New Life
This year is, without a doubt, a transition of all sorts in my life. Many changes have already happened - big changes, in reality - and there are even more to come.
I had already mentioned the fact that school has ended (and I still didn’t make it to university) and that this year will be mostly devoted to study in order to sit for the university’s exams.
As of dance life, I have left my studio in which I had spent most of my life training. I’d go there every single day, rehearse and take classes for endless hours. We were definitely a family (still are) and I have learned so much from these years. So, I have only to thank all my teachers there because they offered me such amazing opportunities - that I’m sure that if I’d be somewhere else, none of them would have happened! - and for supporting me so much. In fact, I have been approved in my last Royal Academy of Dance examination!
I decided to leave because I realized I couldn’t grow there anymore. I wanted to change, meet new teachers, a new vision of ballet, and find better quality training also. Here in Brazil things are difficult and I’ve been looking for a good school for a while.
Until this amazing place opened a few blocks from my home, a few months ago. I have mentioned it here a few times already - and now it’s concrete: my dream studio is where now I dance!
It’s amazing. I’m completely in love! The rooms are spacious, everything is new and beautiful. (picture above)
Besides, there’s something else that caught my attention and also made me fall in love: the view!! As it’s in a quite high place, there’s this privileged view from the city. And every room has huge windows so that you can appreciate it during your class.
In terms of ballet itself - it’s Vaganova method, to which I’m trying to adapt. I must confess it has been a challenge. It’s considerably different from RAD. And I have already improved so much! The teacher is a Russian, who barely speaks any Portuguese (that definitely makes the classes even more interesting!)
Another big big change is that I have been hired in my former language school (where I learned English). They called me and offered a position as a sub teacher, twice a week. It was very unexpected, I never ever saw it coming (especially considering the fact that I completed my language studies there two years ago). I have accepted and I’m hoping this is going to be a good experience!
And what’s curious is that I was almost 100% decided that I was going to spend the next couple months in Canada, but that has been postponed for now!
I’ve also taken a nice trip to the south of Brazil - a city called Florianopolis. It’s a paradise: beaches surrounded by nature, excellent parties, nice people.. If you ever have the opportunity to go there, don’t miss it!! Unfortunately I caught bad weather there (that explains the lack of pictures.) - it rained most of the time, but still I managed to enjoy the time!
see you all!
Cathy
Performance Photos
Carol doing her pas de deux with our teacher .
After a sort of long hiatus, I’m here once again!
I hope you all have had amazing holidays and am wishing you a wonderful 2008! 
Life’s a little bit crazy and many things happened the past weeks.
A not so nice thing happened: I didn’t enter the university I wanted to, because I hadn’t studied enough (therefore I was kind of aware that it would happen), so I’m spending this year studying by myself in order to enter it. I got close though, out of 90 points in the exam, I needed 62 - but I got 60.
So some dedication over the next months will most likely help me to enter. A year won’t make a difference, right? Good thing is that I have endless chances to try!
So bottom line is, school is over, and I have here a year with more time to dance. I don’t know exactly how my dance life will be, I am almost sure I am going to go to the other studio to train with Russian teachers that will provide me really good training, I hope. I still have to take some classes to see if I like it or not, but as soon as it happens I’ll be here again telling you how it went.
As promised in my previous post, some pictures from 2007’s performance in my other studio! It’s just a glance, because there are thousands of pictures and it was quite tough to pick up some
Us dancing a choreography with music by Piazolla - i’m in the front row, on the right.
Yolanda, her turn doing the same pas de deux, and her beautiful arabesque.
Dancing Help (by the Beatles), i’m the one with the hair down.
Myself, in a solo representing japan. it was a contemporary piece, I loved the experience!
Abraços and see you next time!
Cathy
Summer in Brazil
Here in Brazil, we are watching the very beginning of summer - which means heat + rain almost every day.
My life is a little bit less chaotic now as I’m fully on vacation. Right now the only excitement is that I am anxiously waiting for the results from the universities.
I haven’t had enough time to update you all about my recent performances, rehearsals and all that complex preparation that, deep inside, we all love so much.
