Final Bows

Hi there!!

Today is the day, the last post of this blog. It's kinda sad how fast this year has gone isn't it? Today I'm going to review my blogging journey and then talk about the future of this blog.

When I started this blog I was a year younger and unsure about whether or not this blog would work. I thought no one would ever read it, and that I wouldn't like it. I was also a lot further away from where I was today dance wise, and I didn't know what I wanted to do with dance.

Me and Claire at a dance competition
Photo Courtesy of: My mom

Throughout the blogging journey I've learned that I LOVE blogging! Yes, sometimes it was a pain to get three posts done by the end, but I really did love every second that I got to share through writing. I love having a voice and I enjoy when people check my blog to see what I have written and care about what's going on with me. I've never been stumped about what to write about because this blog gave me the freedom to write about what ever I want (which always involves dance). Thank you all for reading my blog and voting on my polls, you inspire me to keep blogging.

I've also come a long way through dance in this blogging journey. I got my first 'solo' part in the Nutcracker, I've been in a Disney Parade, and I've become a part of Ballet West. But I've also realized where I want to go with my dancing career which is to the big stage. Is it a crazy dream to be a prima ballerina with the New York City Ballet? Absolutely. But is that going to stop me from trying? NOPE. I have the passion to do what ever it takes to get to where I want to go.

I've also grown a lot in my faith. For those of you who don't know, I'm a Christian and love God with my life. This year I have taken my faith as my own and decided to live for Christ every single second of every day. This is also another reason why I want to join NYCB. I want to spread the gospel that Jesus has died and rose for everyone, especially in the dance world.

My feet at the beach
Photo Courtesy of: Me

Well, this blog has shaped me and make me realize where I am today. Today I am a 15 year old girl who has a passion for Christ and wants to dance forever.

Finally that leaves me with where this blog is going next. So will I keep blogging? Yes! Just I don't think I still will on this blog. I have so much left to write about and so much left to tell you! So I am making a new blog! When it is finished I will put the link here.

Before I leave I would like to say thank you. Thank you to: Taylor, Claire P., Alicia, Mikelle, Holly, Bella, Madison, Lucily, Val, Rachel, Faith, Alex, Sofie, Jenna, Sami, Megan, Aly, Mia, and Savannah. I love you all so much and have had so much fun dancing with you!

For the last time, thank you for taking the time to read my blog. I hope you liked it!

- Ali Grace.

"The Happiest Place on Earth..." Pt. 2

Hi there!!

Let's start off where we ended, shall we?

The Show!!!
Photo Courtesy of: My mom :)

So the beginning of the third day was the same, I was dropped off at Taylor's house to be her adopted sister for the day. We got ready, which included Taylor making me look like a tribal warrior, and set out to Backstage Disney. When we got back there we practiced our finale on pavement, which doesn't really work on pavement, but you know what, it's okay. While we were practicing we got to see a few other dances, and OHMYGOODNESSGRACIOUS THE GROUPS FROM JAPAN WERE SO GOOD!! They would throw a baton in the air do a backflip into a triple pirouette (on pavement mind you) and then catch the baton. They were fantastic! The all 150ish of us were shuffled to the theater, if you've even been to Disney it's the fantasyland theatre.We were all really nervous to do our dances, especially with having to change backstage to do two dances. But when we got on stage I didn't want to leave, it was such a cool experience!! But if any of you are going to preform there make sure you practice spacing the dance so then it goes long, but shallow depth wise because the stage was very long so exits and entrances were tricky. The showcase ended at about eleven am and had the rest of the day to explore the park!! I was really excited because for the past two days I had not been able to go on many rides.

