Spring festival

SO the annual Folk Dance Spring Festival of Nations was last night. My team did a Lithuanian Polka piece. Basically Lithuanian dance is all about formation. For the most part we just skip but the formation is changing constantly. If anyone gets off it basically train wrecks the whole piece. Wed. in class we did it perfectly we got the formations correct. Wed night however was a different story......We started the dance super close together. This caused a few collisions, nothing serious just enough to startled the people involved. But in the third formation two of the girls braids got caught together. This was the first time we had danced in the costumes, and the first time we had even tried on the head pieces. The costumes included two very long braids and a headband thing that tied over the top. So two of the girls braids got stuck and they couldn't manage to get them apart until right at the end of the dance. Amid this problem we all kept dancing, some of the boys forgot to come inside the girls circle which they finally fixed by just cutting through the girls. This made everyone late for the next formation. One of the guys almost lost his pants (I heard rumor he actually went off stage, but I didn't see that). By the end of the dance we were all laughing really hard because we knew that our dance was a train wreck by this point but we all kept going. When we finally got off stage everyone burst out laughing and just kept saying, "Wow! that was horrible!; Can you say Train Wreck!" Nonetheless it was fun and Spring Festival is such a chill performance anyway it wasn't a big deal. Today everyone just kept laughing anytime anyone would ask what team any of us were on because we weren't sure if we wanted them to know.

Rocky Mountain Express here I come!!!

So my clogging teacher at BYU, Greg, owns a clogging studio in Orem and it is one of the best in the nation. His team wins the national title quite often (you can't win if you won the year before). The other day I asked him if he had any openings in any adult classes and he said I could probably come on his premier team in June or September because that is the end of the season. I was really excited because I want to experience dancing in a studio before I try to teach on my own. Today I came to the class I TA for him and he asked me what my Wed nights are like. I told him I occasionally have folk dance stuff but other than that they are free. He said he was talking to his team on Wed night and they just started learning a new piece. He had mentioned that he had someone who wanted to start in September and then realizing they currently have an odd number on the team he asked them if he should just see if I would start now. They said yes and so today in class he asked if I would start next week. So next Wed I am officially a member of Premier (I think that is the name) with The Rocky Mountain Express clogging studio. It will be a jump from my current skill level but Greg says I will be just fine.
The dance they are learning is to "Celebrate" and is 80s themed. The costumes are 80s warm up attire. So I will now be competing at Nationals in May (I think) AHHHHHHH!!! I can't decide if I am more nervous or excited.

Update on Stockton

So I went and talked to Ed (the folk dance director and the director of my team this semester) to see if there was any funding I could get to help me go to the Stockton camp. He said he could probably round up enough to pay the rest of the room and board so I may only have to pay for transportation. :) I am so excited I can't even wait. When I get back he wants me to teach any dances I feel students will enjoy to the Folk Dance club at a rec night in the fall.

Great News

So I applied to go to a folk dance camp this summer. It is one of the best ones in the US. It is held in Stockton, CA. There was a waiting list so I wasn't sure if I would make it in. I also applied for a scholarship from them because it is too expensive for me to go. The lady over the scholarships said she would try to get me in without being put on the waiting list. She somehow fan-angled it so that there was a spot for me and she is giving me whole tuition $465. I just have to pay for the living expenses which are still a little much but both Lin and I think it will be a priceless experience with the networking it creates as well as building my repertoire. I am so excited!!!

New Car!!!!

So we bought a new (used) car. It is so nice and fun to drive. It is a 2006 Nissan Sentra and it only has 28k miles. That is about all the news I have

Life. . . . .

So it has been a while since I updated my blog. School is taking up a lot of my time now so I don't think about updating anything. I am still enjoying school, I love all of my classes. I got to teach in my clogging class (the one I TA for) because my teacher was out of town at a clogging competition. It was so much fun and I actually filled the whole class period, which usually when the TA teaches you get out early; whoops! It was fun though and I felt like I could actually start teaching now; that boosted my confidence, or my self efficacy as I have been learning in my Behavior Change class. :) I really want to find somewhere so I can start teaching.
My other classes are fun and interesting as well. Some of my public health classes seem like common sense, but I can see why they are important in order to understand why someone does something and how to help them change.

Update on school

So the first week of the semester flew by. It feels like it shouldn't already be Friday, but yet I have been so busy that I don't know where the days went. I am loving my Public Health classes. I wish I had found this major earlier. In most of my classes we are learning about why people choose to do things that they know are bad for them and how we can change their views depending on their reasons. I am especially interested in showing people that just by doing small things they can eat healthier and feel healthier. For some reason there is a misconception that healthy food is expensive but I want to show people that you can make a healthy meal, that is more filling, and tastes better for cheaper or equal price to a fast food meal.
Anyway the semester is going well. I am also a TA for Intermediate clogging, which is a lot of fun.

Learning from a master

So I have had one of the neatest experiences ever! This week I got to learn at the feet of Mihalyi Gabor (Misi). He is the director for the premier Hungarian State Folk Dance Ensemble. That is the top professional performing group in Hungary, and he is the most well known choreographer there. He has been teaching my Hungarian Dance class, which has been so much fun. He doesn't speak very much English so his partner (a dancer from the company) translates. He has such an enthusiasm for dance and even though we don't speak the same language you can feel his love for it. This morning he also taught my World Dance Choreography class. He talked about how he choreographs and why he does what he does. He also showed us some videos of his performances.It is amazing! It would have been amazing just to meet him, but to have him teach has been even better. We took a picture with him in my Hungarian class; if I can track it down I will post it.

New Semester

So the new semester starts up tomorrow. I am a little excited just because it will put a schedule back in my life, although I have enjoyed having days where there was nothing pressing to get done. I am excited to start school again. All of my dance classes are on MWF and my Public Health classes are T Th so that is nice. I can wear normal clothes and do my where my hair down for a few days of the week instead of a ponytail everyday. Hopefully I enjoy Public Health because I don't know what else I will do.