A fantastic weekend and furthermore.. of true spring

I'm going to begin with a new thing for my blog. For each post, I will introduce with what music I am listening to, while I am writing the blog. It sets the mood, and if you are interested, you can explore in new composers. That's at least a mission for me every week, so in a way it's also a way for me to keep track of my work :)

- Music: Jason Robert Brown, pandora radio

Friday:

We got some of the last group photos of this year with all the teachers for the students who are leaving for good this year. In our class we only have one student who is going back to her home country, every one else is doing the second year. However, we are finishing many of our subjects this semester, and can't guarantee having the same teachers next year.

Tap, ballet and audition technique class!

Looking them through, it makes me realize how amazing our group and faculty is. What an amazing home and inspiring work place this all at the same time.

Have a look for yourself. <3

Our best time was when we decided to dress up in a black t'shirt, jeans, a hat, sneakers and a coffee in hand for our Meisner class, because our teacher dresses like this EVERY single day. IT was like a sweet joke, and he was so touched by it. It was perfect.

By the end of Meisner we had a circle of trust where we could pull someone from the class to the center of the circle and give any words of love or say things that were needed to be said for that friendship, in front of everyone. It was healing, sad and emotional. Wait.. this is Meisner, ofcourse.. so no surprise.. but yes, well - extra emotional.

This year has been a whirlwind and realizing and being able to express how much the people who have been through the same thing as you is very touching!

- Music: Mancini, Pandora radio

In performance lab I sang 'Moon river', Mancini's composition known from the movie 'Breakfast at Tiffany's'.. which I haven't seen yet :/, but must!

Once again my teacher told me that I grown so much since I came here. A very positive compliment. :)

This song is amazing. Very emotional, as I imagined singing it to my grandma, as she tucked my hand before dying, saying she was scared; the song was my lullaby to her, reassuring of love, calming her down and speaking of the place where we shall meet again, some time... that's the moon river.

Ever since I created this story I have been tearing up whenever I heard the song on the pandora radio I heard biking to or from school, even though it's just a simple metaphoric, beautiful song. Studying art, you learn that nothing is simple and 'matter-of-factly' though ;)

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Final exam in comedy class went awesome. It was so much fun. I didn't think I was that funny, but my teachers and fellow students cracked up by my ideas.

In one song, Tomorrow - from Annie, I was a blind person singing about getting her sight back.. in the scene she rubs her eyes madly, bumps into the wall, and rolls around the floor to find the sunglasses she dropped. Lol... I think it looked funny, it was just a rough idea I had.

In the other song I am a young girl singing to her friend about the fact that she's pregnant. The comedy in it is that she had no idea how to make babies, and she wasn't warned at all by anyone. In the song she gets more and more freaked out, yet is thrilled on the theory - the bit of it that was explained to her!

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My sunset from window

Friday night I spent all evening researching ballerina diets... or rather what dancers should eat. It's not like I'm looking for a 'diet' that only goes on green tea or avocado. I don't want anything freakish like that. I learnt a lot from watching interviews by ballets dancers on youtube.

I now have a picture of the ideal food you should have every day, how to eat, and what things best to avoid.

Going for a cup of boiling water for my herbal tea!

So now what I'm really focusing on is having none of the bad fats and no sugar, less bread and always eating in portions of protein-fat-carbs to gain the level of energy I need.

The magic combination

I bike every day 1 hour, take the stairs every where, swim at least once a week and have several dance classes a week, while working out in the morning and evening, when I can.

For the summer I really do hope I can take the dance intensive course. I think I could push it to a discount or scholarship, since I have worked so hard in that subject - all my dance teachers would be able to prove that for me.

Saturday:

- Music: Julie True, pandora radio (Christian artists)

I'm pretty much craving for chocolate - As I am quite often. I think I have a thing for chocolate. I feel like it's my weak point. Like someone could get me to do anything or even seduce me with chocolate. At least that would be my character in a film plot.... !

An amazing summer's day! It was 72 degress.. meaning in the 20's .

- Music: Blessings by Merci River (one of my favorite songs)

.. but don't worry this is me typing in the events of Saturday on a Monday evening.. I didn't crave for chocolate on a Saturday morning. Or at least if I really did, I wouldn't give in to it, like I did now. But it's 85 %.. so not much harm done ;)

Anyways. Saturday afternoon I went to the January students' showcase - meaning the class that began the semester after me. This class is only the size of about 15 in total, just because most people prefer starting straight after their high school or uni after summer break.

It was incredible to see, and very weird and amazing at the same time feeling old because that was me exactly 4 months ago. What I have already grown and learnt from since then is fascinating. And yet.. we're all still babies! ;)

The babies!

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After the showcase I biked to Central Park with a sandwich in my bag for dinner. I hadn't been to Central Park for months even.. and not at all since the green started coming out for this year. I have so wanted to go for so long, and oh was it worth it. I have some pictures to describe the touch of heaven I saw that day, but no words can even describe how beautiful it was to finally see spring with all its colors and smells .. to jump around in the nature and be embraced by God's wonders .. witnessing some of the first flowers of the trees blooming, touching some of the first grass of this year, seeing birds create nests for their babies soon to be born.

My favorite place - and one I will not forget in a very very very long time - was a hill with a tree that stood on a pink carpet, which was the flower petals that had fallen from the tree, lightly kissing the ground. This is where I had my lunch.

This is the kind of wonder place I will be able to refer in performing, when I need to paint the picture for the audience, and for myself remember when I was last really happy.

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After Central Park I met Susan for the ballet. A night of Balanchine!

