Final(e) Post - Week 6

It’s always that “e” that separates regular, everyday words from ballet words… *sigh*

Anyways, this is it guys... my final post :( I never thought I’d say this, but I’ve actually taken a liking to blogging (does that make me a nerd? haha). I love this style of writing, especially because I get to write basically exactly how I would talk. Plus, the puns are AMAZING. (It makes reading other blogs a lot more fun too. :D) Would it be bad if the part of blogging that I will miss the most is the puns?

rosin (not drugs) - when crushed and applied to
dance shoes they prevent slipping
WARNING: don't get it on your hands, its disgusting

On a completely different (and more serious) note, I've already given my presentation (a TED Talk) almost a week ago now. It wasn't my best, but it wasn't too bad either I guess. It could've been worse. Not to complain, but the stage was too small and slippery for me to be able to perform to my best ability. Besides, this isn't the fault of the stage. I could’ve brought rosin for the slipperiness and practiced on the stage to get used to dancing in the tight space.

For those of you who didn’t get to watch my presentation (or just didn’t get it), the whole thing was basically a metaphor for the ballet The Nutcracker, with me as Clara and my project as the nutcracker/prince. It sound pretty cool on paper, but honestly the script wasn’t too great. I went on the first day of presentations, and I wasn’t too prepared. After watching so many other presentations, I definitely could’ve included a much more powerful message.

I ended my presentation with a short excerpt of my dance since the “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” is one of the last dances of the ballet. For those of you that have only seen my presentation and not the full video, please check it out on my previous post! I promise it’s much, much better, even though it’s not that good by professional standard. That says something about how my performance during my presentation was… When I got off stage after answering questions, all that I could think was, “Omigod I fell. I forgot the choreography and I fell.” Apparently, nobody noticed, but anyone trained in ballet would be able to tell. But anyways, what happened happened. It won’t do good to dwell on it too much. I’ll need to work on performing solo after this project is over.

So… I guess this is it. The final goodbye. No more blogging (at least for this project anyways).

Thanks to all of my readers and to anyone who’s commented! Goodbye!

~Nicole

Resources:

http://www.matsmatsmats.com/images/gymnastics/ballet/rosin-box-lg.jpg

Stage Fright - Week 5

AAAAHHHHH! I’m presenting on the first day of presentations and I may or may not be slightly (really) terrified. This week’s blog post is all about this, as you might’ve gathered from the title, and about the terrors of filming and editing your own video.

Filming took A LOT longer than expected, especially since we (a friend and I) filmed outside and had to deal with the sun setting at night (Sometimes I forget that when I don’t go outside for a long time. Night and day blur into one giant chunk of time split between homework, robotics, school, and dance.) Besides that, we had to deal with the weather (mostly rain at this time of year, thank god it’s not winter anymore) and the concrete eating up my pointe shoes. Thankfully, I’d decided to perform in an old pair, not the new pair that I bought a couple weeks ago.

So you might be asking yourself (or not), “Nicole, you titled this blog post ‘Stage Fright.’ What does filming have to do with that?” Well, dear reader, I’m getting there. Just hold on for a sec.

Performing, whether it be for a camera or a live audience, scares me the same no matter what type it is. Since I’m the only dancer and this is going on the internet, there will be more people watching me and more opportunity to catch me doing something wrong. I started stressing about every little detail because I’m just a perfectionist like that. But eventually, I got tired, and I just wanted to be done dancing so that I could start editing.

...And that’s when the big problems started. The details aren’t fit for the internet, but long story short I was set back by a couple days in editing--with only 1 day until my presentation. Buuuut thankfully I was able to pull through!

And finally… drumroll please… HERE’S THE FINISHED PRODUCT! :D


Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy - Pentatonix Dance Cover from Nicole Tan on Vimeo.

~Nicole

P.S. Hope you like the thumbnail ;)

Ooh a Video! - Week 4

Hey guys look it's a video of my face and me doing things! (The link is to vimeo.)

Update:
(because I figured out how to embed videos :D)
 
Genius on Pointe Vlog from Nicole Tan on Vimeo.

Bumps, Bruises, and Blisters, Oh My! - Week 3

Guys, my feet hurt D:

Pointe shoes may be pretty, but they hurt a lot and are dangerous. It’s important to have the right technique in order to not get hurt.

Ouchies

This past week has been filled with choreographing and marking steps (doing the steps with the music but not full out), but not much actually dancing. At first I was inclined to just put my pointe shoes on and start turning and jumping, but then I realized how dangerous that is. The original song is 150 beats per minute (bpm). That comes out to 2.5 beats per second. Fast beat + not warming up = recipe for disaster.

One of the things that I always forget to do, especially when the song is fast, is roll down from en pointe. Every week in class, my ballet teacher with her cute little Hungarian accent can be heard yelling, "Roll down!" (She rolls her r's too and it's the cutest thing ever.)

Rolling up and down from pointe

These little nuances are easy to pick out to a trained dancer’s eye. There’s no way a random person off the street could ever pose as a ballerina and expect to sneak one past trained professionals. Unfortunately, this actually happened in Free People’s recent advertisement.

Watch here how she has completely the wrong technique. She doesn’t have the ankle strength to even get up on her box, and she tries to compensate and save her balance by pushing her hips forward. Again, recipe for disaster.

However, Under Armour did it right. They hired professional dancer and ballet prodigy Misty Copeland to do their ad. She looked amazing and impressed the audience, all while being safe and not breaking her ankles. Watch the video here.

My scanner broke oops

Basically, my main point(e) is DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME. Although professionals make it look easy, it is not and you could get seriously injured. Besides, who would want to buy a $100 pair of shoes just to play around in them?

And now back to the choreography. I’m pretty much done the song (30 seconds left), and my notation makes sense and is readable (at least to me). Stay tuned for a video of it next week!

~Nicole

Resources:

www.theballetblog.com

www.weheartit.com/entry/69593715

New Haul! - Week 2.5

OMIGOD OMIGOD OMIGOD OMIGOD GUESS WHAT CAME IN THE MAIL???

LOOK AT THEM THEY'RE SO PINK AND PRETTY AND NEW

NEW POINTE SHOES!!! :D I don't know if you can tell, but I'm pretty excited. And by pretty excited I mean really excited. Now I can start leaving my old pointe shoes in school and break the new pair in in dance. And I can also use the new pair as performance shoes. Aagghhh this is so perfect!

In the picture I hadn't really touched them yet, so they're still the way they came with one shoe inside the other. These shoes are the same as my previous ones (but newer and shiner and prettier!): Grishko 2007s with a medium shank.

While I'm at it, I might as well get to explaining the anatomy of the pointe shoe. Modern pointe shoes (like the ones I have) were invented by ballerina Anna Pavlova. (Some of you might remember that I did my Inventor Project on her last year.)

Here’s a short list of important words:

shank - supports a dancer’s weight as she’s standing en pointe, varies with ankle strength. Dancers usually start with the softest shank and work their way up from there.

wings - the sides of the box

box - the hard part of the shoe, wraps around the toes

platform - flat part at the end of the box that helps dancers balance

“dead” - when a pointe shoe no longer has the strength to support a dancer’s weight. The shank gets soft and the wings cave in.

I’m currently working on sewing the ribbons and elastics on my pointe shoes. Hopefully by next week I can break them in and put my old shoes away!

~Nicole

Resources:
http://theshoeroom.nrostores.com/media/wysiwyg/anatomy_of_a_pointe_shoe_1.png