Final Performance and Headed Home!

Wow! Five weeks! I may have mentioned this but I told my mom I'm not ready to live here "YET". I'm so going to live here SOMEDAY! Okay final performance was amazing. So fun! I think we did a good job just me and one other girl were traveling backwards on this one part and we went into the screen kind of . But it was no big deal. What a cool looking school (Frank Sinatra) . The theater was nice and mostly full for the 12pm show. The older students are AMAZING! I mean AMAZING! If you ever hear anyone say ABT is too crowded or just a money maker (yah we heard that)  - they DO NOT have any idea what they are talking about. Totally amazing dancers and program. I will try out again. Yes I will. You should have seen the boys and their feet! Everyone was really, really good.

Congrats to everyone that got into JKO school. Even some people that did not fill out the form to be considered and evaluated were invited to JKO. My friend filled it out, she got in and she is hoping she can make the commute from New Jersey. It's about 45 minutes. I did not fill it out because it clearly states you have to relocate if you aren't in the area, of course. Someday I will fill it out!!!

People were crying. We all signed each others ABT SI t-shirts. The good byes were sad but I got a lot of phone numbers so we can all text each other ;) It would be great if we all came back next year! Praying!

I found out today that when me and my mom go to San Francisco we are getting our hair cuts at a salon there. If you have seen the pictures on facebook you will say hooray! My hair is so long and gross right now! I think I mentioned this already  but it is really bugging me.  I also hope I can get my braces off asap! Over it! I can not wait to sleep in my own bed tomorrow night!

Thanks to my mom for editing all the blogs for me ;) Goodnight!!!!!!! 

xoxo,

Robbie

Wrapping up! Week 5!

Been really busy and tired so it has been hard to post! This week I started out with a sore foot from Friday so I caved in and took time out of class to go to PT (Physical Therapy) . It was a good idea because I learned some things about my positioning in turning out that I need to work on and I got some home work! I'll blog more about that when I get home and probably show a video in case anyone else has the same problem. But on Wed night my Mom asked how is your foot and I had totally forgot about it so you know what that means... it's fine! Phew!

We got our ABT SI T-shirts and some abt hair accessories on Wed. We are all taking the subway to Frank Sinatra School of Art for the Final Performance and we will be matching- that way we won't lose any bun heads hopefully.Our level red doesn't have any variations on pointe but they are still super fun. One reminds me of family scene/ party scene from Nutcracker because we get to do acting and it's like a party kind of with a prince etc. It's really fun! Yes we ordered a video. ;)

Wed night we went to the movies with some other girls from our class and saw Super 8. SCARY and sad. Our carpet is getting ripped out in the hall of our dorm too and it smells terrible. But over all I love the dorms! We got lucky because we really had no idea about anything and if it would be nice or not! I mean you hear horror stories about mice, bed bugs, loud people. It was nice and the food was good. I liked the roof top too and the tv room.

So there is an article in Pointe magazine (HERE) about how hard it is to get into ABT and NYCB and it lists some other choices of companies etc! AHHHHHHHHH! Scarier than Super 8. I know we have to have a plan B but I WANT to dance for ABT. I'll keep trying hard and I am going to audition for this SI again next year. My mom read on a forum that just because you went one year does not mean you will get accepted the next so you always have to be on your toes! Ha!! ;)

Soon I will be home with my cat, bunny, mom, dogs, sister and her new rat Mr. Nibbles. I can not wait to catch up on Vampire Diaries. I need to watch all of season 1 and part of season 2 before the new ones start! Oh and then we are going to San Francisco to see Maria Kochetkova's documentary screening and I'm also going to get a new hair cut there for school. My hair is soooooooo long!

xoxox,

Robbie

Park Sae-eun (Korea) signs w/ the Paris Opera Ballet!

"This has been my dream since I was a child."

Prix de Lausanne '07

 Congratulations Park Sae-eun (Korea) for signing w/ the Paris Opera Ballet! POB is so exclusive that only 5 percent of its 180 dancers come from outside France! It's actually the law! She is the winner of Prix de Lausanne 2007 and IBC Varna 2010 and danced with ABT II for 2 years (her first place finish in Lausanne earned her that spot) . She is 22 years old and auditioned for the Paris Opera Ballet on July 4th. She finished third among more than 100 applicants. She received an offer to sign with the company the next day. The contract will last until the spring.

