How it continued..

So ballet began and I was happy..really happy..I never tried out for school sports teams again and halfway through my first year of ballet, I had my gr.10 piano exam which I got a 77 Honours mark for..seeing as I could go no higher (other than to become a certified teacher) my lessons ended..anyway I continued music through jazz band at school which I enjoyed but of course, it was ballet that I looked forward to every week..

Initially, I took just one class a week; I wish I could have taken more but Mum was firm that it should just be for "recreation" and that I had school to focus on..and that she'd spent enough money on piano for me; however, towards the end of my first year I was approached by my teacher's daughter and asked if I was interested in private lessons..I took this as a positive sign. For one thing, the only people that took private lessons were those preparing for festival or exams and of course, the studio favourites who took every class available to them and whose parents were pushing them (or they were pushing themselves!) to dance professionally..either way, I said YES immediately to the offer. Mum wasn't overly thrilled of course and just reminded me that "this is just a hobby Nicola; you're not going to become a professional"..which annoyed the heck out of me at the time. In the end, I got 3 private lessons just for me :) I learned some valuable things in those 3 lessons..they weren't like a class at all but were based on different aspects of a typial class. In the first less we went through the barre exercises that I did each week and things such as arm placement were adjusted..who knew holding your arms just a fraction of an inch in a different way would make for such a different look? But in ballet, every little detail is noticed (and felt )..all in all, those private lessons were wonderful and I admit I was pleased that I'd been asked as a few others in my class who were in my situation (my age who had started at the same time) hadn't been asked..

 At the end of the year (June) brochures were posted around the studio for the annual summer school in August..$220 for a 5-day dance intensive..I can't remember the details of how I twisted Mum around to saying yes..but I was quite determined to attend the intensive..and so, for one wole glorious week that August 2003, I was at the studio from 10-5:30 doing jazz, ballet, which introduced pointe!,  hip-hop & stretch & strength, all of which were super exhausting but so much fun! This intensive also introduced me to jazz for the first time..which I enjoy. I learned so much from this intensive in so many ways, and even now when working on my stretching, use stretches and exercises I learned from the Stretch & Strength class...THANK YOU STEPHANIE!

September marked a full year that I'd been dancing..my first milestone! That month began a little rocky. There was no "teen ballet" class anymore, as most of the girls stopped after just the one year (but myself and one other) and so I was put in with younger girls..which was fine-they were all 3 years younger than me and one of them was my now former best friend's younger sister..slightly awkward as I'd had a big falling out with my former friend . Anyway, there I was, full of the usual energy, enthusiasm but also of my newfound knowledge from the intensive and ready to begin another year..then I went to the first class..

That first class of the year was a nightmare. I was behind in every single exercise!! This was humiliating for me as I felt that I'd developed in my ability to pick up new steps and choreography-everyone else seemed to know the barre, centre and floor exercises but me..however, it turns out, that every single girl (but me) were preparing to take their Gr.7 RAD exam and they had all done syllabus in August (like getting a leg up with what will be required of you in September..you get taught all the barre exercises for your grade, and most of the floor and centre work)..so, before they'd walked into the first class of the year, they'd known everything..of course I didn't know this at the time  and so felt utterly miserable being behind..even now, I remember that first class and wonder why on earth I was placed in that class at that point? Over the coming weeks, the routines were the same so I eventually picked them up and was fine, but considering that 3 girls not doing their RAD exam joined the class once the exams were over why wasn't I given that opportunity? There were plenty of open non-exam classes that I could have joined temporarily..I still remember being at the front of the barre and not knowing what to do and turning around too soon in the exercise to see my former best friend's younger sister laughing at me...not pleasant..

On a happier note, the exams were over within 2 months and November brought new barre work, new centre and new floor exercises which I was happily able to pick up in the same manner as the others. Over the rest of the year, I felt my skillset improve even more (exercises changed every 2 weeks or so), began receiving praise for my work, and before the end of my second year had successfully performed my first double pirouette. Nutcracker audition posters were put up that June as well and I felt confident enough in my abilities to audition.The audition was incredibly nerve-wracking..I was shaking with nerves the entire time which I know influenced my performance..after an hour of exercises we were thanked and taken to another room to be measured for costumes.. Over the summer, I found out that I was to have 2 roles..they were small in comparison to what many of the girls had..but considering they had 10+ years of dance on me, not bad. I was the nanny to Clara (which involved more acting than dancing),  a green soldier (in the battle between the rats and soldiers) and part of the Trepak (the russian dance)...

Summer of 2004 I chose to do syllabus ( I was now at the RAD grade 8 level) over the intensive, so as not to have a repeat of the previous years' incident! While not as varied as summer school and shorter in length..(Just 3 hours every afternoon for a week)..it was intensive in its own way and in a strange twist of irony, the barre work for grade 8 and two of the dances (the movement libre dramatique and movement libre poetic) were things I learned over the course of my first year of ballet..(tho now they were taught over a few hours rather than many weeks!)..so it was nice that I was ahead of the others as I remembered it all..and initially the teacher was shocked when, as we were marking the first few steps, I went ahead (since I knew what I was doing already) and she was like "how did you know?" so I came clean and admitted that I knew from a prior class! Thankfully, there were lots of other grade 8 exercises and dances that I hadn't learned before, so that was good; a highlight of syllabus occured on the last day, when parents were invited to watch the classes, and all the dances we had learnt over the course of the week were performed for them..for one of the dances (a character one) the teacher had each of us dancing them on our own and then graded us out of 10..I performed the dance and was give a 9.5!! I was super pleased with myself to the point that I cannot remember the tiny critique I was given (that took off 0.5)...either way it was a great feeling :)

Syllabus ended after a week, and a couple of weeks later, September arrived... marking 2 years dancing, the start of Nutcracker rehearsals (yippee!) and my taking 2 ballet classes/week after promising Mum that I would be able to handle all of that, and school and jazz band and my paperoute!