San Diego

Photo Credits: Me (that's right I'm good at taking pictures) 

The Vomrich's got a guide and invited me along (once again thank you guys so much!). For all of you who don't know what a guide is it's basically a person who tags along with you and is an instant fastpass for any ride you want. (for those of you who don't know what a fastpass is it's a special ticket you can get to let you cut the line). So we went on: grizzly rapids, Ariel's ride, the shooting game at California adventure x2, goody's plane ride twice, CALIFORNIA SCREAMING twice, tower of terror and soaring over California in California Adventure. Then we switched over to Disneyland where we did Materhorn x2 (right and left track), the teacups, Splash Mountain (at 9:00pm) and the Haunted Mansion. Here's a map for visual. My all-time favorite ride was California Screaming, but I really didn't like Tower of Terror, I thought it killed the vibe of Disneyland. After all those rides it was eleven at night and I went home with my parents exhausted.

This is what happens when you spend 22 hours
in the car...

The next day was a Monday and a day with my family, we went to California Adventure and did the majority of rides there, but I did get to do Space Mountain. I window shopped whereas my sister Sydney and Samantha actually shopped (I didn't get anything surprise surprise!) I was really sad when it was time to leave, but it's okay, I had SO MUCH FUN!!!! After that we left Disneyland and drove to San Diego which was GORGEOUS!!! For the next couple of days it was way more laid back, we and my family went beach scouting and shopped more. I actually did end up getting something a really cute bag for Europe this year. (YES I'M GOING TO EUROPE!!!!!!! I'VE NEVER BEEN OUT OF THE ACTAL UNITED UNITED STATES BEFORE SO I'M SO EXCITED!!!! Wanna hear all about it? Vote on the poll!). Then we drove to Las Vegas which I realized that I really didn't like. Then we drove home. 22 hours of driving total!!!! WHOO HOO!!!

Thank you so very much people of the world for reading my blog. I will hopefully have a new post up tomorrow and then maybe one up on the 14 (show day!!). Thank you so much for taking the time to read my blog, I hope you enjoyed it!

- Ali Grace

"Where Dreams Come True..." Pt. 1

Hi there!!

Do you remember spring break? Well I certainly do! Because GUESS WHAT!!! I. WAS. IN. A. DISNEY. PARADE!!!!!!!!!!! I still can't belive it myself, but I was!! So here goes the long and fabulous story of my spring break!!

So to start off my trip we got up at 5:30am and started driving....and driving....and driving...for ELEVEEN HOURS!!! But here's the plus, we did get In-and-Out. So we got there and we pull up to Sofia Simmons relatives' house and there like, "Wanna go to the beach?" and we were like...UH YESS PLEASE!! So we went to the beach and saw some pretty amazing views and ate fantastic quesadillas.

The beach! Right to left: Sofia, me, Sydney
Photo Courtesy of: My mom :)

Then we checked in to our hotel the Double Tree. Pros: we got free cookies every time we passed the fount desk (which was like three times a day) and it wasn't too expensive and all six people in my family got a bed. Cons: we were a mile away from disney making it very hard to transport me there at 7:00 in the morning, and we didn't get magic hour (which is basically like a extra hour in the park that you get if you stay in a Park Hotel) Anyway we made it, tired and exhausted, so we fell asleep as soon as our head hit the pillow.

So the second day we were up nice and early at 6:30!! We quickly got changed and I was dropped off at Taylor's and for twoish days Mrs. Volmrich invited me to be her third daughter. I got ready with Taylor and off to the park we went. We were sent to a large conference room with 12ish other studios from all around the world! Groups from Australia and Japan were there!!

