The Other Side of Things (Choreography)
Teachers who are also choreographers (aka artistic-directors) often times get very frustrated. As a result, they change around their choreography. As a result of that, the students get frustrated.
Well There comes a time when people decide they've had just about enough. So what do they do? Put people in their shoes of course. My studio just recently had a choreography showcase on June 9th. This was to put all of us dancers in Marilyn's shoes. Some people were just in dances, but many choreographed things. I was of course one of those annoying over-achievers who decided to not only choreograph a dance, but also choreograph another with the wonderful Emily DeVito. But apparently that still wasn't enough, so I choreographed yet another. And according to Marilyn that wasn't enough so I was forced to be in a dance. I asked Emily if she could choreograph a dance because I knew she wanted to anyways, and she graciously accepted and she choreographed an amazing piece. But still, for my mother, that was not enough yet, so she asked if our contemporary teacher could put a piece in the show. So thanks to my love for dance, my dance teacher, and my mother, I was in over my head.
(But it's okay because Regina Day was the beast who was in 5 dances. FIVE. Five dances is alot people. And she rocked all of them.)
But enough talking. You want to see them right? Well lucky for you, I have the videos. Woot. freaking. woot. Youtube is great by the way. It uploaded my videos surprisingly fast. AND! it said it fixed the shakiness of the videos. AND. It put them in the right format. So they should work. Oh and we had to introduce our pieces, so don't mind my awkward talking.
This first video is a combined video. The first dance you will see is I'm Not Perfect (song by Lori Martini). This is the one I co-choreographed with Emily DeVito. The wonderful dancers in this piece were Natalie Valko, Juliette Jones, Kiersten Borkert, Laura Trachenburg, Mercedes Wentworth-Nice, Melissa Abert, Elizabeth Gallant, Caleigh Story, and Claire Bebbington. (sorry if I butchered any of your names) These girls are amazing. Let me tell you.
Natalie is such a beautifully postured dancer, and her back is ripped, it's actually not fair. She's the kind of girld you see and say "she's a dancer". (In the best way possible of course)
Juliette is going to be famous someday. She has the long legs, the beautiful extension, and the feet! Oh man her feet. She has so much going for her it's ridiculous. She was born to dance.
Kiersten may be small, but let me tell you something, she has so much bottled up in her, and even if she never hits a growth spurt, she is going to go far. She is stunning.
Laura turns like a top. I'm pretty sure she got her triple en pointe before I even did. She too has those beautiful long legs.
Mercedes is a turner too. And she's crazy brilliant. And she has the greatest ability to catch onto detail so fast.
Melissa is beautiful. She has amazing placement and she really knows her body. Sounds weird to a normal person, but in dancer world, that means alot.
Elizabeth. She surprises me more and more everyday. Her feet are stunning. Her extension is amazing, her legs are so long, and she is so graceful.
Caleigh is first of all the cutest thing ever. She's so sweet and she asks questions like it's her job. She constantly wants to know more about how to be a better dancer, and her questions are making her better every day.
Last not not least, Claire. Claire is so long. It's insane. She has such a passion to dance, and her fouettes are fierce.
So now that you know the dancers, be amazed.
The second dance you just saw was Riverside (music by Agnes Obel)
The dancers in this were Emily DeVito, Kristen Kita, Regina Day, and Hailey Guarracino.
So let me tell you about these girlies.
Emily DeVito is absolutely beautiful. She is flawless. She has amazing extension, she's so graceful it's absurd, she is so technically beautiful, and she is just so good. I love watching her dance so much. She is one of those dancers that makes you want to dance. And it's not even one of those, "Now I hate myself, i'm never dancing ever." Whenever you watch her you are so inspired. You can't help but want to dance, and you want to do everything like her. Emily DeVito is such an inspiration to me and I am seriously so torn that she is leaving. I am so excited for her, and I know this can only improve her, but my other half is leaving me. It kills me so much to see her go, but I know that there is so much more for her out there, and she is going to go so far. I love her so much, and I seriously wish her the best. She is flawless and she will always be someone I admire and look up to and aspire to be like.
Kristen Kita is seriously so smart. She catches on so quickly. Half of the time I would do something in rehearsal then ask her what I just did. So either she's brilliant, or she reads my mind. I think it's both though. Kristen is a fantastic jumper. Her jumps are one of those things that go un-noticed sometimes, but let me tell you, they are not un-noticed by me. I find myself wanting to always go with her across the floor in class, not as a competition, but as a sort of fun game. I hate when Kita isn't in class. She makes class so much fun, and I find myself missing her so much when she isn't in class. I'm glad I'm older than her because that means I don't have to be at Budz without her. I loved teaching her my choreography because she got so excited about it. She's such an encouragement to me, and it was nice hearing her say "oh this is my favorite part" about like three different parts in the dance. I love Kita so much, and I'm so excited to have another year with her.
Regina Day. That girl. She is a beast. First of all, like I said earlier, she was in five dances for this thing. Everyone was already stressed that we had such little time for the preparation of this show, but Regina Day was the ultimate ruler of this show. She was seriously in so many dances. I don't think anyone else could have done that but her. She's another great jumper. With her, it's either that I want to go with her across the floor to make me jumper higher and further, or I just want to watch her. She is such a precious dancer. And I mean that so positively. Especially in this dance, I found myself thinking "gosh, she is just so darn cute" She is so much fun to watch when she's performing. You can tell she loves dancing, and she is really darn good at it too. Mind you this girl is in ninth grade. What I would do to have been that good in ninth grade. I really don't know what she is going to do with her life, but secretly (well I guess not so secret anymore) I really want her to keep dancing because she can seriously go so far with this.
