Lent

  As a Roman Catholic of 14 years old, it's time I started fasting for this season. Good timing too because, on Wednesday, Teacher Agnes let me try on the skirt for my costume and it is t-i-g-h-t ! I don't know if I might have switched costumes with my other classmates or if Teacher Agnes is silently telling me to lose weight. Or at least, my tummy :|

  Our costumes are green skirts with belts. We have to find skin-tone tights and leotards... Hard :( The only skin-tone leos available here are either too dark, or the material too thin. My last skin tone tights got dilapidated, literally. They were actually just stockings :)

  I texted That's D Pointe Dance Shop this evening to see if they had any available, but they don't have the right size or color :(

  This afternoon, I went to ballet class. I thought Ballet 3 was going to have a rehearsal. Searching through my bag, I realized I did not bring any ballet shoes T_T M When Teacher Agnes saw me and Katrina (there were only two students who came, BTW, from Ballet 3), she told us to join the class since we were already there :|

I'm So Proud !

  I liked our dance practice in school today :) I think we progressed well. The other crew members are listening well and every one adds useful suggestions and listens to each other, considers, tries to incorporate new ideas... It's really great teamwork!

  I'm kind of scared though because one of my friends said that he saw dancers practicing on the Abreeza Mall stage, and we haven't even finished our dance yet! D:

  Remix, where are you?!! ♫ I just need you noooowww!!!♫ lol :P We finnished the first part of the remix though, which is mainly the cause of my happiness :D Wait, no, we still need to cover about 4 counts... Oh well :)  

  PANIC: Two weeks left T_T

  Teacher Agnes finished the choreography for the overture of A Midsummer Night's Dream. More rehearsals... Recital is... also two weeks away -_-

  

  Just for the record, we are doing an adaptation of A Midsummer Night's, not the exact choreography by Balanchine. I believe we are using Mendelssohn's music though :D

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Vegetable Cookies

   My mom baked a batch of "Malungay Chocolate Chip Cookies" for her "Mommy Meetup" at The POD, her Yoga sudio, today :) Their a really good batch. Please read more about the cookies and get the recipe here: http://betweennowandlater.blogspot.com

  Mom's cookies always change. I mean, she never has an exact recipe because she likes to experiment :P

Torture Session

  "You have to straighten your knees, Amber, It's very painful to see a bad habit so embedded in the system... It's like the corrupt government!"

  These were Teacher Agnes' words to me during our class this morning. For the first time since I started dancing in Locsin's, we did pirouettes on pointe. We also did the whole barre exercise en pointe today. "Do not let your energy drop." said Teacher Agnes, "Every time it drops, it's like a scar on the step. [When you dance this way] you look like a face with lots of scars and pimples" :| By the time Teacher Agnes started choreographing our part, my thighs were torturing me...

  Ballet has a different kind of tiredness. It's not like you'r so tired that you want to collapse like in sports it's more like you still want to dance but don't want to do it properly anymore... maybe it's just me being lazy :| I guess that's why my mom always says that dancers have higher stamina than long distance runners...

  The beginner's pointe class and Ballet 3 (my classes) are dancing the part of the faeries. I like our dance. I mean the one on ballet flats. We've got a lot of acting parts. The part of Oberon will be performed by a guest artist. I forgot to catch his name though... I really have to work on my arch, and my knees, and my hips, which go up during piques especially on the left :( Luckily, Teacher Agnes wants to make her dancers look good on stage so she assigned partners to those in Beg. pointes to support our arabesques and echapes. My partner is Inah :) I'm getting to know Inah better nowadays. Its so fun hehe.. since I'm not so good at sign language yet, we get to talk by writing or chatting.

  I guess today was a torture session not because I was tired, I wasn't. It was because I simply couldn't do it...

