My Favorite Competition Piece Ever!!!!

So, I know it's a Friday, but whatever. I told you I would surprise you later this week, so I am.

Meet Talia, Chryssa, and Ariana. These girls are fantastic. I'm not sure how old they all are, but these girls appear to be at about the same technical level. Their turns are flawlessly controlled, and their musicality is perfectly precise, while still seeming inherent. Not to mention the choreography... Props to Nick Lazzarini for completely outdoing himself on this piece.

I think I love everything about this dance. The choreography (There's that word again.), the dancers, the music, the costumes, everything. I hope you enjoy this as much as I did! If you want to see more of these dancers, just check out YouTube- it's packed with their accomplishments!
Hope everyone's having a great summer!
Savanna

Choreography for Beginners Part 1

      Hey guys! This weekend's (and next weekend's) post is a little different... It's not really about dancing, so much as choreographing.    
      This is actually something that (as a dancer) you'll run into a lot. most college and high school programs require some sort of choreography unit, whether you end up doing yours or someone else's. At my school, our dance program had a "What inspires you?" project, and we were required to write about the topic, choreograph a minimum 1:30 minute solo or duet, and perform it for the class.
   I was pretty intimidated when my teacher first gave us the assignment. I love to make up combinations with my friends and challenge myself with phrases that shouldn't really flow well together, but this was different. I was alone, and it was graded. I started by choosing my music. That wasn;t as hard as I thought it would be, I already had made a combo to "Listen" by Beyonce (from the movie Dreamgirls) so I just stuck with that one. Unfortunately, however....

Courtesy of Thanks-To-Dance Tumblr

     I got started. We had class-time to work on our pieces, and I chose to do mine as a solo, so I could practice at home, too. Honestly, the hardest part was not making the routine too difficult for me to do at the speed f the song. It isn't really fast, but packing too many movements could get complicated. I eventually completed the assignment, but one thing that I learned this year is that a piece is never really "done."
    I must have performed this thing 7-8 times this year, and every time I did it, something changed. There was a particularly challenging series of turns at the very end of the piece. The first time I did t, it went exactly as planned. The second time, I slipped and did a death-drop flat on my back in the middle of the stage. The third time, I couldn't hear the music over the applause (I know, right?) so I finished about 8 counts after the music ended and improv-ed the entire turn sequence. The very last time, the stage was too slippery for me to come out the way I wanted, so I planned on doing another kind-of knee-drop fall out of them. I started falling out of my turns before the phrase was over, so I jumped/fell too soon, had to roll out of it, and improv my walks off-stage.
     And those were just the mishaps that I remember.  :)  


There is more choreography chaos to come, meanwhile, enjoy this post, and I'll see if I can surprise you with a video later on this week. Don't forget to share and subscribe!
Savanna

YouTube?

Hey guys! Me again. I know I don't usually post during the week, but school's out, so... what the heck.
A few posts ago, I mentioned my going on YouTube to film tutorials and such. Well, a couple weeks ago, I uploaded a video for school (filmed on my ancient Handicam). The quality sucked. Majorly.
So anyways, that won't be happening anytime soon (I'm saving up for a new camera.), but I will be posting much more regularly, and I have some new and exciting things coming up for you guys, so stay tuned.
Happy Summer!
Savanna

Organization for Dancers

Hey guys! So I realize that it's been a really long time since I last updated this blog...  I learned a pretty hard lesson on time management and organization this month.  My spring show was coming up and I got hit with a boatload of rehearsals. School's almost out, so I had to study for my finals, not to mention the enormous amount of pressure that my parents and teachers (both at school and at dance) were putting on me to perform. Add my fear of disappointing any one of those people, and you've got one huge mess. Sound familiar?

I really should know by now, it's happened before. During Nutcracker season it's about 5 times worse!  So why wasn't I prepared?
I did some reading, and discovered that although I had been through this before and knew what I should do, my brain hadn't been following a routine of organization and time management, so it was a larger adjustment. As soon as I realized what the problem was, I started to take action (although I probably should have been doing homework). I created a folder/notebook system for school and a binder system for anything not-school-related (in other words, a dance binder).



For school I bought an accordion file from Target. In that, I keep extra papers and handouts from all of my classes, organized by subject (with an extra folder for loose-leaf paper). I have one composition notebook for each subject as well.

My notebooks and pencil case.

In my dance binder I have a lot more tabs. I have one for costumes, my future studio(My dream studio, that I will run when I'm 30.), my summer intensive, my blog stuff, extra paper, and a calendar.

Summer Intensive, Blog Stuff, Bunhead Heaven, Future Studio, Master Plan

Outside of both of these binders I have an agenda, where I right down performances, homework, extra rehearsals, things I need to get done, and my Discount Dance list.

In both of these binders I have various printable organizers that I've found on Pinterest and deemed useful.
You can find these below:

DIY Home Sweet Home

Pinch a Little Saves a Lot


Hope you enjoy, sorry for the delay, and see you next week!
Savanna

P.S.  Feel free to comment below and tell me what kind of posts you would like to see more of! Product reviews, performance reviews, D.I.Y.s, etc. I'd love to help!