Hailey Guarracino is practically an angel. I asked her last minute to be in this dance, and she (thank goodness) graciously said she would love to. Without her, this dance would have not happened. I'm actually really happy Hailey got to be put in this piece because she looked beautiful in this. I specifically remember one rehearsal where it was her and Regina, and I really had nothing prepared. I was trying to give her her solo, and I would do something, then instantly forget it. And I wouldn't do it full out, so there was no way she could have copied it anyways. But she bore with me. I constantly was apologizing and every time she forgave me with a chuckle and a smile. Thank goodness for this girl. Hailey is sort of an underdog. Not in a bad way that no one pays attention to her, but she has this quietness about her, and she continues to get better and better everyday. Her feet are seriously to die for, her extension is incredible, and her technique is impeccable. This girl is amazing and continues to amaze me everyday. She is my life saver, as well as this dance's life saver.
This next dance is Iron (music by Woodkid)
I gave these girls such a hard time. The first two rehearsals with them were terrible. I had this really cute song, but it was giving me no inspiration at all. They all said they loved it, but I think they were just saying that. Okay so maybe they did like it, but they liked the upgrade much much better.
Just so you know what the song was originally going to be...
It's a great song, and my sister needs to choreograph to it. Just...not me.
So this is what they were going to dance to, but as you'll see the actual piece they did is much much different. This group of girls surprisingly works very very well together. I say surprisingly because they're all such different dancers.
For instance, Sophia and Brooke and Lisa are Bunheads. It's seriously a really bad case of the bunheads. But it's not bad as in they're bad at dancing. They're all amazing.
Sophia and Brooke have amazing feet. Lisa has amazing placement, Sophia is so graceful, Brooke has the sweetest movements, you just want to watch her all the time because she's just so flowing.
Lisa makes fantastic faces. That may seem like it's a bad thing, but I think it's rather a good strategy. You see out of the corner of your eye someone making a strange face, then you look over and see Lisa. Then instead of looking at her face, you start watching her dance, and everything you see is perfection. Lisa thrives on making perfect movements (hence the great placement).
Even though they're all bunheads, they work in this piece.
Sophia has this amazing ability to use her crazy bunheadedness and turn it into Modern. It's the weirdest, coolest thing ever. Sometimes I find myself just staring at her during this piece because I can't believe that crazy little bunhead is doing Modern. And doing it really really well.
Brooke's bunheadedness adds a different twist to the piece. Instead of her doing everything grounded and heavy, it's light and airy, but in a heavy way. It's so hard to explain, but I think you'll see what I mean. It works, and it's pretty darn sweet.
Lisa just is great. Her posture stays in her Modern dancing, and gives it this bunhead look, but instead of it looking like a modern dancer wanna-be, she looks like a bunheaded Modern dancer. This one I'm realizing is hard to explain too, so you'll just have to watch and see what I mean.
Sarai, Katie and Prairie are all different from each other, and different from the other bunheads.
Sarai is a beast. She is an amazing Modern dancer, and she looks amazing in this piece. She makes this piece look like it was made for her, and she really knows how to dig deep when it comes to Modern. She is for real, crazy good and don't be surprised if she's the next Martha Graham or Twyla Tharp or Paul Taylor or Merce Cunningham or any of those crazy cray dancers/choreographers. (She also choreographed a sick-tastic dance for this showcase.)
Katie is so different from everyone else. She sticks out from everyone because she has developed her own style of dancing almost. She's not a bunhead, but she is. She's not a Modern dancer, but she is. She has this ability to blend in, yet stick out. She can blend into the style of dance, yet your eye goes to her because she puts her own umph (for lack of any words) in it. Apparently I'm not very good at explaining things, but hopefully you get the gist of what I'm saying here. And no worries, this is all in the best way possible. It isn't one of those she sticks out because she can't do it. She can, and she sticks out because she's different than everyone else. (again, in an amazing way)
Prairie is seriously insane. She's brilliant, and she's good at everything. I mean, for pete's sake she plays the harp and violin on top of coming to dance all the time and being so crazy good at school. I really don't know how she does it. Prairie has this knack for catching on really really quickly. For instance, she had a concert one night, and that was one of the nights where I did alot of choreographing, and I taught her the next day, and she had it down. And on top of doing this dance, she choreographed a 5 minute dance. I mean, I had to fade one of my dances because I couldn't finish the 3 minutes. She finished a whole five minute dance. Ridiculous. So needless to say, the girl's brilliant, and she looks crazy good in this dance.
I'm pretty sure all these girls loved the upgrade of the song, and it really shows. So now that I've blabbered on about how amazing these girls are, see for yourselves...
So for those of you who didn't know what I do, here's some of it, and I hope you liked watching them =]
Oh and I happen to have a video of one of the dances I was in. (Heidi Cruz's choreography)
And here is Emily DeVito's piece that she choreographed. Sorry for the constant focusing on me (my dad video-taped it, so naturally he's going to focus on me-my apologies guys)
Also realized after uploading it that it includes Iron. So enjoy that one from another angle if you like! =]
Again, thank you girls, you're all amazing and I love you all!
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