The performance actually already happened - nevertheless, I barely saw time passing. All of sudden, I was on stage again.
For a month I was able to rehearse only once a week, which is completely absurd to me. As a matter of fact, this semester as a whole was kind of confusing to me due to injuries also.
So, I took the week before the actual performance to rehearse intesively.
But anyway, here are some pictures from the dress rehearsal: (that out of three, I managed to attend only one)
Kids in tutus
Joana, Carol, Yolanda, amazing dancers!
Carol stretching before her entrance
The classical view from the wings!
I am very soon to be back with pictures from the performance itself!
Abraços!
Cathy
A cycle that ends
Today was my last day at school, forever.
As I’m typing this, I’m getting very emotional once again…I’ve been like this the whole day 
I’ve been to that place everyday of my life since I was 7.
There were moments in which I would get tired and hate it, of course. But deep inside I’ve ALWAYS loved it.
It was where I grew up, where I met my closest and best friends, where I had teachers that I’ll remember for life.
I am what I am because of this school. It’s amazing how empty I feel right now! I never knew I’d feel like this once it ended. Afterall, it’s school.
Now I won’t see those teachers that I admired so much everyday. Me and my best friends won’t be going to the same universities.
Everything changes from a minute to another!
Ok, emo part done now 
Let me tell how we celebrated this moment this week:
We did parties during our breaks - The first day we wore our typical yellow t-shirt, it’s a symbol of the school.
Then, the following days we wore costumes and celebrated in a very brazilian style: CARNIVAL! the way it should be done! Everybody from the senior year gathered, dancing and hugging each other, while the people from the other years watched us. We’d sing and scream…we all had a lot of fun!
Our graduation will be in a few weeks, then we will have our party, and later, our trip!
In fact, many things changed since I last wrote here.
The most important and that is obviously affecting me most is that I had to cut many ballet classes (I had to reduce from almost full time dancing to twice a week) because I’m taking an intensive preparatory course to university.
I’m still going to dance with my studio by the end of this year.
It was pretty much a sudden decision, because it was tough studying by myself so I decided to do this little sacrifice to dance less for a single month.
The course ends in a couple weeks, so gladly I am soon to be back to a normal routine! I might start dancing soon in the new school I told you about previously, full time.
I don’t really know where life is gonna take me, but this is definitely a curious stage of life!
Hugs,
Cathy
Back From the Exam
Hey!
I have just had my RAD exam that I had previously told you all about.
The examiner was a Chinese lady and I took it with three other girls: one of them was my friend Joana, the one in the picture (it was taken a couple of minutes before entering the room), and two other girls that I had just met.
I must confess that I was nervous at the beginning… These major examinations are mostly technique and don’t give much space to dance, but still I attempted my most to feel the music and dance my best.
They evaluate everything, and to me, the hardest part is the music. In the barre, they test you by doing one of the sides with the usual music from the syllabus and the other, with a song that we never heard before. I was the first in the barre, thus that made me shake a little bit. However, thankfully, it went all right.
My only problem was during the center. My double pirouettes en dedans didn’t come out as expected and I had some not very nice landings.
My allegros turned out be pretty good.
The examiner gives us a free enchainement, that she makes up during the exam. It was a good thing that she gave us enough chances to do it and improve, because my first attempts were quite poor :S
Then we had our variation, and then pointe.
I honestly don’t have the slightest idea whether I have passed or not. I know that I could have done much better - but now all I can do is to wait for the results!
Keep your fingers crossed!
And by the way, I’m now a contemporary student also! Took my first class in that school I told in my previous post and it was awesome. I’ll keep you guys updated with that and the recitals that are coming on the way.
Cathy
Oh, So Much to Tell!
Wingers, wingers, if you knew how much I have to tell you… First let me apologize once again for my complete lack of posts for the past months. Life has been quite crazy lately and I’m about to explain it all. (Oh, and I am working on the 8 things. next post, probably!)
