^ Thanks for the advice celticfeet. I'm definately going to talk to her in class tomorrow. Your right in that she probably won't take the hint and i'll just end up even more frusterated.

So I've been working on my reel all week and i'm actually really glad I didn't get to show it to my teachers on monday because its improved a lot over the past week and they definately would not have been too happy about how it looked on monday. I also worked my hornpipe a little bit yesterday, and that whole dance needs a lot of cleaning, thank God for weekends with lots of spare time!

Tonight I have ballet, wish me luck with that one. I have been doing some excersices for my posture and arms though, so hopefully it won't be too bad. I'll write about it tomorrow along with how the talk with C goes. Wish me luck with that one, she does not like to be told what to do at all.

Sorry, about the double post, but I feel the need to mention my ballet class now. It actually didn't go bad at all! for our bar excercises, we used the music that we use for ballet/warm up in dance camp over the summer, which brought back so many great memories that it was kind of impossible not to have fun with it.

My teacher didn't comment on my arms once, which i'm going to take as they aren't bad. She did say that I was over turning out my supporting leg during the bar excercises, causing me to role my ankle in and she said that was a great way to prcatice breaking and ankle. I'm actually glad she brought that to my attention because a broken ankle is the lastthing i need right now. I don't have to worry about that in irish because we don't have one supporting leg glued to the floor at all times during an irish excercise.

but long story short, I actually really enjoyed this class and it reminded me that once upon a time long long ago, (aka last year), I really did like ballet a lot. hope this continues.

Today was my first crazy dance saturday since before oireactas! In competition, there was good news and bad news. the good news is that we finally learned a prelim acceptable step that i actually really enjoy, the bad news is that its a slip jig. I'm being dead serious. However, my teacher did pull us all aside to check our progress and where we would be competing for january. I told her that I'd be in prelim and that I needed a reel and hornpipe. Later in the class she promised that next week we would start a new hornpipe lead. I'm definately holding her to that. We also started a treble reel that we will be doing in the ceili in febuary. I'm really excited for it, so far the treble reel is a lot of fun.

every year in our recital my school does a tap number, which we started learning today. Its some sort of cops/robbersish dance if that makes any sense, its super sassy and really hard. I'm not really the best tapper in the world, really the only dance form i'm good at is irish.

In choreography, we worked on the opening ceili show dance, which we finished. We just need to add in some new directions and formations and such, but its a really fun dance. too bad me and a handful of my friends are the only ones in the class who can get it.

We usually start class on monday with a round of reels as part of our warm up, so i'm definatety suggesting oing three steps then. the only reason I didn't do that today was because the oppurtunity never came. We worked for most of the class on the new slip jig and the rest on treble reel and there just wasn't a chance for my teacher to check anyones reel. But yeah, thats all for today!

We never warmed up with a round of reels on monday. as a matter of fact, the most constructive thing my teacher did was give me a change in the slip jig step that i'm replacing with the one i learned on saturday. Then we moved on to doing treble jig. As you can imagine, I was furious coming out of class. I will not sit back and let them review jigs again on saturday, i' m just going to flat out ask if im getting that hornpipe lead i was promised because I connot let this go on any longer, (and I'm sure your all tire of hearing me rant about it).

Anyway, I really haven't had any time at all to practice this week because its been auditions for our school musical. We're doing 42nd street, and most of the dancing is tap. Seeing as I'm one of the few people who has tap experience, I think i might have a shot at getting a dancer, which is all i'm aiming for, i cant sing to save my life, so a speaking part is out. Last year i was in the chorus because i got so nervous during the dance audition that I completly forgot how to do kick kick ball change step hop and down step slide. Yes this is really sad, I know. but i got a callback for dancing this year and with just my luck, right before I was set to go on and dance my callback, I stepped on, (well more like danced onto) a lovely piece of sharp metal that was conviently sitting backstage where any old klutz like me could go an hurt their foot. just so you all know, its a little hard to dance a callback with a bleeding foot. The cast list is posted tomorrow, I'll keep you updated.

Anyway, tomorrow is also ballet and my personally planned very long hornpipe cleaning session. Have I mentioned that I really don't like hornpipe at all? It was the last dance I needed first in to get out of every level so far. funny, because I like jig even less. Ahh, I'm such a softshoe dancer, my hardshoe dances are just evil and out to get me. I think it might be that i just don't like my steps, (because i really don't) but my technique is pretty bad their too.

