Nutcracker is Cracking My Life! (Touching on the Subjects of Gratitude and Support)

I have been incredibly busy right now. Most sports are busy during their assigned season, getting busier around state, nationals, finals, whatever. At the Park City Dance Academy we are the busiest at three points in the year… 1) Competition Season 2) The Spring Recital and 3) Nutcracker. The Nutcracker season begins at the end of September with auditions. I wasn’t expecting a role, but I really wanted to be either a demi-soloist for the Waltz of the Flowers, a Spanish dancer, or a Russian. All of those roles are very difficult… and I got none of them. I was disappointed for a day or two, but I needed support my friends and focus on the positive. I was going to be the best in the Waltz of the Flowers Corps de Ballet, and not having other roles to worry about allowed me to focus on just that. However I took a great opportunity.

From left: me, Mia, Taylor, and Faith at the elementary school shows.

Last year, I had the role of the Mouse King (along with Waltz of the Flowers Corps) and it was one of the greatest experiences of my life. To add to that, I got to dance with three of my favorite people, Taylor (the Soldier King), Mia (Young Clara), and Faith (Raggedy Andy). I’ve danced with them for years, but this was special. On top of all of that, I got to lead a bunch of little mice in the dance of the Mice and Soldiers. I love little kids, not in a creepy way. At their age, I had idolized my Mouse King. Now I was able to step into my Mouse King’s shoes and feel what it’s like to have the little girls look up to you.

My first year in the Nutcracker as a mouse.

Back to present time, being the former Mouse King, I got to mentor the current Mouse King and T.A. for this year’s mice and soldiers. I got to feel how I felt last year, when I taught the little girls and in my opinion, that is the best feeling, better than getting any role. This brings me to gratitude. As I said in a previous post, dancers are some of the most competitive people I have ever met. We are constantly battling it out for roles or to be the best in the class. That being said, dancers are also some of the most gracious people you will ever meet. There are only a limited number of roles, so there will be broken hearts. But dance requires you to pick up the pieces and move on, being supportive of your friends who’ve gotten roles. I danced for my life to get Mouse King, so did my best friend, Savannah. When I got called back and she didn’t, that could’ve been the end of our friendship, but it wasn’t. I was so lucky that was as supportive as she was. So when the cast list was posted for this year, I couldn’t help but be overjoyed when she was casted as an elephant, the other goofy role that involves a fat suit.

So, yeah! Nutcracker is so stressful, but completely worth it. I couldn’t more excited for this year’s performances or more proud of my mice and my Mouse King protégé. My challenge for the week is similar to last week’s to be more openminded, positive, and gracious. Life is so much better when you don’t dwell on unfair or negative things. And with that, I’ll leave you with a quote. “Keep your face to the sunshine and cannot see a shadow.” ~ Helen Keller ;) Peace out, girl scout!

~Rachael

So You Think You’re A Yogi

Imagine you are so relaxed that you can actually feel energy move through your body. It sounds a little dorky, but that is what yoga is for me. Today I’m going to talk about yoga, yeah this is happening. I haven’t been a big fan of yoga or pilates until this past year. I don’t know why I didn’t like it, it was just something about staying still in uncomfortable positions for long periods of time that was really unappealing to me. But now I can say that I actually really like yoga.

Maya and I at camp

Over the summer, at camp, every night my friend, Maya, and I would do yoga in our cabin. Even though it wasn’t a real yoga class (and we were taking ourselves WAY too seriously), we still had such a good time. Eventually, our entire cabin joined in on our late night yoga sessions, and it became a tradition. Near the end of camp, one of my counselors took a period to teach us some yoga. We had all been pretty tense because of camp ending, so it was perfect for us. At the end of the period, we spent a couple of minutes doing a silent meditation. There was nothing special about it, we had done many other meditations before, but there was just something about this experience that was different.

Perfect representation of savasana courtesy 
of www.namasteyogatherapy.com

I didn’t take yoga again until school rolled around, and dance started up again. On Fridays, we had a new class, Conditioning. Conditioning in my mind was hardcore exercises that would kill me for an hour, but this conditioning was completely different. That first Friday class was my very first pilates class, I can honestly say that it did kill me. This class didn’t test my endurance, but it sure did test my strength. At the end of the first day my entire body ached and I didn’t want to think of the fact that I had another class after that. My teacher, Brenda, told us to lay on our backs for savasana. That was when I realized that the silent meditation I had done at camp finally had a name.

