss lehi!!!

my best freind sabrina jaco competed last night in the miss lehi 2009 show. her platform was about helping student's where english was their second language, just like her. and for her talent, she did a solo pasodoble/flamenco. she won the award for most photogenic and she also won the swimsuit portion of the competition. must have been all that dancing. :) she was named the second attendant to miss lehi 2009! it was way fun to go and see her compete she did amazing with her interview questions and She did great overall!! so yeah.

~THE END~

This school year is coming to a close, and as much as i hate to admit it, i would go to early morning ballroom every day during the summer just to be able to keep going to school. it's a relief to be done with homework and teachers, but i am very sad. this upcoming year, the school district is opening westlake high school to which saratoga springs and cedar fort and eagle mountain residents will be going to. so we are losing about a third of our ballroom team to westlake and another 10 are graduating. I find it ironic however, that my best friends are the ones who happen to be leaving. my best friend sabrina jaco is graduating :(
I am looking forward to next year because i get to be a team captain! thats the upside.
I feel very blessed to have had the chance to work with the people i did. and i am glad to be able to end the year having met some of the best people ever and made friends with them as well.

thanks!!

thanks to everybody that came to my concert. i appreciate, so much, the support!! i will hopefully be posting pictures soon. i am going to buy the video and see what i can do with that. thanks again!!

concert

Thursday, May 7th
7:00 pm
Lehi High School Auditorium
Free
it's going to be really fun, but it will probably be an hour and a half to two hours, so i wouldn't recommend bringing little kids. The concert will be of the LHS Ballroom Team (thats me) and the LHS Beginning Ballroom Class. so yeah.

for now...

for now....
i am in my 4th quarter of school right now which is a relief. i will be glad when school is over. i need a break.
i just got back from our annual spring break camping trip. this year we went to capitol reef. it was very fun. we went on a great hike up to Hickman's natural bridge where i learned the difference between a bridge and an arch. a bridge is made by water passing under it and an arch is made mostly with wind. we saw a great panel of petroglyphs and we enjoyed good weather.
i got a job at Olsen's nursery and am working a few times a week. it's a good job for me but probably seasonal. but hey, it's a job.
ballroom wise, i am preparing for the end of year concert which will be on may 7th. you are all invited and i will give details later. but it will be cool. we have choreographed several new numbers and it is going to be a good show. also after the wedding i am going to start taking lessons at a studio and hiring a choreographer to help my partner and i get ready for competitions next year. yikes.
for now i think that's all. so yeah.

Looking Forward

I had a nice week of somewhat relief. We just attended our last competition this past weekend as a team, and it will be the last one that I compete in this season. With tour canceled, we have time and money to spend on a more.......grand...... end of year concert. Our coaches have planned 3 new numbers to have choreographed and perfected by may. one is a hip hop/latin (probably cha cha) number, a lindie, and a Cabaret number. we auditioned for the cabaret number on wednesday and happily, my partner and I are one of the six couples who made it. we were all reminded however that, if at any time, anyone else was doing better at the part than us, then we would be quickly replaced. so as of now, i'm in, but i have to work hard to stay in. :)
I also talked to my cotton eye joe partner this week and we are going to compete individually next year. we will probably be dancing the "Open Latin Pre-Champ and Champ Events". SCARY! this means we will be competing in costume against couples our age who have been dancing a lot longer than we have. We are getting a choreographer and I am going to start attending a studio to become the latin dancer that I most certainly am NOT! But it will all be good. hopefully we'll be competing every chance that we get.
You are all invitedto the end of year cocert. it's on May 7 in the evening. I will get place and time to you later.
So yeah...

:)

National Dancesport Championships

So this last thursday, my ballroom team went to BYU for the National DS Champ. This time we were only performing our medlies. so standard performed first at about 10:00 and latin at 2:00 I am in the standard medly. instead of there being three teams there were 12. they have you dance once and then they divide you into two divisions. the top 6 are in division one and bottom6 in division 2. so in both standard and latin we got division 2. which was expected. then latin danced again at 8:00 and standard at 10:00. latin (who had 15 teams) got 5/7 and standard got 6/6. we had several points docked due to a costuming violation. three girls' floats (the whispy things that are attached to the arms) were stepped on and the floats fell off and touched the floor. they were then considered props which are illegal. :( so technically we could have been discualified, but we weren't. :) it was extremely disappointing but we can only improve. i can't wait to see what we can come up with for next season's competitions. so yeah.

