I got my exam results back..

..and I passed with honours!

So that's 81%, and honours is the top range you can get! It goes Standard not yet attained (0-39%) Pass (40-49%) Credit (50-59%) Commended (60-69%) Highly commended (70-79%) and Honours (80-100%) 

I did not expect the results to come in so soon, and I also did not expect to go so well! My friend who also took the exam is only 13 and she got 100%!! She's incredible! But I am proud of myself for passing my exam and achieving something! And I'm also proud that I got 100% in theory, that's what I was aiming for, because I knew that my allegro would be lacking! I wish I knew what I lost marks for in barre, because the examiner didn't say, but anyway. That's one New Year's Resolution I can tick off for sure! 

This was just a quick update, I hope you're all going well! 

You only need to be better than yourself!

Dancers often tend to develop quite competitive nature over time. When your body and physical ability is being examined more then most people would feel comfortable with, it's hard not to let your ego get in the way of why we started dance in the first place. I know I have many times!

I have to say, one of the main forces for my said competitiveness are the 'naturals', in particular the naturals who don't appear to work as hard, or just don't have the passion I or my other classmates have. This sounds very conceited, but I'm sure many dancers can relate. Not many other things are as discouraging as someone doing seemingly nothing and yet getting more recognition. 

I mentioned briefly in one of my hastily written summer school posts the girl with so much drive but surprisingly little technique. My heart broke for her, because she worked so hard but didn't end up getting a solo for the end of week demonstration. But we were so in sync, because not many other people are in the same situation as me, and have such similar views on ballet as I do! The thing I admired most though is that she obviously had such a passion for it, and that's why we dance isn't it?

The thing is, no one is working from the same tools, meaning human bodies are not all the same blank canvases. Someone may just have better turn out, feet, flexibility or the ability to pick up combinations! That's why goal setting is so important, it reminds you of what you have achieved! It's also important not to set time limits for yourself based on others, set time GOALS but if you don't achieve that goal within say 2 weeks or whatever then that does not mean you are not good. I'm sure you've read countless things on accepting your body and abilities, but accepting yourself is such a fundamental thing to do in order to get the best out of dance! 

I hope you're all well and you all enjoy your Easter break! We seem to be suffering from an elongated summer over here, ugh I hate this hot weather ruining my favourite season! I just want to bust out the ridiculous amount of warm-ups already! Also, my ballet exam is literally almost a month! I went to a rehearsal on Sunday and I was fine beforehand but as soon as I walked in and had to practice introducing myself to the examiner I got so nervous and it all just dawned on me OH GOD!!

Not sure where I should go with this blog.

Sorry I haven't written a post in a shameful amount of time! Truth is though, I have rather mixed intentions of what my content should be about! I'm still keeping track of my corrections and what not, but I do so by scribbling notes in a journal I take around with me. Doing things purely with technology obviously wasn't working for me so I decided to rep it old style!

However I decided that simply not posting is not going to help me decide what content this blog should produce, I think I need to continue experimenting to see what fits.

So while that happens, I might just give a quick update! One of my goals for the year was to pass my Grade 6 exam, and I will be taking it in the last week of April! At this point in time, I am not nervous, instead I am rather excited! Before I do my exam, I'll turn 18, which is quite an alien concept, to actually be an adult. I still feel like I need to grip onto my childhood (especially being a late starter in ballet and wanting to be perceived as younger than I am to blend in) but now I look forward to beginning this new chapter of my life. I've stopped hushing my classmates when they try to discuss how old I am ("ancient" has also been used to describe me. They're 3 years younger then I am) and started to embrace it! I had no trouble excitedly claiming to my contemporary teacher "I'M 18 NEXT MONTH OMG WHAT?!?!"  and I'm sure my ballet teacher will soon be hearing about it as well!

I'm looking forward to the coming months, this year has been pretty good so far, I'll will try to post often, even if at the moment it is just updates like these!

Back on track after a weird week!

I'm back to posting normal posts! I was unable to post normally during summer school as I had no computer, only my phone!

Unfortunately I fell off track this week following summer school, but in my defense it has been a weird week. I went back to school on Wednesday and then from Wednesday evening then throughout Thursday I was sure I was getting a cold; fever, sore throat etc. but today when I took the day off from school I feel fine! I don't understand my body, I really don't. So all this has thrown a spanner in the works, plus I don't go back to my ballet studio until next week.  I'm sure once the school week begins properly and I have ballet as normal, everything will fall into place.

I did most of my routine tonight after about a week's break and I have seemed to have not lost a lot of flexibility, like I expected. I'd hate to have all my hard work done for nothing! But hopefully I'll return to where I was before and continue to improve it. I'd consider OSEIJ successful because I have seen a good amount of improvement in my flexibility, but most importantly an improvement in my motivation to stretch. Even if I didn't actually stretch everyday, I tried to stretch, whenever it was possible, because I knew I would have to document on here whether I did so or not. I think this month I do need to document when I fall off track and the reasons why, even if they are petty. It'll encourage me to complete my routine each day more.

Goals for the month:
-focus on main corrections from ss:
weight forward in turns
no arched back
eyes up
use of plies in allegro
-maintain stretch and strength routine
-work on double pirouettes

And I'll add some more when class starts! :)

Operation Stretch Everyday in January: Day 11

I'm back on track!
Today I felt really good about my stretching. I tried my new stretching technique for splits and saw some improvement!

I am however itching to go back to class because there are many things I know I need to work on but don't have the facilities at home to do anything other then the basics. Especially pointework. Another thing I should focus on this year is releve-passes and echappes on pointe  (in the center). And doing the quarter pirrouette exercise on pointe.
However, my summer school is in just over a week from now and I'm so looking forward to it!

Operation Stretch Everyday in January: Day 10

Yesterday (Day 10) was unfortunately a complete off day, because I felt (and still feel) like I'm coming down with something. Sore throat, headache etc. so I thought it was best to have a rest night and not to overexert myself if I am getting sick. I feel the same as I did yesterday today, I really don't know what's up, but I'm not happy anyway. The last thing I want is to be sick yet again and have a major curve ball in my goal. I don't mind having a few off days as long as I make up for them in February, like pay my dept, and the idea of this project is to just keep myself on track with stretching. I just don't want to lose any flexibility I've gained.

Operation Stretch Everyday in January: Day 8

Yesterday (day 8) was my first 'off day' thanks to the extreme weather conditions. It got to 42 degrees  in Sydney and by midnight it was still 37 degrees. Which is just insane. I did manage to do a quick barre of plies, core strength work and some simple stretches and my splits routine, but despite the warm temperature, it did not have an affect on my muscles as it was to hot to move/warm up properly and concentrate on my flexibility. However I am proud that I did manage to stretch somewhat even if I didn't feel like it at all, which is an improvement in itself!

It'll be much cooler for the rest of this week so I'll be back to normal routine tonight!

Operation Stretch Everyday in January: Day 7

First week of 'OSEJ' is done and I have been successful in stretching everyday this week!

This week I'm going to try a different approach to splits, doing the same preparation but instead of sitting in splits for 60 seconds I sit in my full split for 10 seconds then release slightly then go down again a couple of times then hold that for maybe 30 seconds or so. I hope I'll see some more improvement with this method, especially with my left leg.

I'm also going to practice middle splits more.

Operation Stretch Everyday in January: Day 1

Operation stretch everyday in January has begun! My right leg splits are almost flat already, so this is good motivation.

My goals for this week is just to continue with my new splits routine and hope to see more improvement!