Well, to begin with, school. It’s almost over - forever! In less than two months it’s over! I’m happy but scared at the same time. That also means (besides the fact that I become a grown person in a matter of days - I turn 18 pretty soon!) that preparations for University are taking up a lot of time (besides ballet, of course). Here the system works differently to enter universities. The institutions apply an exam by the end of the year with EVERYTHING we have seen since our first year of high school. All the subjects, from physics to history (here we can’t really choose either what subjects we take in high school.). So, can you imagine the amount of stuff I have to see? I’m trying out for law in a public university (not to become a lawyer, but to become a diplomat), my first option, and International Relations as second.
Now, ballet: My RAD (royal academy of dance) exam is in two weeks, it’s a pre-professional level so it’s basically a lot of technique. I’m already starting to feel a little bit nervous, we’ve been getting prepared since january!
However, I had quite an issue a little over a month ago: I sprained my ankle badly, had to stop dancing for over 20 days (that also explains my lack of posts) and only this week I started jumping again (because once my foot healed a little bit I did some adagios, etc). But gladly I’m picking up stuff quickly, rehearsing hours and hours, even at home to hopefully pass on the exam. Thus that means ballet has been pretty tiring lately also.
Besides that, we’re working on new choreographies, that are totally new to me in the sense that they’re very modern pieces. We’re doing Help, by Beatles, Libertango by Piazolla and just today I started working on a modern solo also with japanese music (we’re doing countries, so beatles would be england, piazolla argentina, etc..). Ballet routine has been absolutely crazy, as we need time to rehearse and finish the choreographies plus exam!
Carol takes a break from the rehearsals and shows her happiness with a chocolate! Luckily, pas de deux teacher didn’t catch her eating it…
Hmm now there is something that I was preparing to tell in this post, however as what I had planned didn’t happen, I will just introduce the subject. I was really confused as for example where I’d be taking dance classes and such, I was a bit lost because São Paulo is not the best city for dancers so I was saving some money to try to study ballet somewhere abroad for a few months.
To my surprise, when I least expected, this HUGE dance school opened a few blocks from my house. It’s something quite big and brought a totally new perspective to me. International teachers, strong pre professional programs.. the building is BEAUTIFUL… so i’m very very excited. Anyway, it turns out that I was going to take some classes to see how it feels last week but due to unexpected stuff and messy schedule I couldn’t. But once I can make it, I’ll be sure to tell you guys everything!
And by the way, a warm welcome to all the new wingers!
On that, I leave, and promise to be back here soon!
Bye!
Cathy
Walking around Sao Paulo once again
Mercado Municipal of São Paulo
Wingers might have noticed how much I like to do some sort of tourism in my own city. But that’s because São Paulo is big, interesting, and there’s so much to find out about. For example, at the end of my vacation, I decided to get to know the “Mercado Municipal” - they city market - and try out some of the food, that is quite famous. The “sanduíche de mortadela” or the “pastel de bacalhau” to mention a few.
On my way to downtown (which is where it is located), I got out of the subway and came across these ”book selling machines”. I found them rather interesting!
I also passed by the Cathedral - aka Catedral da Sé - which is gothic style. But I only got to see the back of it! And you may see, downtown is quite agitated. Traffic, people selling multiple things (everything you can imagine).
Anyway, I was expecting the market to be crowded, but to my surprise it wasn’t. And I got my “sanduíche de mortadela” - I honestly don’t know the translation of mortadela, but imagine some sort of ham, but it tastes a lot better. The sandwich is basically a LOT of slices of it, and when I say a lot, I really mean it! But I asked for a “baby” one because the original is way too big The market is old and beautiful. I had never been there before. So if you ever come to São Paulo, don’t forget to stop by there.
On my way back…I stopped by Paulista Avenue and checked out the sunset. Paulista Avenue is the most famous avenue in São Paulo.
Paulista Avenue sunset, São Paulo
I’ll come back with news from ballet. Many things have been happening!
Cathy
Baryshnikov!
I had never imagined that someday I would see Mikhail Baryshnikov dancing. Actually, I had no idea he still danced.
