So, Julian didn’t skip two levels. He went from Blue to Green. He had hoped for Violet. He says there’s some unwritten rule that you have to be 16, although I know some of the JKO kids are younger and in Violet…and maybe some other kids, too.
Oh, well. He wasn’t too upset. He’s got some of his best friends in Green with him, so he’s actually pretty happy.
Indeed, he went running around the city during the Pride Parade with a few friends and ended up at the apartment with them. He’s planning a sleep over as well; someone’s bringing ballet videos and about six of them including Julian plan to camp out here all night. I’m glad he has friends and is having fun already. That’s really important to him.
Classes seem to be going well for him. He says they are hard. Some of the lead roles for the show, however, seem to be given to Asians and to those with training scholarships. Something just isn’t right about that if you ask me. We all pay good money for our kids to be in this program. If anyone has inside info on this, I’d love to have it. The info I have is that ABT does some teaching in Asia…and then the kids come here.
Julian says he’s gotten some nice compliments form both teachers and students on his ability. He feels his improvement from last year has been noticed. That’s really all he wanted, since most of the kids are in full ballet programs and he isn’t. He wanted to see how his ballet technique compared to theirs after a year at TDC full time and at Los Gatos Ballet part time. I think he’s pretty happy with the results.
Some of the boys gathered together today to show off and work on tricks together. That’s almost the best part of coming to ABT for the boys. They teach each other things. However, this year Julian says not many of the boys have that much to teach. He was happy to have two of the best boys come into the studio to work with him.
We still have a flying and crawling ant problem in our apartment. I’m pretty fed up with it at this point and have complained and complained. The exterminator has been out…no help really. I’m not getting much work done yet; hopefully tomorrow.
We spent the weekend upstate at my mother’s house–our annual visit. Plus, I had a high school reunion. Now we will really settle in to our routine. Julian will start dancing at Broadway Dance Center and Steps as well, taking tap, hip hop and some contemporary classes. Desmond Richardson invited him to come to a two-and-a-half week master class series though; we are waiting to hear if he can attend on a drop-in basis, since there is no way he can do three more hours every night for two and a half weeks.
One week down (really one and a half), five more of ABT plus another in NYC. I hope it cools off…the last two days were horrendously hot and humid. Julian has been hydrating himself though. He learned his lesson last year.
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