"Everything is beautiful at the ballet, raise your arms and someone's always there, yes everyone is beautiful at the ballet I was happy at the ballet." - From 'At the ballet', Maggie's solo in 'A Chorus line'. - The first song I worked with at NYFA.

.. And yes, indeed, everything was certainly beautiful at the ballet. It was magical having $40 tickets on the 5th row!.. and then I got to see some of my new idols in the ballet world. Amazing young women of 29 who are soloist. It's really not a lot of years from me, so there's a lot to look up to.

Ashley Bouder has such an amazing charm and maturity to her, her spirit and body and eyes are enchanting and invites us in to so much story. She is a deep character without doubt, and looks fragile but at the same time such a fighter.
She danced Swan lake last season. She is my new favorite.
She joined the company when she was 18. Almost my age.. Well that's at least what I thought I could say when I was 19... I forgot I was 20!..! 

One of the ballets the night was The Steadfast tin soldier - as known by Hans Christian Andersen. IT was phenominal. One thing I loved about it was that the choreography was so excellent. It drew you into the story entirely. The ballerina onstage played the paper doll - meaning a doll cut out of paper. .. Like HC Andersen used to make decorations like that... anyways, it was incredible because she dance like she was a rectangular object. In the choreography you could see she was a piece of paper.

Her feet didn't have extended lines, they were flexed most of the time. And she moved almost only in one diagonal, which meant that we saw here more, she moved only in vertical lines, and she couldn't do anything that was too rounded and beautifully lifted like a prima ballerina. However, her performance was excellent.

Swan lake is out in about a month, I think I am going to die!!..... I am so excited.

Literally I have dozed off probably about 5 times during my writing. I don't even know what I'm writing anymore, so I am going permanently to sleep now.

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Sunday:

I woke up in the Wittenberg house the next morning. I mean, not as a surprise  or anything... I went back with Susan in car last night. And I could sleep for many good hours for the first time in a long time.

Wittenberg house. I know difficult to recognize with the bright grass right?

Good breakfast of all the nutrients I need.

Is that it, mom?

Sunday at church was a beautiful morning!
After church I skyped with my mom to wish her a happy mother's day, and then I skyped with my granddad too. It was very joyful and beautiful to see him.. I hadn't seen him since the summer, and definitely not since my grandma died... so it was very special.
He laughed at me and said I had become very American, commenting on my red lip stick... just a thing I've begun. It's like my new trend, or look whatever you want to call it. I'll see if it suits me well after a while. It's a good change, I think.

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I went straight back to Manhattan street church and walked around the city with a friend. I walked from 30th and all the way up to my bike on 63rd, then back to 13th with a restaurant and movie theatre stop on the way. If I got tanned it was all on my right for sitting at an out door table for 2 hours. It was absolutely incredible and I felt like I was walking around the streets of Portugal at some point, just because we had reached a pay of the city that looks very much like it. It was like being on summer holiday for a day!

We saw the movie ' Heaven is for real ' at union square. . And it was such a fantastic story. I remember my dad recommending the book - and stupidly enough never finding the time to read it. It was based on a true story. . About a 4- year old boy who has a near death experience and visits heaven. He is able to tell his parents things they can't explain why he knew. . Including a baby sister his parents lost at child birth.
It was very special, and I don't think I've ever finished a trip to the movies by folding my hands in prayer.
I can't wait to join you in heaven I told Jesus.

Cafe trip, as close to open air and the night life as can be!

Monday:

The tulips are all washed away and completely dead by now. I was quite sad to see it. It was like a touch of heaven that was destroyed in a split second. But I know I am endlessly grateful for having seen the beauty of all the tulips in full bloom - tall and bright in their amazing red color. It has made my day more beautiful passing them on my way to school, just before turning around the corner to a very stressful street.

In our lunch break from showcase rehearsal I went with my friend Stephania to the park across the street to lunch and take a nap on the grass in the open air. Nothing has been so wonderful in quite a while, I must admit. I feel asleep and had a wonderful day dream, - enough romance to get me by for the rest of the day!

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Getting home around 8 that night, I took a small trip to my grandma's bench. I hadn't been in a long time, and I needed to have a breather.. for some reason, even though my window was wide open all day. I still had a rose from my 'Spring Awakening' performance that didn't look dead like the other two.. and so I decided to take it to my grandma's bench and put it there like you'd do on a grave.

It was very peaceful and calming to sit by the river, except for the couple next to me exchanging positions on each others lap and what else..!

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Tuesday:

I wanna go swimming! - Just an instinct... it won't fit in my schedule for the day though.. :(

I feel like today is a bagel day. And then I'll skip lunch. And then eat something like a sandwich on my way to the theatre. I got tickets for ' After midnight ', on jazz music. Special for this month Vanessa Williams is in the cast, one of my favorite actresses from desperate housewives. Yay, I'm very excited.

Bagel....

I'm not meeting at school till 2 pm, because my solo is towards the end of our showcase. Yay, good time to sleep and so forth.
Today is an easy and calm day, I just need to relax and prep for the show.

Last night I started watching Grey's anatomy, but found it too boring for the time.
Now I'm sitting outside on the street enjoying my eggs and ham bagel, listening to Jack Johnson on my smartphone.

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Seriously, the performers in 'After midnight' were ridiculously good. AMAZINGLY good. All the dancers were mind blowing. There was a lot of tap in the show, and it was like watching one of the old musicals, like 'Singing in the rain', on dvd... back in the day when the dancers were heaven and everyone could move fantastically - for some mysterious reason .. well yes, this was the entire cast of 'After midnight'. On of the ladies especially caught my eye. She was incredible. In the playbill I read that she was Michael Jackson's tap coach back in the day. Crazy crazy...! No wonder she was mind blowing.

To be continued soon. X