Softshoe dancer all the way here too! Every comment I get is rhythm & timing! So I can sympathize. Do you like hardshoe? Or do you just hate it because you struggle with it?

Softshoe dancer all the way here too! Every comment I get is rhythm & timing! So I can sympathize. Do you like hardshoe? Or do you just hate it because you struggle with it?

^I think its that i don't like my steps, because for the most part i can dance it fine but I have never had a hornpipe step that I really like and I think there may have been one or two jig steps that I actually really liked, but then my teacher changed them because apparently they were "too hard" even though i got first in jig in the one feis I ever got to dance one of the steps in. I really don't want to be working super hard on steps I'm just not crazy about, (even though I try my best with them anyway, don't want to make it sound like I just slack off on my hardshoe, because I really don't). That and I'm not a fan of all the shuffles and toestands and back clicks and all the move typical of hardshoe dancing. Its just not as fun.

so the cast list for the musical was posted today, and i am a featured dancer, which was really all I was hoping for, and I'm really happy with that because I'm in about 20 different numbers. give or take a few. I know theres 25 in the show and that my group is in most of them.

In ballet tonight we id bar excercsises without the bar, I don't really know why. most of my friends weren't there either, so it wasn't all that great of a class.

I did get to work on my hornpipe a little bit, and it wasn't anywhere near as bad as i excpected. It wasn't perfect, but I am overall happy with how the dance looks. Hopefully I'll actually get to show my teacher. And there is no way I am letting her back out of her promise to teach me that hornpipe lead.

I FINALLY got half of a hornpipe lead. Half is better than none though. Today in competition we finished that slip jig step and before we were going to work more on our treble reel for the ceili, I went up to my teacher and reminded her that she told me I would get a lead. she seemed a little put off that I even asked her, and then said, "Well, we obviously can't do that because we just finished slip jig!" Because finishing a slip jig has anything to do with getting a hornpipe? but in the end we finished working on our treble reel five minutes before class was supposed to end, so she had the student teacher give me half the step while she kept reviewing the treble reel with everyone else. she really didn't seem happy with me at the end of class, but honestly, its not my problem that shes mad that I took the initiative to ask for the steps i need.

We had another tap workshop today, and its official that this dance is impossible. for the musical, we are learning the original broadway tap choreography for the show, and that is like a cakewalk compared to what my teacher expects us to do.

In choreography we learned the formation of the dance, its pretty cool because we change rows, go into columns, and into to lines facing each other. But nothing really new.

So in class tonight, my teachers finally checked reels, and of course I offered to do my three steps. She said they looked good and we started to clean them and fix the direction and she pretty much worked with me one on one like she does with the other champ dancers. She said my lead and third step were good, but for whatever reason, my second step, (which is usually my strongest) was awful tonight. I couldn't manage to hang the jump at the begining even though that peticular jump hasn't been a problem for a while, and my feet were flopping all over the place on my cross keys. We also went over both jigs (again) and not hornpipe . During drama rehersal, one of the other featured dancers, whose also one of the champ dancers from my school, Offered to finish teaching me the hornpipe lead because thats the lead she did at oireachtas and got 44th with it, so she has it down pretty well. And I have this feeling that my teacher is going to completely forget that I even started to learn a new lead on saturday.

And I kow this is a really random question that doesn't apply to me, or any of my friends for that matter, but if you qualify for worlds at oireachtas dancing slip jig and treble jig, would you dance those at worlds or dance your reel and hornpipe? I told you it was random, but this has been bugging me for the past few days.

Hey, I'm one of your diary stalkers!

The worlds syllabus tell you which dances to do at worlds. I won my Oireachtas with reel/hornpipe, but I'm doing jigs at worlds. You can check out the syllabus here: www.clrg.ie . . . and click on All Ireland & World Championships Syllabus 2012. But remember that the first syllabus is the All Irelands, not worlds!

^ thanks ReachForTheMoon! That question has been bugging me for a while, and its good to hear from my stalkers! ddn is the only place where that statement doesn't sound really creepy.

Today I had a three hour drama rehersal and we learned the entire opening number. Remember that entry from about two weeks ago where I said that I wasn't so great at tap? Appearently that only applies when the music is on. I can dance the entire thing no mistakes no problem as long as there is no music. Once the music goes on, no one would be able to tell it was the same dance. Oh well, I'll work it out.

