Dance, Dance, Dance!! And A Few Parties..

This last week was dance camp for me. I got to teach a few classes to exchange for learning for a few classes. It was such a fun week but I don't think I have been this sore since my first week of cheer sophomore year. I did dance nine hours every day.
I had tumbling first, but I didn't get as much done as I had hoped. Next, I could either teach little cheer or take a contemporary class. I taught cheer Monday and Thursday and did contemporary the other days. It was such a fun routine to learn for contemporary because it is so weird. It was great fun to catch on from what I missed the first day and to learn more. Thursday I got to teach cheer alone because the original teacher was at Stadium of Fire with the girls that are doing that. I choreographed a motion sequence and I was so proud of myself for making something up! It was fun to teach.
After that was ballet. It focused a lot on technique and balance. Balance is key in every form of dance, so it was so fun to be able to just stand on your toes for as long as you can, though it does make your legs very sore. I learned a lot about posture and what to do and not to do when trying to do all the ballet moves. Ha, and with ballet I learned a lot of French.
After that was hip hop and Jenny worked us hard. We did a dance to the song 'Shawty Get Loose' and it was so fast! It was a fun dance and really tested and tried my abilities. The end of it was super fast and took a bit longer to catch on and do correctly than the rest of the dance had been for me to master.
Next was a tumbling class of about ten girls between the ages of about 9 and 12. I taught with either Sarah or Jessica Peters and it was surely a challenge to get and maintain their attention. It surely tried my patience and helped me to get control of such a big class. The twins let me take charge of the class and just piped in when they had something to say, so it was mostly me in charge.
Then came my relief. An hour at the pool to eat lunch and just lie there and relax because by then I was very tired.. I now have a tan line and I am so excited for that.
Following lunch was jazz. The first day we learned three different combos, first being easiest, third being hardest. It was a combo that you would do across the floor that involved many leaps, turns, balance and other fundamentals of dance. After the second day of practicing them, Cassi put them into a dance. It was a very hard dance because I had issues moving like she does. I ended up filming the dance so that I could go home and practice it to try and figure out how to move right.. It didn't work so well. Luckily, she changed the dance. I got to work a lot on technique and my leaps have gotten so much better. They were amazingly high the very last day of camp. We learned tilt jumps, worked on fetes (a turn where you whip your leg around to keep yourself spinning.. which I finally figured out how to do), leaps of every direction: backward, regular, develope, brush, side, switch, scissor, etc. and so forth. We also worked on just regular pirouettes which we found none of us could do this week. Ha made class really entertaining though.
Next was one of my favorite classes even though I didn't learn much all week. Dayne Rockwood, one of my friends that went to Jordan for two years, taught a break dance class. He was new to teaching so the first few days he would just free style until we saw something we liked that looked relatively easy to learn and would ask him how to do it. The first day I learned how to jump on my hands in a hand stand and a combo of a bunch of motions that look totally awesome when done to hip hop music. I also learned stalls, a dance by Michael Jackson to Beat It, the beginning of the dance in Chris Brown's music video to Forever, a one handed back hand spring that I still have yet to get, and a front hand spring that you just whip out of no where. It was fun to just talk to Dayne and help him figure out how to teach the classes. The first day he was congratulating me for graduation, the second he thought I was fifteen. (I'm nearly 19) He wasn't sure how to break down moves to teach them, so it was fun to give him tips on teaching and to help him out a bit. He's amazing at free style and so much fun to watch.
Last was a class of three young girls for tumbling. One was about four, the other two were about six. Trying to keep them focused was a challenge in itself. Luckily, two of the days Cassi stayed with me and helped me teach and control them. We would cover the basics, and even the little four year old was trying hand springs, she was so adorable though.
Dance camp has pretty much engulfed my entire week. Monday I fell asleep about eight because I was so tired, Tuesday I went to Shannon's birthday party until late with Laura and a bunch of friends that I knew. Wednesday I got to go to the airport with Bryce's parents to pick him up after his 6-day adventure in the wild Florida for a bio-tech competition (top ten in the nation!! Yeah baby!) It was fun to talk to his parents and to finally see him after so long. They took us to Leatherby's and I loved it, though I was very full by the time we headed home. (They're an ice cream eating family, so of course, I was the last one finished by a long shot) . Thursday I finally got to see Bryce. I played a very tiring game of Frisbee with him and some friends from his stake. It was a blast, but I was dying of heat by the end. We went to a BBQ at Laura's house and chilled with some friends for a few hours. I was very happy to be included in the festivities and to be able to get along with everyone. I was excited to be accepted and be able to talk freely to everyone. We then headed to South Mountain to look out over the city and stargaze. It was a lot of fun to finally talk face to face instead of over the phone. I've missed him lots lately because he keeps leaving on vacation..
Today I get to be in a parade with dance and I'm very excited. I got to walk in a giant circle doing the same dance again and again and again and again and again.... Then to play with glowsticks, explosives, and many fun games. We're combining with Bryce's family, so it'll certainly be exciting. Well, that's my long blog of the week. Tune in next week after my easier dance week and hopefully lots of work!