Spring Break Please!

Hey everyone!

It is the last day before spring break, well at least for me it is. I am heading to a visit at SUNY Geneseo tonight so I will not be able to get into the studio tonight. I did play around with choreography on Monday, however, and I managed to add on another eight count! I am about 2/3 of the way done with the dance, at least the basics of it. There are still parts that I need to go back in and change or add too but so far I love what I have!
Spring Break is here (finally!) and I plan on working a lot on this project. I am hoping to get in a bunch of research done as well as starting the iMovie. I want to make a movie that shows pictures and snapshots from my whole journey. Dede Hatch who has been filming me is going to be able to give me a ton of pictures and other materials from throughout the process. I am hoping to be able to play this movie before I perform the dance at recital to give the audience a "behind the scenes" look at my experiences with this project. I also hope to play this at my end of the year presentation! I am really excited about this part of the project. I have never made an iMovie before so it is going to be interesting but I think it will be fun!

Have a good break everyone!
Abbie

Boogie Shoes!

I found this dance on YouTube of dancers from So You Think You Can Dance doing a jazz number to Boogie Shoes. Now I must have watched this dance twenty times already and I think it is one of the cutest, most fun, dances I have ever watched and I am super jealous of them! A big part of this dance that kept catching my attention was the glittery Converse shoes that they were wearing. Their dance was all about boogie shoes and the focus point was the sparkling shoes just as much as it was the dancing itself. 

Mrs. Augustine, my coach Rosalie, and I have all been working around the idea of somehow finding a way to mark my ankle while I am doing this dance. We have come up with the idea of tying a black ribbon around my ankle while I am dancing. Doing this would help show just where the injury is. I showed Mrs. Augustine a video of how my dance is coming along and in the video I was wearing my black ankle brace. She said it was a really interesting affect because you could see how I was avoiding the use of my one ankle and how it became noticeable the more and more I used it as the dance progressed. The whole purpose of this dance is to tell my story and I think that adding the ribbon will help me do this is a simple yet powerful way. Watching this video definitely made me realize that someone as simple as a ribbon or a pair of shoes can completely alter and enhance the message and meaning of a dance! 

Check out the video of this dance... it really is awesome!

Boogie Shoes

30 Seconds

Mr. Reiff asked us to describe our project in 30, highlighting our three biggest steps, successes and issues we have taken on.

1. Getting into the studio every week and adding on to my dance has been a big
Success. I have been loving the choreography experience and really connecting with myself as a dancer and as a patient recovering from surgery.

2. A big step I have taken that I am proud of is researching my injury and how it affects my body and how it limits me in my dancing. Having this knowledge and learning more about it has been such a big part of my project.

3. One issue and set back I have experienced is actually coming to terms with how much this injury limits me. I have to relearn so much in dance and limit what I can do. I have had to see my team compete and advance without me. This has all been really hard and something that I didn't expect to affect me so
much.

You rock IAD!

Ithaca Academy of Dance swept away the competition at regionals this weekend and I couldn't be more proud of them! Congratulations ladies you deserve it!

Tomorrow is Monday yet again, and that means weekly class meeting. I missed last week because I was sick and I'm glad I will be back in the classroom. This week has definitely been an off week for me between getting sick and an overload of school work. I think meeting with the WISE class again and having a more definite direction of where to go with the week will make me feel less stressed!

Part of my goal with this WISE project is to get back into shape for dancing. Being out for so long, I was finding it difficult to make it through the dance and have enough stamina. I was in the studio again today ( just for a little while) and noticed a definite improvement in how I felt while dancing. I wasn't getting as tired and was able to breath more normally after my dance. Little steps and improvements like this are helping me stay focused and committed to my goal.. which is an awesome feeling!

Busy week coming up I am sure!

Talk soon.

Abbie (:

Bittersweet Moment

Tomorrow the Ithaca Academy of Dance Company heads off to Long Island for their regional competition!
I got to go to the studio today to wish everyone good luck and to see their dances one last time before they had out to compete. It was awesome to be able to see the girls before they left and to wish them all good luck, but it was hard to accept the fact that I am not going with them. Last year I would be nervous/excited to pack up all the costumes and get on the bus with my team and spend a weekend showing off what we can do. The girls are going to rule the stage.. I just wish I was there to do it with them! GOOD LUCK IADC. I LOVE YOU GIRLS!

This picture is from regionals last year. It's crazy to think how much has happened and changed between now and then!

Mentor Meeting!