  Our 64th Annual Recital will be on March 11 (March 10 for Ballet 1A, 1C, and 2) featuring an adaptation of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. We will also be re-staging Dancing to Gershwin, which we performed last Christmas :) 

Clumsy Moment @_@

  Wow! I've been so busy! This week has been e v e n t f u l! On Monday, Pat told me about this dance competition in Abreeza Mall this March. In that same day, we pooled all the school's reputed dancers and started planning. The crew members include the former instructors of the Dance Club, Pat, Erik, and me.
  After practicing for our dance, I rush down three floors to band practice. When there is no band practice, however, I go to ballet class in Locsins.
  I do this alongside studying, homework, projects etc. @_@ The surprising thing is... I like it! I'm actually enjoying my ka-busyhan... 
  This afternoon, during dance practice, one of the crew members, Alvaro, was working on the remix for the dance in Pat's laptop. I had to leave early for band so I pulled out the plug of my laptop's charger. In the process of doing that, I hit Pat's charger.Turns out that the battery's broken so she can't work without charging the computer... I hope you guessed what happened... yeah, the remix.. it... umm... T_T... A portion of the new parts (especially the really impressive transition Alvaro worked out) was deleted T_T And it's ALL MY FAULT!!!! No words...
  We all huddled together waiting for the computer to re-start... T_T Clumsy moment....GRRRRR!!!!

In The Shoes: Capezio

  This is my first entry in my "In The Shoes" series. Since I am now en pointe and am going through my second pair of shoes, I will blog about the pointes I have danced in. How they felt for me, how long they lasted, ups, and downs, those stuff.
  My first pointe shoe was Capezio. I don't know if they were Aerial or Contempora, it didn't say :(
  I got them in LCB. The first time I fitted them, I had never put on a pointe shoe before, except for my friend's incredibly soft Gaynor Mindens. I was overwhelmed with how tight and hard the box was. I found it hard to walk, 'How am I going to dance?' I thought...
  Despite the pain, I couldn't stop putting them on and looking in the mirror. They were so pretty, so shiny! On the night we bought them, I slept with them on!
  They lasted for 2 weeks, during which the right side of my hips started feeling painful. I told my mom about this and she heard from a friend (the mom of the friend who owned the Gaynors I tried) that the wrong shoes could put pressure and even injure the hips, knees, and of course, feet. I stayed with the Capezios though, until they were just too soft to stand on.
  I showed them to my teacher, Teacher Ces, and she said I had to get new ones and that, compared to most of my classmates, whose pointes were still brick hard, my feet were pretty strong. I was proud of this, but my mom wasn't so happy about it. She always says "Such expensive shoes, you can't even walk on the street in them!"

Must Watch!!!!

With Georgette Sanchez and Ballet Buddy Katrina

  Watched Dahon last night. Teacher Agnes opened the performance with a few words about how she turned plants into an inspiration for the Alay sa Puno series. "I want to build a forest," she said, "On stage, and in real life. But it takes a lot of time and patience."

  It was b e a u t i f u l. Georgette Sanchez is truly a beautiful dancer. The props were really good. Leaves and water fell from the ceiling.  Some people in the audience, were looking up, wondering where the leaves were coming from :P

  I wont spoil, but my favorite part of the show was when Ate Georgette danced with this huge sheet of plastic. It looked like a veil in the beginning and wind was blowing leaves on it. You'll understand if you watch it :D

  I didn't take any pictures because it was "strictly prohibited", but my sisters and I collected some leaves as remembrance :D

  The piece made nature inspire me to dance. It has no story so "Just enjoy the dancing and the images that you see" says Teacher Agnes.

*  *  *

  Dahon  runs from Feb 10, 11, and 12 at the Locsin Dance Workshop, 89 Elpidio Quirino Ave., Davao City 8000, Philippines. Tel. No.: (63 82) 227-4753. E-mail: locsindanceworkshop@yahoo.com

Watched with my sisters Ashley and Allegra

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Congratulations Kuya Ritz!!!!

