Utah Youth For Haiti

Last night my ballroom team went to Lone Peak High and performed at the Utah Youth For Haiti Benefit Concert. There were a lot of really talented people that were there. There were a few dance companies, local singer/songwriters, and some faces from the Disney Channel and So You Think You Can Dance. In fact, I felt a little stupid seeing Randi Lynn Strong Evans on stage dancing after sitting right next to her in the dressing room talking about makeup, fake eyelashes and being claustrophobic and not even recognizing her. stupid me. We danced the 1st place Disco from Idaho and our Lindy Swing. It was super fun. I got a picture with a Haitian rapper named Faya (like fire) that sang/rapped a song about his home country as the closing act. It was really fun. I saw lots of old familiar faces and we had a blast. It felt really cool to be a part of something bigger than high school. We were helping a cause.

Gem State Classic 2010

So, Sunday I got back from our team's trip to Idaho Falls for the Gem State Classic. Things to Note:

1. The Gem State Classic is the biggest pure youth competition in the all of Utah, Idaho, etc.

2. It's two days long. The first day (Friday) is devoted to Team events, meaning that you only compete team numbers and only teams perform. You are scored by several judges on a scale of 1-10 on choreography, music, execution, technique, etc.

3. The second day (Saturday) is devoted to individual partnership events, meaning just you and your partner on the floor with several other couples. This includes Syllabus and Open Events.

4. Team Match is also competed on Saturday after everything else is done. Team Match is a competition between high schools for the spirit award and points out of 10 for four dances each performed by one couple from each team.

5. Individual Syllabus events are ranked in Bronze, Silver and Gold difficulties, Gold being the most difficult of the three. Bronze has a certain list of steps you are allowed to use for each dance. As you go up a level, the amount of steps you can use and the difficulty of the steps increase. So, Gold events are the most difficult of the three.

With all that in mind, allow me to continue. Friday morning we loaded the bus and drove to Idaho Falls, got to the hotel, did hair and makeup, and left for the competition. We were competing four numbers that night; Disco, Cabaret, Latin Medley, and Standard Medley. I danced in everything except Disco. We placed 3rd in both of our medleys, 2nd in our Cabaret, and 1st in the Disco. It was awesome. And at 12:00 it was time to head back to the hotel and be off to bed.

Saturday, we got to sleep in and eat some real food for breakfast, swim in the pool and get ready again for all of our individual events. Sam and I competed in Bonus Swing, Gold and Silver Tango, Gold and Silver Samba, Gold Mambo and Open Youth Standard Championship. We made it to semi-finals in Bonus Swing, Silver Samba and Gold Samba. We placed in all the rest. 5th in Silver Tango, 5th in Gold Mambo, 3rd in Gold Tango, and 2nd in Open Youth Standard Champ. It was awesome!

Then There was team match. I danced Samba with Paul for our team. Lehi won the spirit award (surprise surprise!!) :) And then we all went back to the hotel minus JaCee who was in the hospital for dehydration and exhaustion. She was ok though.

The rest is kinda blurry. To bed at 5:00 a.m. Bus home till 3:30. sleep. etc. Overall it was an awesome year for Lehi Ballroom!! I can't wait to go again!

So yeah....

Dear Audrey Hepburn,

As of late, I have come to find that happy feelings, pleasant conversations, and polite correspondences are running very scarce in my associations. A smile and a kind word is too wounding to produce. My pride prohibits me from exhibiting civilities that, once, were common and free flowing. A previous brightness of they eyes is replaced with a raw, bloodshot appearance. A previously cheerful attitude is replaced with an impatient, exhausted perception of my existence. What do I do, Audrey? What do I do? I discovered your response some time ago and not until now, can I truly see how relevant it is. So thank you, Audrey, for your much needed words of wisdom. And, if you wouldn't mind, I'll share it with others.

"For beautiful eyes, look for the good in others; for beautiful lips, speak only words of kindness; and for poise, walk with the knowledge that you are never alone.” -Audrey Hepburn

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....