Had another amazing mentor meeting with Mrs. Augustine today. She rocks! Today was the first day that I actually was able to explain the full story of how I finally injured myself for the last time to Mrs. Augustine and she suggested that I write out the whole story with all the details on my blog. It is an interesting story for me to tell because I think it sounds way worse than what it felt like at the time, but it is still an important story of how I got to where I am today and why I wanted to do this WISE project in the first place.

So it all started at our national dance competition in NYC. I had been competing all day, I had eight dances done and two more to go. We were doing our big production number to One Short Day from Wicked. The dance was super cute and super fun, but not a whole lot of hard dancing. At the end of the song the "gatekeeper of Oz" jumps out and says "THE WIZARD WILL SEE YOU NOW!". It is the last second of the dance and I was chosen to do a round-off-back tuck (a back flip) as the grand finale of the song. I have done this skill a million times and it isn't a hard skill for me and I barely have to think to do it, but body just remembers how to do it. The whole dance was in high heel shoes (which was painful on an already hurting ankle), and right before my trick I ran off stage, ripped my shoes off, then ran back on stage to do the tumbling pass. Taking the shoes of went smoothly but as I took off for the back tuck I knew something wasn't right. I knew I wasn't going to make the rotation all the way around so I got my hands ready to catch me. And when I landed that is when I felt the pop. It was bad, and when I say bad I mean BAD. I have dealt with a lot of pain before but that was the worst pain I have ever endured but I somehow managed to finish the last 2 seconds of the dance (which was a pose on the floor). Next thing I know the rest of my team had gotten up and started to exit the stage, but I just sat there knowing that I could not get up. Some of the older girls on my team realized something was seriously wrong. They have seen my fall so many times and get hurt and hop right back up, so I guess when they saw that I wasn't getting up they knew something serious happened. One of the back stage helpers ended up coming to carry me off the stage. The competition director and a doctor came over to see me and asked me if I wanted my mom. And all I remember saying is "No she is going to be mad!" I was afraid she was going to be mad that I got hurt... I don't know why I thought that but it made sense at the time! So I am sitting there with a huge bag of ice, in more pain than I have ever been in before and all I am thinking is "I have to get ready for my last dance!" It was another big group dance, this time a ballet and I still hadn't realized that there was no way I was getting up again. My team managed to redo the dance without me in it (which is still extremely impressive to me) and place very well! The rest of the night is kind of a blur. I remember getting back to the hotel and just wanting to sleep. I took a nap and a shower and then instead of going out to eat like we had planned, my whole team piled into my room and we watched the gymnastics Olympic Trials on TV. It was a crazy couple of minutes until I realized what happened, and looking back at it I still can't believe that it actually happened to me!

Back on track!

So I have been a little MIA this last week. I have been working like crazy and then I got sick and it's just been a whirl wind of a week! But I'm back on track and ready to go. I missed class yesterday and will make sure that I make up the new assignment ASAP! But I wanted to post some pictures of my surgery! (Nothing too gross I promise!) the first one is a week before surgery and the marked area is the hole in the bone. The second one was taken literally minutes after surgery and the last two are pictures of the stitches exactly a week after surgery. It was also the first time I got to see the incisions.. and I think they are pretty awesome! Mentor meeting and studio rehearsal tomorrow!

"And in this moment I knew.. We were infinite."

I think this project has gotten me addicted to blogging.. and YouTube videos.. and dance magazines ( I blame you Mr. Reiff!) I just watched Perks of Being a Wallflower and if you haven't seen it you need to stop everything you are doing and go watch it. It is one of those movies that has the ending I expected but at the same time a completely different ending. I cried like 10 times during the movie but have come out of it feeling like I can do anything. The acting is phenomenal and the stories message unforgettable.

I want to use this blog post to share the interview I had (over email) with Mia Wise. Her story and her answers were really powerful to me. Mia is also one of my mom's best friends so I have known her since I was little. She is so confident in herself and with her own knowledge about dancing and the world that I am always drawn to her and this interview only added to that.   ( I know this is not the most convenient way for me to show this interview.. but I am technologically challenged and this is the best I could do!)

1.            How do you approach choreographing a dance?

2.            How do you decide on a single song to choreograph to? Do you go looking for a song or wait until you stumble across one that you want to use?

3.            Do you start at the beginning of the song and choreograph straight through, or do you choreograph bits and pieces as they come to you and then work on connecting the different parts later?

4.            What role does the costume play in the message and image of a dance?

5.            Do you have any tips on how to portray a story through dance or how to make the emotion the dancer is feeling reach the audience?