The "too American" Merchandise

Anyway we did our parade routine one at a time (and it was really strange that everyone knew the same routine even though we had never met before). They really liked our studio and we all felt great about the dance! Then we were sent off to pictures and our whole group was squished together. After that we were given some merchandise that Willoughby and Taylor dubbed "too American" for their liking. Then me and Taylor rushed to go eat food and change out of our costumes. We put on our costume for rehearsal then had to take it off to walk through the park and then put it back on backstage. So after rushing to make it too Small World to meet up with the rest of our group we were ushered to Backstage Disney, which is basically a special part of Disney behind the park where all the performers go including the characters. Backstage we saw Ariel, Peter Pan, Aladdin and Belle! We were sent to change and then sat at a restaurant type place for at least an hour where we were harassed by large bugs. Then we were put in lines for the Parade. We were put dead last which you might think was a punishment, but they said we were one of there favorite groups and they wanted to finish strong. We were right behind the

PARADE!!
Photo Courtesy of: My mom :)

Australian group who were very nice and had the most charming accents. Then the Parade loop started!! I was so happy when I saw all the people lining to streets ready to watch us. I couldn't help but smile the whole time! But near the end all of us were literally and figuratively dying. We scarfed down water at the end and Taylor forgot to bring her inhaler so she was actually dying. After we got done we changed and congratulated ourselves, WE DID IT!!! Me, Taylor and Rian ended up riding a few rides before dinner at Rainforest Cafe in downtown Disney. They me and my family headed home and I took off my stage makeup which I had had on for 14 hours. GO STAGE MAKEUP!!

But WAIT there's more!!! Please come back tomorrow for part 2 of my fantabulous adventure! Thank you so much for taking the time to read my blog and I hope it was entertaining!! STAY TUNED!!

- Ali Grace

The Struggle is Real ....

Hi there!

Well.....I need three posts before Friday. Typically I'm way ahead on this type of thing, but not this time apparently. SO instead of posting about all the other things I should be posting about (Disney, auditions, stress of upcoming recitals, competitions) I recently got inspired by Bun to Ballet Shoes and I really wanted to do a post concerning the common problems every dance knows. Here we go!

1. No social life ... like at all
When I have taken a look at my social life I've realized it's pretty much not existent...DANCE IS MY SOCIAL LIFE!!!! Amount of friends I have outside of dance: 2, social media: 1 (this blog), Things I do outside of dance with non-dance friends: 1 (maybe). So you may be asking what do us dancers do outside of dance, well here is the answer you've all been waiting for....drumroll please....... we stretch, warm up, do homework, go see ballets, choreography dances, go to pilates, spend time with dancer friends, actually is there anyone outside my immediate family who is/was not a dancer who reads my blog? Show of hands. Let's see 0.....1......oh wait is that someone in the back? ... wait you were just stretching....okay....so 1!!! (Thank you Amanda :).
2. Every dance song ever

My newest loveliest blister

We all know that time when a song you once did a dance to so long ago comes on the radio, and you start sporadically moving your arms and legs? Yup we all know the feeling. But we also all know the weird looks that comes with this kinda thing. Some people look at us stare for a while and then let us go back to whatever the heck we are doing. Others try to help us and ask if we are having a seizure. I mean it doesn't matter where you are when the songs comes on, you have to dance to it. So weather your in the grocery store, middle of class or in disneyland you must dance to the song. Who cares what anyone else thinks, GO FOR IT!!!
3. Feet
Like it or not all dancers develop feet fetishes. We all come to this realization when instead of complementing people on there hair or outfit we complement them on there feet. As dancers we deeply appreciate when we get this complement and feel like our life is put together somehow. (I mean what if someone came up to you right now and said, "You have really nice feet." Think about how good you feel!) But people who are not dancers kinda just look at there feet and fantastic arches and give you a weird look because sadly those amazing arches will never be used for glory. Now don't let me get started on how much I have a feet fetish for my own feet I think the above picture sums it up pretty well.

A portion of my dance closet

4. Dance Wear
Now my all-time favorite thing to is to look for leotards and at dance stuff in general. I could spend (and have) hours on DDS (Discount Dance Supply) and looking at pointe shoes. Dance wear has also taken up half of my closet...

So thank you very much for reading my blog, and thank you to all that have been checking back up with my blog I know It's been a LONG time since I've last posted. A new post will be up on Wednesday and Friday. Til them I hope you enjoyed this post and thank you for taking the time to read my blog. :)

- Ali Grace