Think Happy...25/52...

Hello! Oh how much I've missed you guys this week! But I'm back now, my performances are all over (as much as I refuse to believe it!) and I'm now only rehearsing for two performances!

How's your week been whilst I've been gone? Feel free to leave a link to your blog, I'd be more than happy to read it!

Cats The Musical! This is definitely the single most exciting thing that has happened to me in a long time, and I'm so empty and lost now that it's over. I will try to write up a post about my experience with it over this next week, but for now I'll leave you with this wonderful picture that was put on Facebook.

Myself as Victoria, with Old Deuteronomy (Freddie), The Rum Tum Tugger (James) and Munkustrap (Shane) in the background. I really love this photograph!

Oh, and my mum bought me the most beautiful flowers as a congratulations!

One last thing, and this is a super sneaky thing! It's my friend's birthday in a couple of days and the best present I could possibly get him is more subscribers on his Youtube channel. Please click here and subscribe to him? He would be overjoyed if he had as many subscribers as possible, so please share it around!

I'm sorry I can't stay for longer this week, but yet again time is my enemy and I must go, so I'll talk again soon. Until then!

Liebster Blog Award!...

Hello!! I've been nominated for the Liebster Blog awards by Karine! It's basically an award to help each other gain recognition in the blogging world (not a proper definition, but oh well! Look it up yourself if you'd like!)

Now first we have some rules, not too many though, so don't worry about that!

1. You must link back to the person who nominated you!
2. You must answer the 11 questions given by the person who nominated you.
3. You must post 11 random facts about yourself.
4. You have to pick 11 nominees withunder 200 followers to answer the questions you set.
5. You can't nominate the person who nominated you.
6. You must tell the nominees that they have been nominated by you.

Now, the questions I got from Karine are:

1. What inspired you to start blogging?

The other blogs I read, especially ones such as Attic24 and joli house!


2. What is one thing you learnt from your blogging experience?

I've learnt to see life as more beautiful, that I should capture and cherish every moment!


3. Who do you look up to?

I look up to my friend Catty. She's an amazing woman, working numerous jobs, looking after her young son and also putting in so much time for our Cats rehearsals, and for choreographing the whole musical for us!

4. Celebrity crush?

Hmmmm, where do I start?! I love Andy Biersack, Mikey Way, Jared Leto, among many!


5. If you had to delete your blog for $100 (£100 for me!), would you do it?

No way!


6. What do you want to achieve with your blog?

 I want to let others see the magic of ballet!


7. Where do you see your blog in 5 years time?

I hope I'll have many more followers, and my blog would be dedicated to my life as a professional ballerina!


8. Decribe yourself in 3 words.

Graceful, chatty, dancer!


9. If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go first?

America!


10. Phone or laptop?

Phone :) I spend so much time texting!


11. What is the most important thing in life to you?

Love. I may never have been in love, but I know that I do love myself and my friends!

11 Facts About Me!

1. I speak German and English.
2. My best friends are: Greg, Hannah and Nikita!
3. I am friends with a number of celebrities on Facebook :o
4. I have been dancing (at the same school!) for over 10 years!
5. I'm going to be 17 in less than 18 months.
6. I'm now addicted to a game called Ace of Spades.
7. I procrastinate way too much for my own good.
8. I'm more or less an A* student.
9. The town I live in is famous!
10.My life's goal is to be a ballerina!
11. I'm taking German, Geography and Textiles for my GCSEs.

My nominees are:

1. Kristen
2. Chrissann
3. Victoria
4. Nikki
5. Knit Two, Pointe Two, Bake Two Together (don't know name, sorry!)
6. Kirsten
7. Jean
8. Remedial Ballerina
9. Steve
10. Andrea
11. Juliette

And my questions to you guys are:

1. Which blogs inspired you to start your own blog? Why?
2. Favourite quote?
3. What do you like to read about on other blogs?
4. Where do you want to be in 5 years time?
5. What is your dream job?
6. How are you feeling?
7. What is your favourite thing about blogging?
8. Who is your idol?
9. What is your favourite thing to do?
10. Do you have any regrets?
11. What makes you  smile every day?