6.            What is your favorite genre of dance to choreograph? Do you prefer choreographing solo or group dances?

7.            How has your own experiences as a dancer influenced your style of choreography?

8.            Do you have a dance that you have choreographed that you consider to be your favorite? If so, what was it about that dance that made it so memorable?

9.            Have you ever had injuries that prevented you from dancing? How did you handle not being able to perform?

10.        Why do you love dance?

11.        If you could give one piece of advice to young dancers, what would it be?

1.  I approach choreographing a dance like having a child.  I conceive the idea of the piece, I spend countless hours thinking about and creating the movements and the message and then I teach it to my students.  Then we spend countless hours polishing and perfecting it until I have a finished product that I am happy with!

2.  Sometimes I have a group of students that I know what I want to do with, so I must look for a song to fit the concept, other times I fall in love with a song and find students who it can work with.

3. Choreographing a dance is like putting a puzzle together.  Much like writing an essay, you brainstorm movement ideas and write them down in parts of the music that seem to fit.  You then start assigning movement and steps to specific points in the music.  Therefore, you have bits and pieces right where you want them and can work on transitioning them later.

4.  A costume can make or break a dance piece! The costume should, of course, enhance the idea of the dance piece making the message more obvious to the audience.  Costuming can really contribute to the image that the routine is conveying, likewise, a costume that misses the mark can ruin an audience's image of the entire piece! I like to use headpieces, accessories and gloves to give a very completed look to the costume.

5.  Every dance needs to have a story with a clear beginning, middle and end.  As long as the dance has meaning to you, the audience will receive a message. It may not be the same exact message, but if it means something to you, a message will get conveyed.  The dance should really grow, starting out small and subtle progressing to big and strong with movement and meaning.  Just like any good story, it should build to a climax and resolution.  Dancers can enhance this meaning by using energy and facial expressions to pass the mood along.  Dancers can use reflection on their own personal experiences to portray certain feelings and emotions.   

6.  I like all genres of dance for different reasons.  I like the strict, specific mechanical movements of tap, yet the free, liberating movements of modern/lyrical/contemporary.  I like the rules and regiment of classical ballet, yet the power and excitement of jazz/hip hop.  I must say I enjoy choreographing a group piece over a solo in that several people make for more interesting possibilities.  I like changing formations and featuring dancers in different parts revealing each one's forte whether it be turns, leaps, or extensions.

7.  I was always trained by male teachers as I progressed through dance, so I think that made me a very aggressive dancer as a result.  I take a very athletic approach to dance which inspires me to incorporate a lot of tumbling and tricks within my choreography.  I always liked to take a chance as a dancer, so I choreograph in a way that gives my dancers that"let's go for it" approach.

8.  My favorite dance piece I ever choreographed was "Wake Me Up When September Ends" by Green Day.

I choreographed it in memory of my Dad who had passed away 7 long years from then.  The movements just seemed to flow out of me and almost choreograph themselves, it was eerie! It was a modern/contemporary large group piece and I was very proud of it each time I cried through it!

9.  I had scoliosis and needed corrective surgery at age twelve, so I had to quit gymnastics, my first love, as well as dance.  I had a wonderful friend who got me through that period of my life, of course we had a few slip ups along the way, like accidentally doing a side aerial in a body cast in the front yard!   I also suffered with various injuries which would really frustrate me.  Usually the injuries were my own fault for not warming up so I had to learn the hard way.  My knees have always been a source of aggravation, but I found that physical therapy helped a lot along the way.

10.  I love dance because it is so freeing.  They say it is "the hidden language of the soul".  It doesn't matter how lousy a day I am having, I can escape into the dance studio and within minutes forget all of my troubles and be happy and exhilarated! It allows you to enjoy yourself with your passion which is so easy to do, since your body is your instrument! I can fill my head with steps and be distracted for hours.  It is challenging and exciting!

11.  I would encourage dancers to keep a positive attitude and to not be too hard on themselves! I think a lot of times dancers will compare themselves to other dancers and become discouraged.  We are all different sizes, have different looks and different abilities, that's what makes us all so wonderful! Always just try to achieve and surpass your own personal goals whether it be to get lower on your split, or higher on your leaps! Don't compare the height of your kicks to someone else's, we are all unique in our own ways.  Some of us have natural talent and some of us have to work harder at it, like anything else...just be happy you are you!  