Now, I still battle pilates on Fridays, but knowing that there will be savasana at the end makes it all worth it. This is the time of the week that I can finally relax and be relieved that it’s the weekend. I never thought that I was the type of person who would like yoga, but now that I’ve tried it, I’m a lot less tense about almost everything. My challenge for you this week is to try something that you think you would not usually like, maybe running, cooking, or even yoga. You’ll never know you like something until you try it. And with that, I’ll leave you with a quote from Joan Rivers, “I knew I was an unwanted baby when I saw that my bath toys were a toaster and a radio.”

~Rachael

You’ve Never Met An Athlete Until You Meet A Dancer

Throughout my fifteen years on this planet, I have noticed that a stereotypical athlete trains everyday and devotes their life to their sport. Yet, when I’d explain to a person that my sport is dance, I’m overrun with many comments and accusations such as dance isn’t a sport, dance isn’t athletic, it isn’t competitive, a sport has to have a ball. Really? I wonder what swimmers and runners think about that. What naive little football and soccer players don’t understand is that no, dance doesn’t involve a ball, but is sure is athletic, difficult, and VERY competitive, so why doesn’t it qualify as a sport? This is because many people think that dance is feminine, which is wrong. Even though many dancers are girls, some of the best dancers that I’ve ever met are male. A little under half of the dancers at Ballet West are male, which is very important. In ballet especially, our lives are in the hands of male dancers. When you are lifted over the head of another human,  you can’t help but think that you will fall on your head. This means that male dancers have to be very buff.

Gross feet courtesy of Faith

Dancers, in general, are some of the most muscular people that I’ve ever seen. It’s necessary to have massive leg muscles if you want to survive life as a dancer. Imagine jumping around a stage about half the size of a football field for four minutes, yeah, it’s torture. When other athletes complain about sore muscles, we know your pain. It’s essential for us to be flexible, which isn’t really needed for other sports, besides gymnastics. Real pain is having your middle splits, then your teacher forces your hips to the floor. It doesn’t feel good, along with your teacher bending your foot in half so you reach your toes and heel to the floor at the same time. On the topic of pain, let’s go back to ballet. Pointe isn’t too painful after a while, but as soon as blisters form, your foot rubbing inside a box of pure agony isn’t the best experience.

Dancers are some of the most competitive people that I’ve ever met, myself included. The girls in my group are my best friends and my biggest rivals. We are always trying to one-up each other to get the better roles and catch the attention of our teachers. Last season, my teammates, Savannah, Taylor, Faith, and I, all competed solos. Even though we were all spread throughout three different categories, except for Savannah and Faith, we still had a stiff competition, always trying to get better scores than the next girl. Although we are all competitive, we are all super supportive of each other. The girls on my team are my sisters and I don’t know what I’d do without them. Faith, Savannah, Taylor, Mikelle, Holly, Jenna, Sophie, Sami, Val, Bella, Megan, Mia T, Mia S, Eve, Allie, Ali, Lucie, Maddie, Claire, Alicia, and Alex, I love you all so much! Thank you for pushing me to the best of my ability.

Now that I got that out of my system, my challenge for y’all this week is to be more open to people’s opinions and what they like to do. Have fun this Halloween weekend and watch out for zombies, ghosts, and axe murderers. I’ll leave you with a quote. “Let’s face it, a nice creamy chocolate cake does a lot for a lot of people, it does for me,”- Audrey Hepburn

~Rachael

O-R-E-G-O-N!

UEA! UEA! It’s my favorite holiday! For all of the non-Utard readers (aka none of you), UEA stands for Utah Education Association. We all have a week in October where some teachers go to some meeting and stuff happens. For all of the ten years that my mom has worked in this school district, she’s never gone to any of the meetings. So, my family usually goes out of town every year. However, this year was different, even though we did go out of town, we did something school related. I know what you’re thinking, “Oh that sucks,” but it was actually really fun because we went to tour colleges for my older brother (he’s a junior).

