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