Practicing! Weekly class meeting

In class today we talked a lot of time talking about practicing and the difference between doing something and practicing something. Doing something is when you repeat what you already know over and over again. While this is clearly fun and beneficial in it's own way, it is different from practicing. Practicing is pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone and making yourself do something that you aren't necessary good at. I have done a lot of doing in the studio. I practice the things I know how to do and make sure that at some point they end up in my dance, but I also know I have been doing a lot of practicing too. I can't do anything on my right leg anymore, and everything is ten times harder on my left. I have to practice turns constantly to even make a double look okay. It is almost embarrassing to be falling and messing up skills that should be easy and it has taken me way out of my comfort zone which I am learning can be a very good thing. By practicing instead of doing I feel I am making myself a much stronger dancer and expanding my abilities.

Int

If it's not one thing it's another!

I am just starting to get back to being normal and healthy.. and then my little brother breaks his collarbone at lacrosse practice! The poor kid! I feel so bad for him, but he is in good spirits which is always helpful! He helped me and waited on my after my surgery so I guess it is time to repay the favor!

I am trying Miriam's idea of "Sunday Research Day" and found a really interesting article on listening to injuries and knowing when to stop and let an injury rest. When  I did gymnastics, we always had to work thorugh the pain because usually it was just soreness and it would go away in a day or two. Because that is how I always thought and trained, I did the same thing with dance and this ankle injury. Looking back on it now I know that I should have stopped dancing a year before I was finally forced to and I bet that if I had let my body heal I would never have needed surgery in the first place. But I didn't listen to the injury and as a result ended up where I did. When people ask me what is the most important thing you have learned from all of this, and 9 times out of 10 I will say that when something hurts, you need to stop and make sure it is nothing serious. There is nothing wrong with sitting out for a while, even though it might feel like you are letting your team down, you need to listen to your body. This article confirmed my feelings on this and I hope that anyone reading this will read the article and take it's advice to heart! http://www.active.com/triathlon/Articles/Listen-to-Your-Body-to-Avoid-Injury-Part-I

Well, have to go help make dinner.. something that can be eaten with one hand! Poor Tucker :(

<3 Abbie

Videos , Videos, Videos!

I know I have been posting like crazy this week, but I am in the blogging mood so I figured I would take advantage of it. This post is all about Eliana Girard. She was a content on So You Think You Can Dance and is one of the most beautiful and versatile dancers I have ever seen. I have watched a million YouTube dance videos and there is something about her and her love of dance that draws me in. Eliana is originally a ballet dancer and considers herself to be a ballerina, but she is incredibly gifted in all other genres of dance. The three videos that are in the post show her in a classical ballet piece, that is truly breath taking, a a contemporary piece, and a hip hop piece. When you see all the videos, you can understand and appreciate just how fluid and open her body is to vastly different forms of dance.

I have always done acrobatic solos (backflips, back-handsprings, ariels have always been something that set me apart as a dancer) but this year am forced to do a contemporary piece with none of the skills that I consider my security blankets. I am terrified about being on the stage and trying to impress the audience without the normal tools and weapons that I normally do. Seeing Eliana dance here shows me that crossing between genres of dance can be done, and sometimes it can be incredibly successful! Thanks Eliana!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3l27AKySIA&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1&safe=active

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hv6HXUkhd-A&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1&safe=active

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRMHZFvYDuw&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1&safe=active

Another WISE blog

This Monday in our weekly class meetings, each of us received a past WISE student's completed blog that relates to our project. I was handed Miriam Bernstein's blog about her project of athletic training. At first I was unsure about how much this was going to help me because even though the rehabilitation of my ankle is a huge part of my own project, I was skeptical about how much it actually paralleled with Miriam's. I was glad to see that my first assumption was wrong and that this blog is helpful to me.

The content of Miriam's blog, I find very interesting. She has weekly research days where she commits herself on blogging once a week about a new article she read or further research she did on one of her research questions. This is something that I think I could incorporate into my own project. I have started to look into the research about my ankle and my injury but not much. This "research day" I think will give me a good excuse and motivation to continue this research. Another thing that I really like about Miriam's blog was how relateable  it was. I didn't feel like I was reading a completely formal and over thought journal entry. She has a lot of details and fulfills her requirements while still giving it a casual feeling and making it fun to read. I want to make sure that my blog continues to be like hers in this respect. Miriam also has articles linked her in blog about ankle strains, sprains  twists, and the different between the three of hem. I think that this article that she used could be helpful to me and one that I look at on one of my research days!