So there you are, that's my Liebster post! I really hope you enjoyed it, and thank you all for your support and follows. If you're not already following me on Bloglovin, there's a link in the sidebar. I can't wait to read your blogs and follow you all back! Until next time ♥

Think Happy...24/52...

So I don't have the time to write a full post tonight, but I would like to say that this week has been so good, and I hope yours has been too!


1. I was playing with butterflies...

2. Spring is finally here!

3. It was a year since My Chemical Romance ended their career. This is not a good thing, but I'm pleases with how I dealt with yesterday. True, I didn't have time to even stop and think, but it was still pretty well.


4. Dance classes have gone so well, and we were getting all of our costumes for our big show!


5. Cats rehearsals have been amazing; it's 4 days until the show! And we were in the newspaper (and online version) and on the radio, it's so exciting!


So I hope your week has been as good as mine, I'll see you again next Sunday, for sure!

Update...

I'm just dropping by to say hi today, I'm going to be dancing for 10 hours today, 5 tomorrow, and after school every day during the week! I'll try to get a Think Happy post out tomorrow morning, but I'm not promising anything.

I have my performances on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, wish me luck! Have a good week in case I don't post in between!

Tunesday...

Okay, so here I am with another song I'm sure you'll love! Remember Katy Jackson's cover of Bitter Sweet Symphony? Well this week's song is 'Gone' by her band The Hype Theory.

I would like to say, first of all, that a couple of months ago, I didn't listen to their music. I mean, I'd liked their Facebook page as a reminder to myself that I needed to check out their music but never got round to playing any of their songs. Then a while ago, they posted a link to this song and it popped up in my news feed, so I took the opportunity to listen to some of their work.

And that was the moment I fell in love. I can say, without a doubt, that this is now my favourite song. As I listened to it the first time, I literally felt my heart melt and my heart skipped a beat. This is the most beautiful song I've ever heard, and if you're reading this Katy, thank you so much, from the bottom of my heart. Thank you guys all for being such an inspiration, and creating such amazing work. Don't ever stop.

Think Happy...23/52...

First things first, yet more apologies for this post being late, and last week's Tunesday post non-existent. My Cats show is coming up and I've had an unbelievable amount of rehearsals and exams. But anyway, shall we start?

1. Noticing all of the blossom growing on the trees! The weather, especially yesterday (Sunday) was just perfect; it's really starting to feel like spring now!


2. Hannah started her very own blog! Read it here, trust me, she's amazing!


3. Dance rehearsals have gone well, 5 weeks until I dance in London!


4. Cats rehearsals yesterday went so unbelievably well! I got my (unfinished) costume, we recorded for the radio and took photos for the newspaper!

Some funny instances: I almost fell off a wall in the cemetery (outside where we rehearse) so Shane caught me; everyone's reactions to the costumes; dancing around and posing for photos; singing for the radio and only hearing one or two people in the recording! Aha it was so much fun! Then I had to rush off to another two-hour dance class, after already dancing for four hours!


I hope everyone's week was amazing! Just a note: if I don't post my regular posts for the next 12 or so days, you'll know that I'm at rehearsals! Wish me luck!

Think Happy...22/52...

Hello my lovelies, how's your week been? Mine's actually gone okay, apart from a couple of minor things. I'm really enjoying writing these posts, it gives me something positive to look to!


1. Spring is finally here! I don't mean to jinx the weather or anything, but the past couple of days have been super hot and sunny (for spring , anyway) and all of the flowers have been out.

2. My dance classes have been good on the whole this week, apart from a stressed out class at the start of the week. But it's all coming together now, and Cats is in less than three weeks now! Eeeek!


3. My mum bought her ticket for our London performance, it's going to come in the post soon!


I think that's the highlights from this week done actually, but how was your week? Bye for now ♥

Ballet Basics: The Positions of the Feet...

Seeing as I didn't have any requests for ballet steps, I decided to make a simple tutorial of the feet positions for you.

Let's get started!

First position. This is the most basic foot position, excluding parallel, and it is the first thing you learn. Ensure that your heels are together and your feet are turned out as far as you can, making sure that your knees are pulled up.