Tonight I really practiced that half of the hornpipe lead. the right foot looks pretty good, the left foot is ok, but there is still lots of room for improvement. That is probably the hardest step I have right now, (which is really sad because it isn't all that hard) and I really want to make it look good for saturday so my teacher will give me the rest of the step before our two week christmas break. There is one section of heels where ihave to pull my heels into first, but I can't do it up to speed without lots of space between my thighs. I also worked on the new slip jig step, and every single time I danced it, the step looked terrible. that was pretty weird, because usually I have that step down pretty well. I think it has something to do with lack of room in my basement because I kept getting stuck in the corner with no space to move around. I hate having limited space, I love travelling!

Ok, so friday night ballet was just sort of balletish, exepct we had a christmas party and "santa" aka one of the dads from my school, came in and gave us candy canes.

In competition we worked on a third step to our treble reel, then cleaned up the slip jig. she said we had the steps down, but they didn't look good technically and that we really needed to practice over vacation. She seemed really happy about how the first half of my hornpipe lead came out and taught me the second half, the ending confuses me so much but I guess I just need to practice it. Also, she said i could start competing in febuary! Im really happy with that because at the rate, i've been getting my material i was worried she would make me wait until april, (she's done this to some of my friends). Apparently that means that after our two week break I will have to master more of a new hornpipe and reel, my third reel step is the one I used in novice and is definatly not prelim acceptable, and I really hate steps two and three of my prizewinner hornpipe, so hopefully i can at least get a new half step instead of just cutting my third step in half. There is a feis the first weekend of febuary that is only about 20 minutes from my house and i usually do really well at it so that will probably be my first prelim. I'm expecting to get dead last. If I do any better that that I will be really happy, if I place at all I will be totally extatic.

We didn't really do anything new in jazz or choreography.

I really don't know how much dance I can fit in this week becasue I have rehersals every day after school and my teachers are trying to cram everything into the week before break, and I have to do two algebra packets, an algebra test, a bio lab, bio packet, and bio test, a spanish project, and an english paper that is worth forty percent of my final grade. So yeah, I'm procrastinating right now, wish me luck with all this work.

Random question? how long do you get for winter break? high school where I live already got out last week? sorry this is so random but that seems like really late to get out of school.

^ I'm soooo jealous of that school. We only get a week for break, and your right, it is really late to get out.

Rehersal was cancelled today! Yay!!! more time to study for my horrible bio test! When will I ever need to know the inputs and outputs of each step of cellular respiration? Oh well. In class today we did reels but my teacher didn't give any feedback to me. I was a little dissappointed by that because I want to make it perfect over break and I can't do that if I don't know whats wrong with it. We also worked on slip jig and treble jig again, and my teacher gave me corrections on my second jig step, I haven't really been practicing it for obvious reasons. Anyway, I have to get back to my lovely biology. I might just die during this test tomorrow, there is just SO much information!

I was a very bad girl and didn't get to practice much this past week. with all the homework, there just wasn't any time. I practiced some on monday, but it didn't go very well because of the week i had taken off.

yesterday I slept over my friends house and we practices all of our dances for about an hour and a half, then watched jig, and spent about 45 minutes stretching and doing sit ups, push ups, planking, etc. It was a lot of fun and a great way to get back in shape. I think my stamina is getting better because I was able to dance all two and a half steps of hornpipe full out, no stopping, no almost passing out, no half dancing half walking through the motions. and it actually looked and felt really good. My friends said they thought it looked really good, and we were all being very brutally honest about each others dances and had been picking the apart to make sure they looked good.

And i'm not sure i've mentioned that I absolutely love the movie jig. Its so inspiring and its just an awesome movie. My two favorites are Brogan and John. They're both so adorable and such amazing dancers.

I finally broke the news to my dad about needing a new solo dress. He said no, we just got one last year. Its definatley too short and its going to take a lot to convince him of that. He does't understand at all, he thinks solo dresses are rip offs and aren't worth half of what we pay for them. He clearly doesn't understand the time and effort that goes into making them, the cost of materials, and how important it is to get a well made dress, even if it is second hand. oh well, hopefully i'll be able to get one by next oireachtas.