ALSO! I heard back from Mia Wise about her experiences about being a dancer and being a choreographer. She gave some amazing answers and definitely is going to be a person to I continue talking to as this project progresses. She has overcome some pretty amazing things and is a big inspiration for me!

~Abbie

Allograph Research

A big part of my decision to do my senior solo as my WISE project is because I knew that I would be able to work and research my injury and my story to healing on a very intimate and focused level. This post is building off of a previous article I posted explaining what an allograph transplant is. This new article that I found I feel goes into better detail and is more clear about exactly what the surgery is and the expected healing process. The article says that the main reason people usually get this surgery is because of arthritis that has caused a wear in the bone. For me however, it was the repeated landings and poundings from dance and gymnastics as well as the repeated ankle twists and sprains that wore the hole in my bone. The goal of l of the surgery is to improve range of motion and strength, which is a very accurate way to describe it. One of the main reasons that I liked this article so much is because it shows why this surgery in particular is a better choice than other surgeries that could repair the same injury. Most other surgeries fuse the bones in the ankle and fuse the allograph, which almost certainly limits how much range of motion and usage of the ankle the patient will get back. With this allograph surgery, the ankle is not fused which allows for a faster and more complete recovery to a "normal" ankle. This is something that is very important to me as a dancer. In another article that I read, it said that this surgery is usually preformed on patients in their 60's and 70's, hardly ever is it done as someone as young as 17. With me being so young and wanted to be able to participate in sports and exercise for the rest of my life, fusing the bone is not a realistic solution. I also liked that this article went into the discussion of using cadaver bone. It is not something that is pleasant to think about. But when it comes down to it, I have a piece of someone else's, someone who died, bone is me. For me, I knew that this surgery was the right choice for me so the idea of using a cadaver bone wasn't out of the question for me, but I understand how some patients would not be comfortable with the thought of using someone who recently passed away's bone.

I found that reading articles like this have helped be understand why me dancing again is such a big deal. I have been itching to get out on the stage again for months, but as I learn more about what my body has actually been going through in the healing process, I am starting to realize just how big of an accomplishment it is for me to be able to dance again.

Keep an eye out for another post tomorrow, just finished reading past WISE students blog, and I have a feeling I will have A LOT to say!

-Abbie (      :http://www.mdmercy.com/footandankle/conditions/ankle_arthritis/allograft.html

In the Studio Again!

I'm back as promised!

So I filled you in on my morning now I have to cover everything that has happened after school.
I have been working with Dede Hatch and Cayuga Medical Center to cover my story from surgery through recovery. My surgeon Dr. Wilson is new to Ithaca, and a pretty big deal. He is an amazing surgeon and has done so much research and community work that Ithaca is lucky to have him. Because he is new to town, CMC wanted to cover a surgery from start to finish. So Dede and Julie,the reporter, were in the operating room the day of my surgery, have been to two physical therapy appointments, and now to the studio with me. Today they had to take the final picture for the article, for the poster, and yes possibly the one that could be on the side of a T-CAT bus!
It was really fun to be able to show off what I could do, and I hope that they got some good shots, but it was also slightly disheartening. Dede kept asking me to "just dance" and I was at a total loss as to what to do. Before surgery I would have had no problem coming up with moves or poses to show her. But because I still am so limited in what I can and can not do, I felt like I was standing around like I had never set foot on a dance floor in my life! I was embarrassed and flustered and just totally overwhelmed and all I wanted to do was get out of there. My mom read my face the moment she walked into the studio and saw that I was unhappy. I know that I should have been excited to show off how far I have come and how much I can do, but it had almost the opposite affect, it made me more aware of just how much I still can't do. But no one said that this process was going to be easy, you have to take the good days with the bad!

Now for homework and sleep!

<3 Abbie

Mentor Meeting 3

Hi again! Today is going to be a busy blogging day so get ready.

First, I met with Mrs. Augustine again this morning and I think that the meeting went really well. I definitely feel like her and I are on the same page and have the same goals of where this project is heading. She has given me some great ideas about how to further my project, like creating a video that tells my story and creating a video that has all the pictures from my surgery and the journey up to this point (I will explain all of this and why I have these pictures later today in another post!) She also has some good ideas for future blogs. Adding in more videos like the one from So You Think You Can Dance, more information on what my surgery was, and some of the funny stories of what happened right after surgery. I will definitely be using these prompts to help further explain my journey.
 I am really glad that I picked Mrs. Augustine for my mentor. Yes, she has been through the WISE experience with other students in the past and has good advice on how to stay on track and how to keep myself motivated, but she goes way beyond that. She is 100% interested in my topic and project and makes me more excited about it then I already am. I feel completely comfortable telling her about all the struggles I am facing along the way and sharing the flood of emotions that I have been feeling finally getting back on the dance floor. I couldn't have asked for more when it comes to a mentor.. You rock Mrs. Augustine!!

