This is it! The end-of-the-year concert happens this weekend. Julian finished up Los Gatos Ballet’s Copellia last weekend only to start right in on technical rehearsals for Teen Dance Company’s 10th anniversary concert on Monday. Here it is Friday already, and he’s been at the Mexican Heritage Theatre in San Jose since 4 p.m. (it’s now 9 p.m.). Tomorrow, he’ll be there all afternoon rehearsing before the evening show. Then he’ll perform in a second show on Sunday. Then we are done until next year. (Well, classes continue all summer, and they are actually open to the public from June through August.)
If you live in the Bay Area, CA, please come watch! There are still tickets, and you can purchase them at the door or go to www.teendancecompany.org and order them on line. Be sure to email me at NinaAmirLacey@aol.com to let me know you are coming. I’d love to meet you!
I’m so excited to see all the pieces. I’ve never seen two of the numbers Julian is in, a tap piece by Carol Jones and a contemporary piece by Jen Hechtle Bradford. I’ve seen parts of Mark Foehringer’s contemporary number, but I haven’t seen it from start to finish with the additional choreography that was added. (Julian thought he was going to get to do a love duet, but Mark didn’t end up adding it. Julian was bummed.) And, I’ve never seen the number choreographed by Heather Cooper, which Julian is not in, or the alumni piece, which was choreographed by Jason Parsons. So, I’m pretty exciting!
Julian is a bit upset about one costume: a very see-through shirt that basically is a maternity shirt. Well…no wonder he is upset. He was going to pose a revolt tonight and see if he could get out of wearing it. I’ll find out later if he had any success.
And when this weekend is over, we’ve got to finish shopping for dance clothes for American Ballet Theatre’s summer intensive. Plus, Julian has to study for finals. (His grades have come up some, I am very happy to report.) While he is preparing for finals, though, he has to stay in shape and, actually, increase his level of exercise. He’s going to run a few days a week with a friend and start taking some extra jazz and ballet classes. Last weekend he jumped rope. He’s also using a theraband and a ball to do some of the exercises I’ve written about for Dance Teacher magazine.
I’m trying to get someone to write a post about how to prepare for a summer ballet intensive, so keep your eyes peeled. It’s a bit late, but I’ve had no success yet. The people at ABT wouldn’t do it; the only information I could get from them was in the material they sent out. Basically, it just said that the kids should be in good physical shape and be taking three to four ballet classes per week.
I’m not too worried about Julian. He dances way more than that. Plus, I talked with the mother of a boy who was there last year, and he had plenty of energy to go to tap classes at Broadway Dance Center twice a week, plus take other classes on Saturdays and Sundays. I hope Julian will feel he can do the same. Although, I really think one day off will be a good thing; six weeks without a break can lead to injury. We plan to take at least a whole weekend off to visit my mother in upstate New York (about an hour and a half north of the city), and I want to go out to Long Island to the beach! We’ve also scheduled an extra week at the end of the program just for taking dance classes in New York.
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