I just got done practicing my reel and hornpipe, and it really did not go too well. My turnout was awful, and so was my stamina in hornpipe, but my stamina was pretty good in reel. The bad practice might have somthing to do with the fact that I went to bed a 4:30 last night, which reminds me, happy 2012 everybody! Hope you all survive the apocalypse. But seriously, new year new level new practice schedule. I'm aiming to practice an hour every day, and not just stupidly running through my steps like I've been doing lately, but really practicing.

Bad bad bad practice tonight. To start off with, my left knee randomly started to kill right before fifth period yesterday, and it's gotten to the point where there are times when I have to limp because it hurts too much to walk. I give you full permission to call me an Idiot for practicing on it. Also, while I was practicing, my left shin started to hurt in the place where shin splints happen, I've never had the misfortune of having shin splints and I really hope this isn't. Maybe it's related to my sore knee? Hopefully not.

To top that all off, at the beginning of my practice I landed a jump weird and kept feeling a pop in my arch.

I attempted to really drill my reel lead, and it really looks bad. The timing is fine now, but I'm not sure if I've ever mentioned that I have the worlds tightest hamstrings and can't kick past my waist. Also, according to he physical therapist, my knees don't hyperextend, which is a fancy term for I have a very hard time keeping my legs as straight as possible when their in the air, and when they do happen to be a straight as I can get them, my TC still yells at me because they don't straighted all the way. So basically, my clicks and up jump downs are never very high or straight. No matter how hard I tried to drill this, it wouldn't come.

I'm also having he hardest time hanging my jumps, when I do manage to my front leg is bent and my back leg is either stil dragging on the ground, only pulled up halfway, or pulled up but not back and it parallel to my front leg if that makes any sensense.

I also tried to drill the new slip jig just so my TC wouldn't have another reason to yell at me, and my over ball changes and run runs are a little off time. Also, my side clicks were just really bad. This is probably the last time I will be able to practice before class on Saturday, and my first prelim is only a month away. I really want to do pretty good in this feis, maybe not place but al least come close to it, and based on how I'm dancing now I will probably come in dead last. Ugh.

Hey there..kudos to you on making it to Prelim! Sounds like you need to lay off the drilling and spend some extra time stretching. Does your pt have you doing specific stretches? I'd get ahold of a Thera band, and google hamstring stretches-look on dance.net too..under posts about splits training. Should help even the tightest legs loosen up some. There's got to be some sort of choreography tricks to help accentuate the positive and minimize the negative for you. I think I read once-about knees looking bent when they aren't-something to do with turning out the kicking leg? Maybe you could post on the champ board and someone over there will have some tips. Good luck and try not to be too hard on yourself...you accomplished a lot in a relatively short time.
Good luck in you feis..let us know how you do!

^ Thank you so much for that. My pt has given me stretches and I've been doing hem every single night, I hope your right and they do loosen up. I think I will take your advice about posting on the champs board about bent knees, someone told me that the tendons in my knees will loosen once the muscles surrounding them do, so stretching will hopefully help both issues. Also, I really needed the support at that point, nice to know that my stalkers are there for me!

Anyway, last night in ballet, we actually had a lot of fun. One of the girls who graduated last year came back to he school and taught us a modern combination and some modern/ballet leaps. She's a dance major, so she's been doing a lot of different styles lately.

Today in competition, we finally had a really productive day. We only worked on reel and hornpipe, and I got a new ending to my reel lead. I absolutely love it, the ending is just so me. I also got a hornpipe half step, I like that a lot too, maybe not as much a he new reel, but it's still fun to do. I worked on both of them tonight, the reel is coming along pretty nicely, I had to drill the spins for a while though, I seriously think this ending was my teachers way of trying to fit as many spins as possible into the last few bars. I also drilled the new hornpipe step, there were some sections where my timing was way off, but I have most of them worked out now. There are still a few little spots that need work, like my very turned in running shuffles in he beginning of the step. I am so terrible at running shuffles, garden isn't the only dance where I have bad turnout.

During class, when my teacher was checking our reels, she said that I was so much higher on my toes and that she could see how hard I was working and that the dance looked really good. I was so happy with that because as stated in the last entry, I have been having some problems with he dance.

In choreography, we got the costumes we will be wearing for the ceili, which are black leotards, skirts, and tights with purple saches and cuffs. It's actually pretty cool. We cleaned up he ceili dance more, and started our recital dance. It's a really slow treble reel, and I am absolutely in love with he dance so far. It's so much fun to do and the music is really pretty. Anyway, I have to go stretch now!

