Vancouver... Junior..--What?!?!

Hello to all my readers,

This is a picture of Kathryn Perrault, who is the artistic
director of VJPD this photo was taken from :
http://www.vjpd.ca/

Whew, it's been a while since I've posted. Today I've decided to talk about a ballet school ...it's a very special school... a very small school... a very unknown school...I'll give you a hint, The school is in West Vancouver. Have you guessed it? Well maybe a few of you have, but I'm pretty positive that about 95% of you guys haven't. Well, the school is called Vancouver Junior Professional Division, or VJPD for short. The school is very small and it has in between 29 to 33 dancers, and 6 faculty members. This school is very unknown, though as their students start to win bigger competitions the school is beginning to get noticed for it's big acheivements. If this school is soo unknown then your are probably wondering why I chose to do a post on it, well this is the school I train at.

VJPD was founded in 2005 by the artistic director - Kathryn Perrault - and with the help of the Associate director - Elizabeth Isabelle. VJPD's aim is to give dancers high quality dance education starting at a young age, so that once they graduate from VJPD they can go into any professional school and be used to being pushed and worked very hard. The school has an 8 year program from ages 9 to 14 plus an "early arts program" for ages 3-8. There are six well trained faculty members that come from all across the world, each one specializes on certain aspect of a dancer's education. VJPD is an audition only school meaning that there is a high standard set for any student going there- they are expected to work hard and respect the faculty- unlike some recreational schools VJPD only teaches classical ballet, until the age of twelve when Horton Contemporary is added to the dancer's repertoire.

This is a picture of VJPD's production of Giselle
This photo was taken from: http://www.vjpd.ca/

VJPD students have been accepted to these world renowned schools:

- Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School of Dance

- Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet

- Alvin Ailey School of Dance

- Houston Ballet

- Kirov Ballet Academy in Washington

- The Royal Ballet School

VJPD is now located in West Vancouver on Capilano Road, and it is a great spot for any young dancer to start her career.

Well that is all for today, I really do love dancing at this school,it teaches much more than dance, it teaches discipline, determination, and it pushes me to work my hardest and be my best and that is a skill that you will never, ever forget.

Yours Truly,

The Bloggy Ballerina and her fellow blogger (who is sitting right beside me right now, and giving me a weird look, wondering why I am writing this)

This is a picture of the whole VJPD's entire school in 2008
This photo was taken from:
http://www.vjpd.ca/

YAGP (Continued)

Here is a link to the official website of YAGP.http://www.yagp.org/

Youth America Grand Prix

To my courteous readers,

Youth America Grand Prix, or more commonly known as YAGP, is the world's largest student ballet competition. Ranging from ages 8 to 19, YAGP provides an opportunity for anyone wishing to put their Ballet skills to a test against students from all over the world. YAGP is also the only student ballet competition that provides scholarships to great dance/ballet schools.

Here is a photo of the YAGP logo for 2008.
This photo was taken from: http:// www.danzaballet.com

YAGP was started in 2000, by two former dancers from the Bolshoi Ballet, Larissa and Gennadi Saveliev. The purpose for the commencement of YAGP, was to provide opportunities to young dancer to receive fantastic dance education, as well as to provide proffesional opportunities, and hopefully start their professional dance career. Now this is not the only reason for students to want to go to YAGP. There so happens to be world-class judging and workshops that are taught be these same judges. YAGP has become such a phenomenon that artistic directors and teachers of major dance companies such as L'Opera National de Paris, The Royal Ballet, ABT and many others come to judge the competition, as well as offer scholarships to students who might want to come and study at their school. Larissa ad Gennadi goals for YAGP were the following:

- To provide educational opportunities to young dance students

- To provide scholarships and contracts to International as well as American ballet companies

- To provide students profesional exposure in front of world renowed professionals of the art form

- To provide performance opportunities to young dancers

- To provide workshops with world class teachers, for student to use to improve their technique

Here is a photo of a participant at YAGP.
This photo was taken form:
http://www.robertaonthearts.com

Most of these goals have been accomplished, and much, much more. Now this sounds like such a fantastic competition, but how do you get there?

Well to begin there are semi-finals all over the world (i.e. North Korea, France, U.K., Brazil) and all across the United States. The top twelve winners of these semi-finals advance to the New York finals. In New York you go to several work shops to improve your technique, and compete to be in the top six. To make it to the top six is an amazing accomplishment that not very many people do. In the top six there is obviously a winner, winner get's an immediate scholarship, though practically all of the top six are pretty much garanteed a scholarship. Also money awards are given out to support the dancer's future.

This year, I , The Bloggy Ballerina, will be competing at YAGP in Los Angeles, during February. If I place top twelve, then I will be moving on to the finals in New York.  I very excited to go there, and I am not expecting myself to do very well because it is my first time going down to compete there. I am very anxious, and I can't wait to meet the fantastic judges, and attend their workshops.

Until next time,
The Bloggy Ballerina.



Here is a video of the top twelve performances in YAGP at the New York finals. This only part I, which means that there might be more than twelve, or there is less than twelve. If you would like to see part II than just search "YAGP" on Youtube.