~updates~

first of all i apologize!! i know i promised pictures of my trip in idaho, but........i have to admit, after i got off the bus, my camera didn't leave my purse. so....i'm getting some pix from my buddies and i will post them later. :( sorry!! so...... on friday morning of last week my ballroom team left for idaho. we got there around 2 and hurried to get our hair and makeup done. then we went to the competition. that night we danced our showcase number (cotton eye joe) and our two medlies. we placed 3rd out of 12 in our showcase and the judges only comments were, that we would have scored much higher had our formations been clearer. that was a huge highlight!! in our standard medley we placed 2nd out of 3 teams and in our latin we placed 3rd out of 3 teams. we were disapointed that there weren't more teams there. it is usually a larger competition, but due to some date mix ups, two other utah high schools scheduled competitions this same weekend. so there were only a few teams there doing medlies. on saturday, we each individually competed syllabus. this is where, you have an assigned set of steps you can use. there are different levels. bronze level is the most basic while gold has the more advanced steps. my partner and i did a silver cha cha. we didn't make it past quarter finals :( oh well. together however, our team placed about 20 times. we brought home tons of ribbons. but the highlight of the competition was team match. we had our four best couples each dancing one dance. the rest of us were decked out in purple, black and white. it was crazy. think tutus, war paint, metalic silver and sparkly eye shadow, metalic silver tights, crazy purple shirt, and of course bright red lipstick. the thing with team match is that it is the only event that spirit really matters. it wasn't easy to get the spirit award though. it was so loud from screaming in the gym, that you could barely hear the music. it was awesome!! afterwards we went to dinner at 1 in the morning and then got on the bus and went home. it was a way fun trip!! i can't wait to go again next year.

i am so glad we got to take this trip as a team. it was amazing. sadly however, at the next practice we had our coaches annonced that we would not be able to go on tour this year. too many people backed out too late and in order for us to go, each person would have to pay a significantly larger amount of money and our numbers would have to be rechoreographed to fit fewer couples. it was very sad, but i am slightly releived. maybe i'll go to a dance with all the money i have :).

i tried out again this year for ballroom team and made it. YAY! three of my good friends also made it this year and i can't wait to see the possibilities this new team will have. the only thing i have to show for this year's try outs is a sprained wrist (probably). last year, i cut my foot with one of my heels. this year as i was running towards the school doors and tripped just outside. i hit the side of the school and then fell on the ground and caught myself with my wrist. i have to say i was laughing really hard. my caoch asked me why once i got inside. it wasn't bad really but she told me i needed to go home and ice it and wrap it because it was most likely sprained. oh well. it's not bad.

so yeah..... thats whats going on.

p.s. wish me luck at nationals this upcoming week!! :)

10 days and counting! :(

10 days till my competition in idaho. aaaaaahhhh!!! :( we are competing both medleys. latin and standard. a medley is compilation of the five dances in each category. so for the latin medley, they will dance a one minute section to pasodoble, rumba, samba, jive and cha cha. for standard, you would dance a viennese waltz, quickstep, tango, waltz and foxtrot. all of the sections are to different songs but are connected in a way that is obvious to an audience and judges. for our latin medley, all the songs are tracks by shirley bassey. for standard, all the tracks are from a harry potter soundtrack. they are compiled specifically to match the mood and rythm of each dance. and they will be performed individually as teams. each team has costumes. ours are pretty cool. we had to rent them however due to a shipment........ malfunction.......... but they are still pretty cool. we will also be performing "cotton eye joe" for the open formation comp. where each team that performs a medley or medlies are allowed to dance an open formation dance. which means that we can do lifts and drops and lots of other steps that aren't otherwise legal. i posted about this dance a while back. it's the crazy swing number. but its fun and i have a good partner. i lucked out and got two great partners for both my dances. i know some of my team mates weren't so lucky. so yeah. i will hopefully be posting pictures when i get back. i can't wait. but in the meantime i will be content with my long and frankly excruciating practices. :)

sister sleepover!

me and kati had a sleepover at her apt. with her friend cali and her little sister caylie. it was super fun. we went to cafe rio to get some GREAT mexican food(funny thing is that i don't usually like mexican food unless its at cafe rio) went back home, ate the food. i had my three dressings (rio's house ranch, rio's vinegarette and some normal ranch). p.s. for future reference, the horchata drink is delicious :) we went to "the red box" and got eagle eye and also got some krispy kreme doughnuts!! YUM! me and kaylie got some of those paper hats that they have and wore those around too. then we went back and watched the movie. i did try to stay awake but i took a cold pill half way through and i just couldn't make it. it was super fun and now that its too late i realize that taking pictures would have been fun especially with the hats. oh well. thats all.

Being 16

two words my friends....... over rated. i don't have my license and as for dating...... dances......... not as fun as they seem. i haven't actually been to one yet but last week i got to experience first hand the drama of a high school dance and being eligable to go. i turned down the 3 invitations i got and stayed home instead and watched a movie with mom and dad. lame.. i know.... thats all.