From left: My dad, me, and my brother at Canon Beach

After school on Wednesday, my family and I flew to Eugene. We were all exhausted because we got to the hotel at 12:00 am (1:00 am Utah time), and my brother had a huge four hour test at school. The next morning, we woke up bright and early for a 9:00 tour. Well, it was bright and early for me because I’m definitely NOT a morning person. Our first tour was at the University of Oregon, the biggest college in Oregon. The campus seemed huge, but it was actually not that big. I really liked it because there were so many trees and old looking buildings, and the entire college LOVED sports. Now I don’t play a sport, but that doesn’t mean I’m not an athlete, that’s a whole different post for another day (maybe next week). However, I’ve grown up in a family that revolves around sports, whether it’s going to any of the thousands of my brother’s sporting events, watching football on Sundays and Thursday nights, or when I’d always go to Rockies games with my grandpa. This is why I’d like to go to a big collage with awesome sports teams, like the Ducks. After the tour, we went to an AMAZING Chinese restaurant, then drove two hours to Portland. We stayed the rest of the nights at my aunt and uncle’s house, where they have two cats and an adorable Bernese mountain dog, named Bodi.

That Friday, we drove another two hours to Canon Beach. If any of you have seen The Goonies, my favorite 80’s movie, this is the beach that the pirate ship comes out of the huge rock. We had lunch at a pub in the town of Ecola (my dad calls it Ebola), then walked on the beach for a couple hours. The

Canon Beach with Haystack Rock

thing about the Oregon Coast is that this beach is not one were you can wear a swimsuit and sunbathe, you actually need to wear at least two layers if you want to survive, and you CANNOT go swimming, unless you want to die of hypothermia. So what’s so special about Canon Beach, it’s gorgeous there. There is always fog over the water, you can (most of the time) spot whales, and there is just a lot of wildlife. By wildlife I mean too many seagulls and washed up jellyfish. After walking on the beach and trying to convince my dad that touch the top of a dead jellyfish with your shoe won’t make it sting you, we got coffee and then headed back to my aunt and uncle’s house.

The second tour that we had was at my parents’ alma mater, Lewis and Clark. I was too sick to do anything, so I stayed in the car and slept. After that, we went out to lunch with my aunt and uncle and the family of one of my dad’s colleagues, at another brew pub. Being close to the coast, I had fish and chips. They were delicious, but not the best I’ve had which were salmon fish and chips at a fish market in Ecola. I would’ve gotten them at that market again, but we didn’t have enough time. On Sunday, we flew back to Salt Lake. I spent the day unpacking and studying my butt of for the finals that I’ve had this week.

So that’s that. My UEA break was pretty fantastic, besides the fact that I got sick and my head felt like it was going to explode. My challenge for you this week is to sigh because first quarter is over! One down three more to go. That really isn’t challenging, so my real challenge is try not to eat the candy that your mom bought for Halloween before Saturday, you’re all going to fail (myself included). I’ll now leave you with my quote of the week, “Behind every great man is a woman rolling her eyes”- Jim Carrey. Mmm-k bye.

~Rachael

Oh Those Summer Nights!

Since last week I promised to do a positive post, here it is! The last couple of weeks have been brutal. Even though I’m happy to see my friends again and my classes are great, I miss summer. This was one of the greatest summers I’ve ever had, and I have decided to share it with all of you. I never thought that three months could be so relaxing, yet exciting.

In the beginning of June, I did a couple of different things. On the last day of school, I had a couple of friends over. We hung out and watched movies. Most of the activities that I did were with my dance group, including seeing Jurassic World, swimming at the Waldorf, and binge-watching Whodunnit? during a major thunderstorm. However, one of the biggest things that we did this summer, as a team, was learn a ballet piece for my friend, Val’s, quinceañera. It was a masquerade themed dance that was more humorous than technical.

