Just Like Rebekah

Finally, a real post....

Well, I'm back...did you guess where I was? I was at the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre's Intensive Summer Program. It was a good experience. I stayed with my Aunt Mary and Laura stayed with me too. Aunt Mary took us a lot of cool places (such as the incline up Mt. Washington, her friend's garden, fireworks at the waterfront and a relative's house). 

The intensive at PBT was challenging and I definitely gained new experiences. One of my favorite parts was that I got to set a piece of my own choreography on my peers. I chose to do a peice to music from Pirates of the Caribbean. It was cool to experience being on the other side of a work of art.

One of the things that God has been teaching me this summer is that God has each of us on a different path and we just need to trust Him. He doesn't teach everyone at the same time or the same things.

Hope everyone is having a great summer. Drop me a comment on how it's going. I have a lot to catch up on so keep looking for posts all this week.

-Rebekah

Dancing in the Garden

On our day off, we went to a beautiful day lily garden. And we danced around in it. Here's what we came up with.

 

 

More pics of the actual flowers coming later.

Going Public

You know how God has a way of doing things that totally contradict what your plans? He has a way of nudging you until you can’t ignore it and eventually if you allow Him to push you, you’ll end up where He wants you to be. I thought I had the next few years all planned out. Last summer, my plan was to finish high school, go to Belhaven Collegeand major in dance and minor in creative writing, come home and teach ballet. This year, my plan has changed; God has led me in a new direction.

 

I guess it started when I visited Belhaven last year. I loved the campus and the professors but something just wasn’t right. But I had it in my head that I was going there. That was God’s first nudge.

That summer (2008) I went to Joffrey South. There, I met with Valerieand told her my plan. Her reply was to encourage me not to stop performing. This was the next nudge

 

At the beginning of this year, I started taking open classes twice a week at the Atlanta Ballet. As the year wore on, God made it clear that I should pursue a career in dance. With this decision, I knew that I needed more training in order for this to become a reality. Through a series of events, I was invited to be a part of the pre-professional program at Atlanta Ballet. In January, I started taking there part time and I will be enrolled full time in the fall.

 

Next year, I will graduate from high school/college(yes, God worked out the education too) and then I will try to enter the dance world. My plan went from being very stable to very uncertain but I know that God has everything under control. I am very excited about using my gifts to glorify Him and can't wait to see what He has in store (although I'm a little nervous too).

 

The mind of a man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps ~Proverbs 16:9

 

 

 

 

 

Videos from Telluride!!

I just found these and thought you might like to see them.

Clarification: I was not ready to answer the question 'how many hours a week do you dance?' and I underestimated my answer. I dance about 20 hours a week actually. Also, the performance shots are not me but the girl from 2007.

This really is me

Spring Concert recap

Last week was Spring Concert. We did a condensed and revised version of Swan Lake and called it Swan Princess as well as some Broadway pieces (I was in One and Audition from A Chorus Line). For Swan Lake, I was in the Pas de Trois (I did the last girl's variation) and I was a little swan. Here are some pics from my camera. I'm  hoping to get some better ones soon.

     

     

On another note, I got my driver's license on Thursday! Now, I really should go study for my midterms.

      

Summer Fundraising

 

So, I've decided where to go to this summer (but I can't tell you for safety reasons) and now I have to come up with the money. This year, in addition to selling on CafePress and my Etsy store, I'm trying something new. I've baked cookies and I'm going to place them at local businesses. People can have cookies in exchange for a donation to help my summer intensive fund. We'll see how it goes.

Class pictures

In October and November, Heather Sweet took some pictures at our studio for her photojournalism project. Here are a few that I played with. To see the originals, check out the ballet photo album. I really like "behind the scenes" pictures of the ballet world. Heather got some great shots.

                                                                          

 

Nutcracker recap

 

       

                            

 

 

 

And I did it...

Sorry I missed the post yesterday. The past few days have been crazy. So, I guess you want to know what I've done since I last left you.

Wednesday I had a TV interview in the freezing cold morning (I'm getting a DVD so maybe I can put it on YouTube).Then we had rehearsal and finished the finale and opening sections. I was excited that we got to end in a fish dive and that Alex made me do triple partnered pirouettes (thanks Alex). Then we went out to dinner with Valerie.

On Thursday, Katy came back and we had a later rehearsal where we ran through everything, tweaking and perfecting.

Friday, we had class and rehearsal. We marked through our variations and then headed over to the Theatre. At the theatre, Katy and I visited some classrooms in our tutus. The kids were so amazed at our pointe shoes and wondered how our tutus stood out. Then we had dress rehearsal which went ok. After dress rehearsal we had the first show. It went pretty well.

Saturday, we went into town for a little while, ate at Sweet Life and then returned to the theatre for a run through of the show. Here Valerie told me to be more playful with my variation and to own the stage like it was my kingdom (which it was).

Sunday, we packed up and headed to the theatre for our last show. I worked on being more playful and Valerie said it was better. I actually felt like the first show was better (steps wise) but everyone else thought the second one was. After the show I said bye to Valerie and we followed Alex to his house where we stayed the night.

 

                

Then, we got on the plane this morning to come home. We got to Atlanta around 2:00 and I called Ms. Joanie to see when she needed me to work with James for Snow Queen. She said to stop by the studion on the way home and she would tell me then. Well, I got to the studio and we decided to do it then and there. So I learned the pas part for snow queen which is really fun. And tomorrow we have dress rehearsal.

So, I'm just all Nutcracker all the time right now. I am so grateful to God and Valerie for this opportunity. I have learned so much and gained a great experience. Well, I better go to sleep; I've gotta get some school done in the morning before Laura comes to visit on Wednesday (yay!!). TTYL, Rebekah 

 PS-let me know how your Nutcracker has been going by leaving a comment.  

PPS-you can read the newspaper article that was in the Telluride Daily Planet here.

Check this out

So far, I've been interviewed twice and I have a TV interview tomorrow. Check out this website for an article.

 

Photo from Telluride Inside