This is second position. Once again, turn your feet out and pull your knees up. Don't let your feet be too far apart, but also don't keep them too close together that people mistake them as a really awful first position ;)

Now, this is third position. I think you should take it as certain that you need to turn out and pull up now, so I'm not going to repeat myself again, you'll just thinking I'm nagging you! Just remember!

This is fourth open. Before you nag me, let me just say that, yes, I do know that this isn't the correct position, this is. My model and I were being hurried along before the next class got into the studio, so I wasn't thinking straight. Basically, your heels should be in line with each other.

Fourth closed. I remember that this is closed because you're squeezing your thighs together and therefore closed. The heel of your front foot should be in line with the toe of your back foot.

Finally, this is fifth position. It seems so natural to me now, but you must remember to turn out that back foot too!

Now, would you like to see my model? Alright, meet Hannah :)

Alright, so that marks the end of today's post, I hope you enjoyed it! Would you like to see any particular guides next week? I'm running out of ideas and we've barely even started! Aha, bye for now ♥

Tunesday...

Wow, school. I love how I only ever have time for revision nowadays! But anyway, this song is so catchy, and Hannah and I have plans for it! Watch this space!

Think Happy...21/52...

Hello! How's everyone's week been? Mine has been pretty tiring!


1. The flowers are coming out and our chicken is so pretty!

2. Dancing this week has been hard work, which was pretty fun. We had to rehearse our Jabawockeez with our masks on, and did a lot of hard work in all of our other classes.


3. Isabella drew me the cutest picture ever!

 

4. School hasn't been too bad either. I'm friends with a pair of twins, and one of them has had to have another operation during the school holidays, so she wasn't in school last week and won't be for a couple more weeks to come. I hope you get better soon Megan!


5. Cats today was really fun! We were only rehearsing for three hours today, but it felt like half an hour. We set the walk down (our bows and curtseys) and ran through the whole of act two. This time in 28 day it will all be over!


6. Last weekend I bought a game on Steam called Ace of Spades, and I love it so much! It's kind of hard to play without a proper mouse (I don't have one for my laptop), but I did pretty well, although Hannah is an expert.

I can't think of anything else specific that happened, but it's just felt so good! I hope you have a good week!

Ballet Basics: Developpé...

While I was in the studio today, I was able to take the necessary photos for this post! Alongside my glamorous assistant, I came up with this.

Hannah

Let's get started.

Start at the barre, with your feet in first position.

Peel your foot (furthest from the barre) off the floor and up your leg.

Continue to peel your foot up the supporting leg, ending at the retiré position just in front of your knee. Remember to turn out the working leg, keep your hips square and your supporting foot turned out. And relax those hands!

Start to unfold your leg. Your should try to keep your thigh still and extend from the knee, but make sure to get your retiré as high as you can to achieve maximum height.

Your developpé should look something like this. Ideally, your arm would be in second, although it's been a while since Hannah and I have practised barre work.

This can also be seen in my developpé.

Starting in first position with free arm in bras bas. Remember to turn out and keep shoulders and arms relaxed.

Start to peel foot up the side of your supporting leg, turning out from your hips, keeping them nice and square.

You should be in retiré.

Before you start unfolding your calf, you must get your thigh as high as you can. I can't find a better way to phrase it, but your thigh should be as high as your hip allows before unfolding. This works best if you're stretched so your hamstrings are 'longer' and more relaxed so it can go higher.

Extend outwards. Try not to lean towards the barre as much as I am; use your core and hips to pull up straight.

Now for some tips.

You need to practise these a lot to get better! I practise my developpés every day just around the house, and I have noticed a difference.

Hip flexors. You need them to be fairly loose to work with, and also you must build up their strength. You're going to have to hold your leg up pretty high so you need muscle for that!

Stretch! This may seem obvious, but you must properly stretch your leg muscles (especially hamstrings) before trying these, as it helps drastically.

Links!

I found this amazing page of tips and videos to help you!

This is a great resource for developpé devant, and it's one of my favourite dance instructors!

I hope you all enjoyed this tutorial! I feel obliged to say that these tips are only from my experience, so please feel free to add any tips of your own that may help!

Also, if there's any techniques, steps or tips you'd like help with, just drop a comment down below, and I'll try to come up with a tutorial for you. Thanks for reading, please share with anyone you feel this would help.