This video was made by Vam Productions, and it is here today curtesy of YouTube.

Happy New Year To All!!!!

Masha, Marie or Clara... (continued)

Hello once again,

Here is the poster advertizing
the Goh Ballet's Nutcracker
This photo was taken from:
http://www.gohballet.com/

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!! I sure know that mine went fantastically. On, Sunday December 19, my family and our friends went to go see the Goh Ballet's Nutcracker. It was very well done, and the sets and costumes were absolutely gorgeous! My favorite dancer was the sugarplum fairy, danced by a Principal Dancer with the National Ballet of Canada, named Sonia Rodriguez. I also thought that the Cavalier Prince, who was also from the National Ballet of Canada, was a very good dancer. Aside from the dancers from the *NBS, I thought that the Dew Drop, in the waltz of the flowers, was a great dancer, along with the snow queen. Both of these dancers were from the Goh.

Clara was played by a young girl, who I think was about 12 years old. She had very nice feet, though she often *sickled them, and I found that her upper body was a bit stiff, but she still did a very goo d job of the role. The Nutcracker Prince was played by a man, a bit older than the girl playing Clara. I also thought that he was a fairly good dancer. I thought that the Arabian Princess was a very good dancer, and she suited the role extremely well.

Here is a photo of Clara and Fritz, her little brother
This photo was taken from: http://poeticcrap.blogspot.com

My favorite part of the whole ballet was when the Sugarplum fairy and the Cavalier Prince performed their pas de deux, as well as their coda. It was such a joy to watch them perform. Their faces lit up the whole stage, and gave the audience the feeling that they were actually dancing in the Candy Castle, and that they were actually the Sugar Plum Fairy, and the Cavalier Prince. Sonia Rodriguez performed her 32 fouettes very well, and mesmerized the audience, which is technically the reason for fouettes.

Overall, I thought that the production was very well done, and that the main dancers were fantastic. The costumes were also gorgeous as well as the sets, And every dancer performed their part well.

I hope you all have a fantastic Christmas Break,

The Bloggy Ballerina



*NBS stands for the National Ballet School of Canada, the NBS is an audition only school, that is located in Toronto, every year they go to cities all over North America, and hold auditions to see if anyone is eligible to come and study at their School. If you are selected you may go to their summer program, and after that you may or may not be invited to join their full time program. Once you have graduated from their program, you are technically strong enough to become a professional dancer, with their company. The company's name is the National Ballet of Canada.


*To sickle your foot, is to point your foot, but neither turn it out, or keep it straight. Instead you turn your ankle bone towards the inner part of your feet, and you point is. It may make your feet look better, and give people the idea that you have a very high arch, though in the long run, sickling your feet can cause many injuries, mainly in your knees.

This is what a sickled foot would look like
This photo was taken from:
http://atimetodanceblog.blogspot.com/

Masha, Marie, or Clara?

To my zealous audience,
As we are approaching the wonderful time of year filled with joy, music and happiness I have decided that I will write about the one thing in ballet that represents christmas like nothing else. Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker. Notice how I said the name of the composer instead of the choreographer, well, that is because I think that the thing that makes this ballet so wonderful is the music. Such a gorgeous score written by non other that the master of music himself, Tchaikovsky. If you haven't seen the Nutcracker before then today is your lucky day, because I will be providing a brief summary of the Ballet, and hopefully after you will be wanting to see it. I know I see it every year, it's almost a tradition, well I best get started...

"This is a special evening for Clara, she is about to receive the gift of a dream..."

-Anonymous

I don't think anybody could sum it all up better, it is true, even if Clara received a simple Nutcracker, with it came a fantastic dream, that seamed like reality.

Here is a photo of Clara, this
was taken form:
http://braodwayworld.com

 It was cozy Christmas Eve at the Stahlbaum's house, there was a Christmas Tree, ornaments, beautiful lights, and mistletoe in the centre of it all. Young Clara and Fritz were so excited for it was the day of the Annual Stahlbaum Christmas Party, all of their friends and family would soon be arriving. Finally the party began and everyone was having a great time, that is until a hooded black figure came in, it quite scared Fritz, though Clara knew that it was simply their godfather Uncle Drosellmeyer. It didn't take long and the party had resumed as though nothing had happened, but once again Drosellmeyer interrupted the party, for he wanted to present his gifts to the children. Fritz received a beautiful drum, and Clara got the best of all, a Nutcracker. It was simply gorgeous, she danced with it  all night, that is until Fritz managed to steal, he then proceeded to break it. Clara was devastated, therfore her uncle mended it with a handkerchief, then his nephew made a bed for him right under the Christmas Tree. Eventually everyone grew tired, and decided to go home thanking the Stahlbaum's for their wonderful party. When everyone was gone Clara went to sleep right beside her Nutcracker under the Christmas Tree. At around midnight she awoke abruptly, to find herself shrinking! Or was everything around her growing? She was surrounded by mice, as big as her, the biggest of all was the mouse king. But it wasn't just these mice that were strange, her Nutcracker was alive, and fighting the mouse king, unfortunately he didn't do so well and was now captured by them in a corner. Clara, overcome with anger, picked up her slipper and threw at the mouse king, he was stunned, and the Nutcracker managed to escape, the mice scurried away. Clara was sure she was dreaming and decided to go back to bed. But it wasn't long before she was in this dream again, this time her bed had turned into a gorgeous red sleigh that led them to the land of the Snowflakes. 