 
 Finally got to watch Kuya Ritz, our Hip Hop teacher while I was going to LCB, dance with G-Force. This video is from the show "Magandang Gabi Vice" hosted by the hilarious Vice Ganda. While watching this, I recognized Kuya Ritz for his sharp head movements, and of course hair :P Thanks Ate Maan Bermudo for posting this video on the 'LCB Peepz ;)' group page.
  Kuya Ritz is the first guy Vice Ganda talks too at the end of the number :D

And The Winner Is...

Noelle Hidalgo!!! :D

Congratulations Noey, and thanks for joining my little contest. Enjoy the show :)

  So the contest is now closed. Thanks for all those who joined! Hopefully I will have more contests like this in the future...

  Thank you also to my mom, who suggested this contest. It was fun and I learned some new things ^_^

2 tickets to 'Dahon'

  I'd like to warn those who are watching 'Dahon', that Teacher Agnes is pretty strict about cameras. If you plan to take any pictures I advice that you turn off the flash and make sure there are no sounds coming from your devices. Thanks :D

  

Prep Week

  Class this Monday was at 6:30p.m. Kuya Henry Taught. His steps were more complicated, with more turns. He made Ballet 3 go home early though :(
    Later, in the dressing room, Ate Niki, one of the Ballet 5 dancers, told us that there would be no class on Wednesday. No pointes at Saturday either :| Probably to make way for preparations for "Dahon"...
  I was looking forward to dancing this week... just bad timing I guess.
  Can't wait to watch "Dahon"! Don't forget about the contest I put up, heres a link for details: from Pointe to Pointe: Contest :D
  And my mom showed me this article written by Teacher Agnes' cousin, Michael Dakudao for the Mindanao Times: Dahon: Ikalawang Galaw (The Creative Process)... Can relate with the way he described Teacher Agnes' teaching :P
  Watched the finals of the Prix de Lausanne yesterday. Congratulations to all the prize winners! :D

Photo via Ballet News

Teacher Agnes

  I watch as Teacher Agnes demonstrates the new barre exercises. At her age, she can still lift her leg up, straight, and long, with pointed feet, to 90 degrees. She points a long finger at a student, telling her off, correcting her. Then she walks back to her chair. "Ready" then starts the music.
  I often wonder how she was when she was young. No doubt her legs were very long and strong. So much more than now. Her feet beautifully arched, I think she was flexible too. I wish I could watch her dance. Or her mother, Carmen Dakudao, who she dedicates a lot of her works to.
  Recently, Teacher Agnes has been rehearsing her piece "Dahon" with her niece, internationally renowned dancer Georgette Sanchez. "Dahon", as I have mentioned time and again, is the sequel to "Ugat" which she choreographed on Ballet Philippines dancer Biag Gaongen. 
  As you can tell from the names of these two works, Teacher Agnes loves trees. Her garden in the ballet school is lush and well cared for. Signs warn little ballerinas not to pick the dainty flowers beside the swing.    Every time I walk through the the part of the garden that is shaded by, I think, a large Bougainvillea tree, there is a certain smell. I think I'll always remember that smell.
  Today I dance on pointe with no padding, masking tape or anything to protect my feet. Just stockings. Finally, I felt the pain I hadn't felt in a long time... I don't know why I miss pain, It sounds psycho, I know. My performance was not hindered though. Maybe I'll do it again, until I get a blister :| 

  

Here is a video of Agnes Locsin's "Archnida"

More On "Dahon"

Dahon (Leaf) is the sequel to Agnes' Ugat (Roots). They are both part of a series of works entitled Alay sa Puno.

  I wasn't able to see Ugat but I'm going to see Dahon. I'm so happy Georgette Sanchez, a world class dancer is here to perform Teacher Agnes work, who is for me a legend in dance.

  To promote my school and teacher, I'm holding a raffle contest on Facebook. The winner will receive 2 tickets to Dahon's Sunday show at 6 pm.

This contest is now closed :)