My family in Hawaii. From the left is Andrew (my brother),
my mom, my dad, and me

During the last two weeks of June, My family went to Hanalei, Kauai. My family has a tradition when a family member has a bar or bat mitzvah, we go on a trip, instead of having a big party. In the summer of 2012, for my older brother’s bar mitzvah, we stayed on the big island of Hawaii for several days, then went to Hanalei for several more. A year and a half later, we went to Cancun, for a week, to celebrate my bat mitzvah. Yet another year and a half later, we were back in Hanalei for my mom’s adult bat mitzvah and her conversion to Judaism. In Hawaii, we stayed in a small house by the beach. We hike four miles of the Nāpali coast, a ridge of the Waimea Canyon, kayaked to Secret Falls, snorkeled at five beaches. Halfway through our trip, my grandmother flew out from Colorado and stayed with us. We all when to the St. Regis, in Princeville, for dinner. We spent most of our nights walking to a local ice cream shop, then to the beach to watch the sunset. My favorite activity that we did was snorkeling. My brother and I figured out how to free dive so we could get closer to the fish. We didn’t see any turtles, but at Ke’e beach, we saw a seal sunning itself, while more seals played in the waves. My mom and I also saw a sea snake, at Anini Beach, which turned out to be highly venomous. We took a redeye flight back on July 3rd, while my Grandma stayed in Poipu for another week.

View from Angel Ridge

From left: Megan, Paige, me,
 Sarah, Anna, and Lindsay

When I got back from Hawaii, I had less than a week to pack for my next trip. This time, I was going to sleep-away camp in Colorado. Shwayder is a two week Jewish camp, on Mt. Evans. This summer was my fifth year at Shwayder. Some activities that we do there are horseback riding, a ropes course, and lots of hiking. Each age group goes on an overnight hiking trip. The age groups are arranged by the grade you’ll be starting in the fall and the first four letters of the Hebrew alphabet, making me a daled. As a daled, my overnight was the hardest, but most rewarding. Even though the hike to Angel Ridge was about four and a half miles in, it seemed so much long due to it being completely uphill, carrying a twenty to forty pound backpack, and the major lack of oxygen. I forgot to mention that Shwayder is 10,200 feet above sea level. We made it to Angel Ridge about thirty minutes before sundown. We ate dinner (quesadillas never tasted so delicious), made s’mores, and our counselors told stories. I shared a tent with my friends Paige, Lindsay, and Megan. We stayed up and talked because it was way too cold and windy to sleep. We woke up before sunrise and hiked down the mountain, without breakfast (the worst feeling ever). When we got back to camp, we ate breakfast, then slept in till lunch. Another amazing hiking trip that I was able to do was an optional hike up Mt. Bierstadt. This was my first fourteener that I’ve hiked. But the best night of both weeks were, by far, Fridays. On Fridays, we celebrated Shabbat. After lunch, we spent the afternoon showering and dressing up. Before dinner, we had a service. The first year daleds (myself included) lead the service the first week, while the last year daleds lead them second week. After services, we ate best dinner of the week, then sang and danced for about an hour and a half. Finally, we go to sleep and have

India (right) and I

open camp the next day. Being a daled, we have a special day where we spend half the day working on our project and the second half in Denver. This year we went to the Denver zoo for a day. After that, we went to a park behind the Denver Natural History Museum to eat pizza. I could talk about Shwayder for hours, but all good things must come to an end. My dad picked me up after two weeks, and we drove home.

My summer ended with a bang, Val’s quinceañera. My dance group was the court of honor. We had been fitted for matching dresses several weeks before the big day. When it finally came, the day started with rehearsals for our two dances in the morning. After that, we went to Val’s house to do our hair and makeup. Then we went (in an limo) to the church service, I felt like a major fish out of water, even though my synagogue is right across the street. Next we took pictures, then went to Walmart, and drove around Main Street. After that, We went to the party at the hotel. The DJ was great, but then left around eight-ish, replacing him was a mariachi band. They were excruciatingly loud at first, but my ears quickly got used to it. The party ended at one in the morning I went home a slept late into the afternoon.

That’s my insane summer! I’m glad I was able to share it with y’all. My challenge of the week is to have as much fun as you can because next week is UEA break! That means that I’m not going to be posting anything. So anyways, the quote to day is, “Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud,” -Maya Angelou. See you later!