Here is the snowflake scene from The Nutcracker
This photo was taken from:
http://web.pacific.edu 

They were warmly welcomed by the snowflakes, that were now dancing for them, once they were finished Clara and the Nutcracker continued on, this time to the land of sweets. Here they are welcomed by the Sugar Plum Fairy, they told her about the night's recent events, and she was proud of Clara's bravery, and the Nutcracker's heroism. Therefore she decides to bring them into the candy castle and starts a festival. Hot Coco comes to life and dances to the sounds of trumpets and castanets. Then coffee comes, and they dance to an arabian song, later mandarin tea, who dance to the sound of Chinese Flutes. This is just the beginning, Matroishkas (russian dolls) come and dance to a Russian Trepak, then 10 little gingerbreads come out of Mother Ginger's skirt, as well as Merlitons, and finally to the sound of a harp, the flowers enter and dance the waltz of the flowers. It is the most beautiful music Clara has ever heard, for the conclusion of this perfect dream The Sugar Plum Fairy gets up a starts to dance a pas de deux with the Nutcracker Prince. At the end all the performers come to see Clara and the Nutcracker Prince of. As they are leaving Clara tells the Nutcracker,  "I wish this adventure would never end" the Nutcracker tells her it won't for those who believe it actually happened. Clara wakes up in the morning with the Nutcracker in her hands, and everything is returned to normal, everything except for Clara, and her wonderful gift from her godfather, the Nutcracker.

Here is a photo of the Waltz of the Flowers,
this photo was taken from:
http://nytimes.com

That would be a wonderful summary of an American/Canadian, The Nutcracker, though in countries such as Russia, and some countries in Europe Clara's name is different, in Russian it would be pronounced Misha, though if people were to perform it here in North America, and Europe it would probably be pronounced Marie. Other than that the main plot is still the same, a fantastic story, that definitely puts you in the mood of Christmas, I had so much fun writing this! 

See you next time,

The Bloggy Ballerina

Labels, Labels, and more Labels

To my devoted readers,
At last I have done it!! I have managed to find a way to create specific pages containing specific information within my blog, while still being able to comment and add future posts to this page. How? You ask, well first I must graciously thank the 'Help' bar sponsored by Blogger, for it is it that contributed the most to this discovery.

This photo was taken form:
http://www.worldphoto360.com

In this post I will present to you the instructions on how to create these little pages, and how to get information inside of them. This is a two step pocess, and I hope it helps a lot.


1) Actually getting the 'Labels' gadget. As you have probably already guessed, I am not using the 'Pages' gadget, it serves for other purposes. Instead I am using the 'Labels' gadget. To acces the 'Labels' gadget first of all you must go to your blog and sign in. Once you've done that and you are on your blog, click on the text in the top right corner that says 'Design'. A new screen should appear that shows the layout of your blog, there should be boxes that say 'Add a gadget', click on whatever one you want. Now you should have a new screen with a list of gadgets on it. Scroll down for a while, I believe it's around the bottom. Now if you've found it click on it. A little box should appear, don't click on anything else (that's for later), just click 'Save'. If you have taken the time to go back and see the changes on your blog you have probably noticed that nothing has changed, well you are wrong my friend a lot has changed, I will demonstrate the changes in the next paragraph.

2) Posting with labels. Once again I would like you to return to your blog, and once again I would like you to look at the top right corner but this time click on 'New post', a screen should appear where it provides you a space to write a post. THIS POST WILL BE GOING ON THE INTERNET, AND CAN BE VIEWED BY ANYONE WHO WISHES TO, SO MAKE SURE YOU DON'T PROVIDE TOO MUCH PERSONAL INFORMATION!!! Now that we have that covered off we can continue. Type in your text that you wish for your readers to read, or go to your past posts and select the one you want to move to a different page on your blog.  If you have completed these steps correctly you should have a whole box filled with text, at the bottom right corner of this box there is a small white box that says 'Labels' beside it. Type in the title that will appear at the top of the page that you want this post to appear in. Once you've typed it in press 'Enter' and 'Save'. Now go back to your blog and look at the marvelous thing you have created

This photo was taken from:
http://wordpress.hayscisd.net

Voila!!! You now have labels on your blog that can lead you to any different section you wish throughout your blog.

The one thing with labels is that all of your posts will stay on the main page that people will see once they type in your internet address. Though as you post more posts your blog will become very disorganized and for your readers it will be easier for them to read your several posts with the labels gadget.

I hope this helps all that wish to have their blog more organized!!

Your very organized blogger,
The Bloggy Ballerina