Week 4 ABT NYC Summer Intensive 2011 by Robbie

That's me on the left ;) I am going to miss my friends!

This week has been really fun and HOT and HUMID! 96 on Thursday! Classes have been great this week. I've had all my favorite teachers and tons of fun with my friends. We have been leaving for lunch and buying food at a nearby cafe typa place. Have I mentioned that I LOVE the city. I want to go back to see my family but other than that I really don't want to leave.

I found out that all my dances are in the early show next Friday which is good because they will be all on one video. Some people are spread across 2 shows. We do have dances in class on pointe but I don't think we are on pointe for the show at all. Only bummer about being in the day show only is my friend Ann from youtube can't make the day show. BUT she is visiting me tonight. She will pick me up at ABT and walk back with us to the dorm. I think we will grab some dinner on the way. She lives in NY and crosses the Manhattan bridge to go to school so she knows how to get around. 

The dorms are great. The food is good and last night we watched SYTYCD and night before that was Phantom of the Opera. Some girls brought some DVD's so now I know for next time if I come back. We also had a small fridge brought to our room so that helps and we have a/c of course!! You have to have it here!

I am still on my first pair of pointe shoes. I know it depends on your feet etc but I think most everyone is still on first pair so don't go crazy buying pointe shoes if you are in the 12/13 age group. I came with 3 Russian Pointes, 4 pair if you count my grishkos that were already pretty broken in but I'm not using those . Okay well I guess that is all for now! Class starts at 10 today because no yoga!

OH... I wanted to mention that one of the teachers, Kate Lydon is the Editor in Chief for Dance Spirit Magazine and Olga Dvorovenko is Irina's Mom ;) 

xoxo,

Robbie

Week 3 ABT NYC Summer Intensive 2011 July 14-15 by Robbie

Could I live here! Yes! My Mom keeps reminding me that it gets cold, but that's okay. I just love the city and I love the view of all the buildings and I kinda know my way around ! I'm tired at the end of the week and I miss my family but I am still sad that there are only 2 weeks left. I'm already thinking about next year! Fingers crossed and praying that I get in again! So whatever you have heard about ABT you should know it's REALLY great, at least the NY location. For sure. I love it. I don't think the classes are too crowded or too big. I get really good training at home and I am not bored here. I think the teachers are all really good.

In variations we are doing the Peasant Dance from Swan Lake Act 1 on pointe. Everyone is pretty happy about that! I had to ice my heel/foot last night. It's fine but probably just overworked. A summer intensive is a good way to get a tiny idea of what professional dancers deal with, yah a TINY idea. ;)

My friend Brigitte is going to guest blog from the Young Dancers SAB Intensive in LA so be sure to follow so in August you can see that! We will upload pics too!

Day 3 ABT NYC Summer Intensive 2011

 

Day 3: FUN ! FUN! FUN! Pilates, Technique (had some new combinations), Pas de Deux (probably my favorite for the day and the boys were pretty good), Modern (very cool music - kind of like African drums), Choreography (worked on our variation for the show). 

Then after we went to H&M and I bought a cute skirt :) and I think we are going to go see ABT do Sleeping Beauty next week because we can get tix for $12! New pics up www.facebook.com/balletbabble

News Flash! ABT NYC SI Produces Black Swans! ;) Day 2 by Robbie

Okay so... not exactly! But definitely some Black Swans in the making. Today we had technique class, choreography and character. We started to learn a variation from La Bayadere for the final performance in choreography. In pointe class we were allowed to wear a wrap skirt if we wanted to and I wore my new Russian pointes and broke them in pretty well! There are 35 12-13 year olds in the RED group, my group. Five or 6 are boys. 

On the street we saw this guy acting like a robot and if you put some money in his jar and he made this weird robot noise with his mouth . Pics on facebook in the ABT album. Gotta love New York! Don't forget to follow on www.facebook.com/balletbabble and twitter at www.twitter.com/balletbabble.

xoxo,

Robbie

Blog post from Kyono's Mom Naomi:

Day 2, Girls were so excited because they found that by audition they were placed in same group, Red group. They had a regular barre class, point shoes class, injury prevention lecture, choreography class and character dance class today, and they were absolutely tired, but happy.  They almost finished all of the lunch and snacks that I packed (it was a lot to eat for them), but they said they were hungry.  I was so thankful for their healthy bodies which allow them to dance so hard ALL DAY. Tomorrow they will have almost same class, but pilates class will be added instead of character dance.