I also had physical therapy this morning and I got to do something that I haven't been able to do in almost seven months. I got to... JUMP!! And yes, it really is that big of a deal! It was such a weird sensation actually being able to get off of the ground again. Even though I have been working in the studio for a few weeks (and the dance, I think, is pretty good so far) I haven't been able to put anything that requires jumping of any kind into the dance. When I was choreographing the first bit of the dance, I was thinking "Oh I can always come back later and add the jumps in later," but Mrs. Augustine made a good point. This dance is telling my story and my story is definitely one of baby steps and small progression, and I want my dance to be the same way. So I am going to keep the beginning the way it is and wait until later in the dance to put in jumps.

Well that's post one of the day... get ready for more!

BARNSONG Reflection and Plan for the Week!

Okay so this week is going to be crazy hectic. I meant to post this yesterday.. but things already got to out of control!

Monday- Weekly Class Meeting, Workout, Choreograph
Tuesday- Work (Head Over Heel Gymnastics), Insane amount of homework, Email Mia Wise
Wednesday- Choreograph, Photo Shoot with Dede Hatch for Cayuga Medical Center, Work
Thursday- Physical Therapy, Workout, Appointment with Dr. Wilson (surgeon)
Friday- So far nothing..but that will probably change!


Yesterday in class we watched a past WISE student's documentary on another students project of building a barn. I thought it was an interesting approach to a WISE project to follow the creation story of another WISE project. One thing that I found really interesting about the boy who was actually doing the project was how closely he was working with his parents, specifically his dad. I love my parents and my mom has definitely helped me through every step from the day of surgery, and while she is interested and invested in my project, I am not sure how I would handle actually working with her on the project everyday. I feel that it would cause too much stress and strain our relationship. It was interesting to see the differences in how students approach the project.
I also like that even though the student didn't finish his project all the way, he acknowledged that the journey is the knowledge gained, not necessarily the finished project. I think that this message is a good thing to keep in mind as we all move forward in this project!

Today I am also going to email Mia Wise (yes I laughed about her last name too!) She is a teacher at Filipetti's Academy of Dance Arts. She and my mom have been best friends since high school where they both danced under Mia's mom at the Filipetti studio. Mia has traveled and preformed with Dance Caravan and has been very successful as a dance teacher and choreographer. She was also a gymnast in high school, but had to stop because of her scoliosis. She has experienced the pain and determination of overcoming an injury. I think that she is going to be a very valuable resource in this project, and she is so fun to hang out with! I might even try to talk my way into visiting her studio (in Horseheads) to see her style of choreography first hand!

Let the busy week continue!
Abbie (:

One Word.. WOW!

This WISE project is during one of the most exciting, yet stressful, times of an Ithaca High Schooler's career. Everything is coming at us all at once and everything is starting to change. This can be sad and depressing, or it can be amazing and inspiring. Yesterday was definitely one of those amazing days. I finally found out I was accepted to SUNY Geneseo Class of 2017!!! The most simple way for me to explain how much this means to me and how excited I am is to say that my mom and I must have jumped up and down screaming for about 10 minutes straight! I did literally EVERYTHING in my power to get into that school. I went for a visit, an interview, sat in on a class and even retook that ACTs in order to get a better score, and it feels amazing to know that I was one of the 10,000 applicants who got one of the 925 spots. I swear I still don't believe it!

How did I celebrate.. I had dinner with friends and then came home and watched YouTube videos (this project has made me  form an addiction to dance videos). I came across this video from So You Think You Can Dance. I have always loved this show but have never been a dedicated watcher so I must have missed the week they showed this dance.
The raw emotion that the dancers show in this video stopped me dead in my tracks. I had to re-watch it a couple of times to even be able to fully appreciate it. The power and the emotion that the dancers commit to the story of the dance is incredible. They are able to take a piece of music and portray a complete story and use every emotion and past experience to put themselves wholeheartedly into the movements and into their partner. I think of this video as a source of motivation and inspiration when it comes to channeling every single emotion I have felt during this journey and put it into my dancing and hopefully let the audience feel the same emotions that I have. So You Think You Can Dance- Kayla and Kupono