Changes

Courtesy of www.shwayder.com

“There is nothing permanent except change,” said Heraclitus. My life is constantly changing, but recently, my life has been turned upside down. First of all, in an earlier post I talked about Shwayder Camp. To refresh your memories, I’ve gone to camp for the past five years and this summer will be my last year. Last year it was announced that there would be some major changes being made to the architecture of camp. They’re tearing down the cabins and many of the buildings. This seems like a small problem, except for the fact that many of those buildings have been there since 1948. Also, we sign our names in the cabins at the end of every session, so there are signatures from thousands of people including our former camp director when he was a counselor-in-training. Now, Shwayder will be wiped clean of all of the memories that have made my home so special. 

Secondly, my dance life is going to change drastically. For eighteen years, Park City Dance Academy has been a small-town dance studio that has been gradually growing and improving. The past couple of years have been really big for us because several of our best dancers have gone to compete at YAGP. The Youth American Grand Prix is one of the most prestigious ballet competitions in the world. From there, PCD has caught the attention of Ballet West. Ballet West is a major ballet company, based in Utah. In February, our directors, Sandy and Trish, announced that Park

Courtesy of balletwest.org

City Dance is now one of three satellite programs of Ballet West Academy. I’m stressed because now our ballet program will become more strict. I love ballet, but that is not what I want to do for the rest of my life. You can only go so far as a ballet dancer, but with jazz, tap, and even hip-hop, a dancer could get many different jobs.

There was a meeting that was held with the reps from Ballet West Academy and they said that Nutcracker could be ending after 2016. I’ve grown up with Park City’s Nutcracker and I know that our entire studio would hate to see it go. I’ve talked about Nutcracker in an earlier post, but I didn’t explain how big of a tradition it was. When I was a younger dancer, I always looked up to the Queens: Snow Queen, Waltz Queen, and Angel Queen, that is. Those were the roles given to the most advanced dancers, the best of the best. It was every little girls’ dream at Park City Dance to dance one of those roles. And now, since Nutcracker could be ending, I, along with the other girls in my group, and the extremely talented dancers in the groups below us, will probably never get the chance to dance our dream roles, and that is one of the most heartbreaking changes of all.

Thank you guys for checking in on my blog! I’m really sorry that I haven’t posted in a while. My life is pretty interesting right now, so I promise there will be more posts in the future. I’ll leave you all with a quote from my man, Gary Kubiak, “Life is fair, keep working.” Until next time…

~Rachael