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.