So, it has been several days since I last updated my blog, but I have been so busy with school starting and my three hour roundtrip commute every day that once I get back to my room, I have usually just been passing out and going to sleep! Anyways, things here are going really well. I am enjoying every minute of every day and I am getting to know more people which makes it a bit easier to be away from home. This whole past week was nothing but orientation sessions at school. Most of them were completely boring and were just hour and a half lectures about each and every class that we have to choose from in the program. This is a great idea in theory... but when you have to sit through multiples of these sessions in a dance studio where everyone has to sit on the floor, it gets old really fast. Oh well.. it’s over. We had to sign up for our classes on Friday.. at least our preliminary choices. We are able to change them around as necessary (which I won’t be doing cause most all of the classes I signed up for are required for me to graduate on time at MC!). I’m so excited to be dancing again, though. This past week we had some intro classes and I was thrilled to be able to experience a release-based class on Thursday for the first time ever. It was hands down the best modern experience I have ever had. I don’t know if it has something to do with the new place or the fact that I am at a conservatory where I don’t have other general education classes to worry over, but I felt so free when I was moving in the class. I was able to throw away all other concerns and problems and just dance. I haven’t been able to have such an uplifting class or had the ability to dance from such an inner place in a long time. It was a wonderful experience. Even though the week was really stressful and I definitely still have to adapt to the 6:30am wake-up time, I must say that this week has been one of the happiest of my life. I am so thankful to have this opportunity and I believe that I will come out a completely changed person at the end of my time here.
Blah blah blah.. enough deep stuff.. I am just so excited to be here! The commute to and from school every day sucks, though. I have to wake up at 6:30am to leave by 7:15 to be in the studio ready to go by 8:30. Yikes. I have been easing the long journey each day by listening to my ipod, which is fun.. but I also tend to get really sick of music, really fast. I also can’t put it on complete shuffle because every few songs always happens to be like… High School Musical, Ballet music or Disney Princess music. Oh the joys of teaching dance. I have gotten the opportunity to meet many new people though, within my one year program at my school, which is pretty awesome. There are people from literally all parts of the world, such as Japan, Italy, France, Germany, Belgium, Brazil and Spain.. just to name a few! I love being able to take class with all of these different people because each of them have such different backgrounds and even though many of them did not grow up in a private studio setting as I did growing up, they all have such a variety of experiences to offer the program. There are people who are professional Flamenco or Tango teachers as well as many who have already achieved dance undergraduate degrees from different places. Much to my surprise, actually, those of us from America are the youngest ones in the whole program. There is one lady in the program who was a professional ballet dancer in another country and now has decided to attend Laban. Also, my ballet teacher happens to be from America, which is really exciting! She is one of the most down to earth people I have ever seen, ever. She is such a beautiful dancer and was trained at the School of American Ballet in New York. She has such a driving force about her that it makes you automatically want to try ten times harder in her class. She isn’t about teaching “poses” in ballet, she says she focuses on the stuff in-between the poses because that’s the actual dancing. She also is a firm believer in not trying to become something or someone other than yourself in any ballet class, but to just be yourself. I absolutely love her ideas and her over-all air about her. She so much reminds me of my favorite former ballet teacher, Jenn, who tragically lost her life to head and throat cancer. Jenn had the same passion for making ballet personal and about showing who you are through the movement as this new teacher, Julia. I can’t wait to be able to train with her throughout this whole year. I feel as though I will be able to improve greatly just by having her around to push me to my limit and beyond.
Overall, I am so excited about mainly.. everything here.. except for the fact that it’s like 5 pounds to do laundry here (for one load, that is). That translates into like.. $7/8 which is CRAZY for one load of laundry!! Oh well, I’ll get over it haha. I miss everyone back home so much but Skype has been able to keep me somewhat sane, which is nice. I have pretty much been able to settle in here, but I don’t believe it has truly hit me yet just how long I’m going to be here. I think I am still mildly in vacation mode, especially spending-wise. Everything is really expensive in the part of town I am staying in, which makes it hard to spread money out over time. As time progresses, though, I hope I will be able to find different ways to save and stretch my money! I believe that is all for now! Cheers for now! mk
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