Biography

I want to read All His Jazz: the Life and Death of Bob Fosse by Martin Gottfried

The first time I was introduced to the Fosse style was at a summer intensive about 6 or 7 years ago. He is now one of my favorite choreographers. I can't even count how many hours I've spent in a rehearsal with the ATDW Co. perfecting a Fosse piece such as Rich Man's Frug or Crunchy Granola.

Jim Bonney workshop

The workshop today was great! I took this workshop last year and I know that I'm going to have a completely different view on it this year. Since last year's workshop, I've done 3 musicals, the Nutcracker, and worked on monologues for my college auditions. I've also seen a lot of really good theater. Yesterday at Wagner, I got to see the students there do some of the same repeating exercises that Jim does with us. Those students are on a more advanced level, and had to used those exercises to feed into the scene they had to perform that day in class. I was able to see what a huge difference the prep work made. The group that's taking this workshop is a lot more open minded than last years group. There's a more united energy and that makes it easier to trust and to work. If I look like a fool in front of my classmates that's fine with me. I know they won't be judging me and I hope they know that I wont be judging them.

College

Today I followed a student at Wagner College. I got to sit in on two classes - one of them was acting 4, which is a junior acting class. They're working on scenes and two groups were presenting their scenes today. I was able to do the warm ups with the rest of the class and then I got to observe. The work was really impressive and extremely mature. For prep, they did some of the same repetition exercises that we did in Jim Bonney's workshop! I was like, "Oh, I've done that!" Haha, it was cool.

And I have decided - I'm going to Wagner!!! Theater performance major (which is just a fancy way of saying musical theater) I'm so excited. And I cannot believe how easy it was to make this decision - I thought it was going to be a lot harder. I've already started talking to kids on facebook who are going to Wagner next year. Everyone is really friendly and nice. I feel like I kind of already have one foot out the door.

Quote of the day

"You can only enjoy the good in life if you have some hard times to compare it to. After all we only have good because we also have bad. Without bad what would good be? It would be nothing special, that's for sure." -Me, myself, and I

My book presentation

Presenting my book was a lot easier than I thought it would be. I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was for me to talk about what I had read considering I started this book a little over a month ago. Ideas that I read about at the beginning of the book popped into my head and so I talked about those ideas instead of the ones I had prepared to talk about, which were the ideas he presented later on in the book and the ones I was most familiar with - or so I thought. I discovered that I can give a presentation without any kind of poster or slide show to base it off of. In the past, I've always had either a poster or slide show to back me up during my presentations. I'm not sure what I like better - having a power point, or just casually talking about what I learned.

Having a power point:
PRO-My thoughts are extremely well organized beforehand. I know exactly what I'm going to say and in what order I will say it.
CON-I find that power point presentations tend to get extremely monotonous. Sometimes I forget to actively think while giving my presentation, so I rely solely on the slide show for my information and that can get really boring.

Not having a power point:
PRO-It's easy to say what you mean and how you actually feel. It's more fun for the speaker and the audience. It's natural.
CON-Without something organizing what you want to say, it's really easy to think out loud, and be a little all over the place. The transitions from one topic to the next might be a little awkward and it might not flow as well.

When I dance...

Tonight I was reminded of why I love to dance. When I dance, my world is a better place. Everything else goes away and doesn't matter anymore and I know that everything will turn out alright and that I'll be okay. When I dance all that matters is that I'm in the studio with people who love and support me and we're all dancing, working up a sweat, and creating together. It's peaceful. Relaxing. Energizing. Stimulating. It's the most amazing feeling in the world. And it's comforting too. It's what supports me. And I know that no matter what happens with my life, no matter what changes it'll always be there for me to come home to. Even when I'm old, and my body falls apart, the studio will always be there. I'll still be able to choreograph and dance with my mind and my heart even if I physically can't do the movements. And the music too. The music that I dance to- when I listen to the lyrics, they're telling me good things too.

Thank god for time management =]

I did it! I survived spring break.. well more than survived I had fun. I didn't have any time to rest, or relax but I did get all my home work done that I needed to get done and hung out with friends. It's times like these when I am completely amazed at myself. Thank god for good time management skills. I really don't know where they came from. My parents don't have them, but for some strange reason I was born with them. And for that I am very happy!

Countdowns:
In 4 weeks I will have decided where I'm going to school next year! Right now it's between Wagner, Muhlenberg, and Cortland. But Montclair still hasn't gotten back to me so it's hard to crack down on making this decision until I know if that school is going to be in the running or not. It's either yes or no, pretty simple.
In 5 1/2 weeks I will be all done with AP classes! Now THIS is exciting. Most of my homework comes from my two AP classes and without those classes I know I'll have a lot less to worry about. That's not saying that I wont have anything - I'll still have my Quest project and Pig paper but that doesn't compare to the workload from those two classes combined. I'll also have 2 or 3 periods off depending on if it's a blue or silver day which is the most off periods I've ever had in high school!

Right now life is good and I'm grateful.