^^ And hey Mrs. Crook I totally just realized that was you! Thanks so much for the advice, and good luck to Rachel this year, hope to see you guys at a feis soon

So today in class we mostly worked on hornpipe,and its safe to say that my hornpipe is awful. i didnt have the timing down on the lead, i was on the wrong foot just about the entire left foot of the lead, i couldn't seem to remember the ending to my second step, and what little turnout i did have died by the third step. Needless to say, my teachers were not thrilled with me tonight. i am going to be insanely busy these next few weeks with midterms coming up, drama rehersals just about every day, and i am determined to work on my hornpipe a bit each day for the next few weeks. My first prelim is only, like, two weeks away! Right now i think there are only about eight people in the competion, and my goal is to get seventh. The way my hornpipe looks right now, i'll be lucky if im not disqualified for terrible dancing.

Last night me and a group of my dance friends all went out to dinner before ballet at a restaurant right down the street from the studio, and it was a lot of fun. I usually don't get to hang out with them outside of dance, so this was a nice change of scenery.

Every year in our recital, our school puts on a high ballet with all of he ballet classes. This year he ballet will be the wizard of oz. our part is the cyclone, and it's a pretty hard dance done to insanely fast music.

All classes were cancelled today due to a snowstorm that was pretty whimsy compared to what we got last year ( 7 snow days in one month with a good three to four feet of snow). I was pretty mad about that considering our treble reel in competition needs insane amounts of work done before the ceili and my reel and hornpipe need to be checked desperately.

I worked on my hornpipe more today, and have made zero progress. I haven't even been able to get past the lead. My left foot is off time and super turned in, I can turn out on the right foot but not the left for whatever reason, my timing is off on one section too. I drilled it so much tonight, and nada, nothing, zipo. Still looks terrible. And have I mentioned that my first prelim is only two weeks away as of tomorrow?!?!?! I'm really nervous and I know that I won't do well. My goal for this year is to qualify to compete solos at oireachtas, and my school requires three placements in the top 25% of a prelim competition to qualify. It's going to be really hard, and it looks impossible now, but then again, this time last year, getting to prelim seemed impossible too. Nothing is impossible. I just need to remember it.

Also, midterms start this week! I have so much studying to do! And I'm required to be at rehearsal every single day this week for drama, which I really don't have time for. Ughhhh I'm going to be lucky if I survive his week.

so its sort of been a little while. I guess i'll just start with saturday. in competition we only worked on the treble reel we are doing in the ceili. Its a lot of fun, my teachers are genius when it comes to show choreography, there are a lot of formation changes and it looks really cool.

In jazz we found out that we are doing a Michael Jackson medley for our recital dance. So far its really hard, and im not very good at jazz to begin with.

Then we had a big ceili rehersal with all of the classes dancing in the opening ceili number. Its just a tiddly bit of a trainwreck right now. it should be fine in time for the ceili though, i believe we have two or three more rehersals.

Today in class we mainly worked reel. there's one section in my third step that i'm not doing right, and my lead needed some big clean up. we also did some hornpipe, and i keep messing up the end of my second step. i've had this step for over a year and i keep disregarding it because I've had it for so long. I obviously need to start giving it a lot more attention. Also, running shuffles are going to be the death of me one day. I can either get them semi-turned out but not cross over at all or very crossed over but zero turnout. on the bright side, my lead has improved .

And i really need to get these corrections in because my first prelim is on sunday!!!! right now there are sixteen people in the competition, which seems like a good number, not too big but not too small. I'm a little nervous because I don't really know what to expect from my competition. In prizewinner, I had been competing against mostly the same people since novice and could have an idea of what each dancer would bring to the stage. I'm so lost with prelim, but its only my first feis, so i can't realy expect to do too great, its just going to be for fun.

today was the end of the semester so I had the day off from school so our teachers could finalize our grades. I went to my friend's house to practice, and worked a lot more on reel and hornpipe. they are getting better, and for the first time ever i think my hornpipe might actually look better than my reel. the only problem is that i can barely get through it! i am dragging myself through the last half step, even though it looks almost perfect when i do it by itself. I also need to work on my turnout a lot in my reel lead, but the rest of the dance looks good. Ahhhhhh i can't wait until sunday!

Good luck!!!! We will be looking for you!