~Rachael

Why Y'all So Sad

Have you ever just caught yourself complaining, even though you aren’t in a bad mood? Yeah, me too. Way too often, actually. You most likely don’t notice it, but everyone complains about something everyday. It’s almost like a default for us. When conversations get awkward, we like to complain about the most basic things, because the person we are talking to finds it “relatable”. The funny thing is that we complain about things that won't effect our lives in the long-run. It’s always, “Ugh, I have such a bad headache.” or “I’m WAY too tired.” or even “I have so much homework, it’s not even funny.” These “problems” are so little that the person that you’re talking to will just think that you’re whiny and a burden to be around. (By the way, I complain about all of these things, too, so…)

Picture courtesy of thechocolateboxwriters

Another problem that I have with people who complain is exaggeration, I’m guilty for this, too. Just the other day, I noticed that I didn’t have my phone before fourth period. I didn’t overreact, but when I explained it to some of my friends, it sure sounded like I did. I had told them that I was freaking out and that I had no clue what I was going to do, but my calm demeanor proved that I was not at all “freaking out”. Looking back on it now, I realized that I don’t know why I exaggerate my stories, but I need to stop, because no one is going to pity me.

Being my hypocritical self, I will now say that all of the complaining is SO annoying! When people complain, it puts the people around them in a crappy mood, and when those people are in a crappy mood, more people’s moods get crapped on and the circle goes on and on and on. The moral of the story is everyone (myself included) needs to stop complaining! We’re all being the definition of “first world problems,” it’s embarrassing. Our town already has the stereotype of having all of the snobby rich kids, and when we complain like that, it’s adding fuel to the fire.

Anyways, my challenge for the week is for you to try and go a day without complaining. I mean, it’s not a challenge unless it’s actually challenging. Like I said in my post last week, there are so many little things that can make you happy. Try and focus on the happy things in your life. Who knows, maybe without your yapping about how miserable your life is, you might make someone else’s day better. That’s all I have to say, today! I know that I’ve been pretty negative today so, I’m really sorry. Next week, I promise that my post will be happier. But before I forget, my quote of the day comes from a great man by the name of Dr. Seuss. He said, “Today you are you! That is truer than true, there is no one alive that is you-er than you.” Until next time…

~Rachael

Simple Things

It’s funny how the smallest things can make your day so much happier. A while back, I was at school with my friend, Mikelle. We were talking about how miserable our days had been, until I brought up the fact that we didn’t have to change for dance, next period. Mikelle’s whole face lit up and I realized that the only way to make a person’s day better is to remind them of a good thing that will happen. This made me think of a list of little things that make me happier.

• No-dress days for dance
• Remembering that I have dance
• Forgetting that it’s early-out day
• Realizing that I have lunch next period
• Remembering that it’s Friday
• Popcorn

The sad thing is that small things pass so quickly that we forget to take in that moment. Throughout the entire summer, I slept in on Sundays, like every other day. I hadn’t thought anything of it, until I had to wake up early for religious school. At that moment, I realized that I had wasted my summer Sundays, by not cherishing my ability of sleeping in. 

Another thing that we all take for granted is our friends and family, including pets. If you’ve read my “About Me” page you’d know that I have four pets. My oldest dog is Murdock. She is a mix between a golden retriever and a tricolored collie. We got Murdock thirteen years ago, from our neighbors. Man, has thirteen years gone by fast. Now, Murdock is deaf and blind. We can’t take her on the same hikes that we take our younger dogs on. But even in her old age, Murdock still loves to play, and we cherish every day that we can play with her. 

Murdock

On a happier note, tomorrow’s Friday! And, it’s an important day for the sophomores, juniors, and seniors. It’s the beginning of homecoming weekend. While the rest of the town will watch the football team fail miserably, y’all will be counting down the hours until Saturday night. A stupid thing about this, freshmen can’t go to homecoming. I know that we’re “technically” still at the junior high school, but according to transcripts, we are in high school. So, if homecoming is for high school students only, freshmen should be allowed to go. But I guess it’s just another simple thing to look forward to.

We both made it through my first post! Yay! This is going to be a long a strange journey, but we’ll make it. I’ll post at least once a week with a new topic every blog. Who knows what I’ll write about next. Muwa-ha-ha! I’ve decided to end all of my posts a challenge for you for the week. The challenges will have to do with that week’s post. Today’s challenge is to make a list of things that make you happy. One of my best friends did this last year, and I think she got to one hundred. I will also end every post with a quote, so in the words of the late-great Bob Marley, “My future is righteousness.”

~Rachael