YAGP Update

What a great weekend!  Ballet all day, every day!

Anna's performance was on Saturday morning.  Before the actual competition, the dancers had open stage for 1/2 hour.  It was crazy! There were about 35 kids, many in tutus, all spacing their solos on one stage at one time.  

Anna's performance was excellent - very clean, high extensions, great turns (although she traveled so much that she almost ran into the curtain!)

Here she is getting ready for the awards ceremony Saturday night, fake eyelashes and all.  (Not her performance eyelashes, she has a second pair of "going out" eyelashes, which are a little more subtle!)

And it's a good thing she had on those eyelashes because she made the top 12 this year!  She was called up on stage in front of everyone, and she was loving it!

Not only did she place this year, but her scores and comments from the judges were much better than last year.  She still didn't hit the threshold for competing in the finals in NYC, but she did make it to the Intensive again, where she will take Master Classes with finalists from around the world.  She's very happy and excited.

Congratulations to Anna!

YAGP this Weekend

The bodice and tutu are completely finished - a definite stretch of my sewing abilities, but fortunately blood on a costume is considered good luck in the ballet world!

Anna had some great run-throughs yesterday after rehearsing since the fall.  Here she is coming out of 13 turns on the diagonal (that's a lot of turns on pointe and she doesn't look the least bit dizzy!)...

She even had some time to mess around and stretch before going home last night...

We're heading down to Torrington today after lunch.  Send all your positive thoughts to Anna tomorrow (Saturday) morning.  According to the schedule, we think she'll be performing her variation sometime between 10:45 and 11:15.  Good luck Anna!

Cakes and Tutu Tacking!

Today I made 3 little Kruidkoeks (Dutch spice cake).  The spice cake mix was from our Christmas package from Esther.  She lives in the Netherlands.  Here are some pictures of me with the cake mix bag and me making the cakes...

While I made the cakes, mom was tacking my tutu. Here is a photo of her tying off a tack, showing off her bloody, split thumb (gross!)...

And while we were working, someone else was sleeping...

 

Isn't Crashy cute all curled up on the rug?  He almost fits!