Hi Wingers!

Wow, I can’t believe it’s already the middle of February. As fast as my wonderful Radio City Christmas experience came, it went. Life has been comparatively slow without 16 shows a week and mounds of school work to do, but some fun stuff has been happening.

In early January I did a week long workshop with TAKE Dance Company. It was a great opportunity to step out of the ballet mold and into the freedom of modern dance - something I’m usually not comfortable with nor very good at, haha. It was a week of learning ending in a small studio showing at Baryshnikov Arts Center. What a fun experience.

(the group and members of the company)

(notice my Winger t-shirt ;) 

Since then I’ve pretty much been in big time audition mode. Unfortunately with this economy there haven’t been many opportunities, and when there indeed is an audition there are about 1,000 New York City dreaming dancers there trying for the part. It’s so easy to get frustrated and discouraged, but I’m trying to stay positive.

One success of the season has been landing a scholarship to a summer program in Austria! I’m excited about it and really want to go. I have this awful burning desire to travel now that I’m done with school, and many of my college friends (of normal college level for 20 years old) are spending semesters abroad. I’m jealous! I don’t know yet if I’ll be able to attend because it’s still so expensive, but I was pleased to be accepted.

In other news, next weekend I get to dance back onstage at Radio City! My last (four show) day of the Christmas Show was very difficult because I never know if I’ll get to do it again. Luckily I got a weekend gig dancing in David Byrne’s concert Feb. 27-28. We rehearse next week and then have two shows. I’m in LOVE with that theater, if I haven’t mentioned it. (okay, I can’t resist sharing a few final pictures from the show…)

(tired ballerina bears before a 9am show!)

(New York at Christmas scene. I’m in yellow)

Another exciting thing coming up - that I hope some of you might attend - is a panel discussion on dance blogging with Career Transition for Dancers. I was asked to speak at the event after speaking with the program for a recent article in Movmnt Magazine. Hopefully we’ll be able to help other dancers start blogs and use them as career tools and such. Blogging here on The Winger and on my personal blog has done A LOT for me, and I’m so grateful for that. If you’re interested in attending, it’s next Monday 2/23 at 5:30pm at the Actors Equity Building.

Last but not least - I have two bigger projects going on. First is a performance at the end of March with the Ailey Extension Program. We’re doing “Les Sylphides” and “Napoli”, both of which I’ve done before and both are such great ballets. Rehearsals are going well and I’ll update more on that as it gets closer.

(in Les Sylphides one summer many years ago…what a baby I was on the end there front left)

The other big thing is that I’ve started working on an autobiography with another ballet teacher of mine: Carol Sumner. She was a soloist with NYCB for nearly 20 years and worked extensively with Balanchine himself. She has so many intriguing stories and a wealth of wisdom to share, and it has been such a pleasure to meet with her each week and have conversations that will eventually, hopefully, lead to a real book. If you’ve never taken her class, I highly recommend it

Guess that’s it for now. Making plans to blog more often, I swear haha.