And to my surprise, he came to Brazil with his new company, Hell’s Kitchen Dance to tour. They opened the Festival de Dança de Joinville - a dance event/competition here that is HUGE, in the south of the country that started last week. I still haven’t had the opportunity to attend it, though.
Yesterday and on the 24th he was here in São Paulo. I had gotten my tickets weeks ago. They were sold out in two days! Something that I didn’t expect because, afterall, ballet is not something very popular around here.
I was pretty anxious and excited during these weeks.
Parts of the Teatro Municipal stage and lights.
So yesterday I headed to the Teatro Municipal (there’s a picture of the building in one of my old posts) - it’s always a delight to go there - in order to see the performance.
The stairs that take you to your seats in the theater
The piece started with Baryshinkov in a solo - “Years Later”, by Benjamin Millepied. I absolutely loved the idea: there was a screen showing a movie of himself when he was very young. He’d do multiple pirouettes, amazing and high cabrioles, entrechats and so on. The older Baryshnikov would stare at it and try to do what was being shown on the screen, with no success. But he managed to dance in a beautiful and captivating way with the music by Philip Glass. His presence is something amazing. It was quite a touching piece.
Then there were two solos - which I don’t have information about as there was a change in the program.
The first was a woman in some sort of 50’s outfit, she started singing (or lip syncing, I don’t really know) and then did her short solo. I honestly didn’t like it very much, first because I couldn’t understand the point of the choreography, it was a huge question mark for me, and second because the choreography itself was somehow poor.
After her, a man did another short solo, however this one was pretty good. He was a great dancer, very musical and he surprised the audience.
The evening ended with a piece by Aszure Barton called “Come in”.
The whole company danced this piece - and so did Misha.
It was a much longer piece and the choreography was excellent. The male dancers showed themselves much more mature and prepared than the girls, their technique was better as was their presence on the stage. The girls lacked many things; I guess because the company is still new and such. So there’s some work to be done yet, I guess.
Although in general the performance was short, it was worth it. It was a unique opportunity to see Misha dancing and it’s something I’m sure I’ll never forget.
The company has potential and I hope they come back here!
My vacations are almost at an end - next week classes are back (ballet and last months ever of school!) and there’s a lot of work to be done: RAD exam coming up and also exam to enter University.
I’ll keep you guys updated! See you!
Cathy
Winter Vacation
It’s winter vacation here in Brazil right now. It’s just a month long, but it was about time - I needed some rest.
This year has been really busy - hence my lack of posts - and it looks like it’ll get even busier!
Joana getting her make up done by one of our teachers, Flavia
But anyway, in my last post I said I was going to have some performances.
We performed Waltz of the Flowers again in the two first ones, and then we had an event in the place our studio is and I danced Kitri’s variation. It wasn’t that good, needs to be rehearsed a LOT more, it’s not clean either. Plus I was a little bit nervous! But it happens. Now it’s all about rehearsing and rehearsing.
Stella saying hi to the winger!
Yesterday night I went to the theater to see the Royal Danish Ballet. They come here almost every year, but I had only seen them once. It’s cool because they always bring some Balanchine pieces.
They danced lots of things and they had some special guests: Nikolaj Hübbe, Johan Kobborg and Roberta Marquez.
The night started with Apollo danced by Nikolaj Hubbe and the girls were from the company. He basically stole the show, he is amazing. He is so powerful! The girls I found a little bit immature yet, I didn’t feel that they were safe. This choreography is so difficult!
I had seen a video of Apollo (but with Baryshnikov) so it was cool to see it live.
Right after Apollo, Roberta Marquez and Johan Kobborg (both principals from the Royal Ballet - and she is brazilian!) danced Don Quixote pas de deux. I was completely speechless! I had never seen her dancing although she is brazilian, but always been curious since well she was invited to be a principal at the Royal Ballet. Her lines are perfect, and she shines. Wow. Kobborg was just as nice! They drove the audience crazy
Then the dancers from the company did this short and interesting ballet, Yesterday, by John Neumeier with Beatles songs. Very nice, cute choreography and good choice of songs.
Hübbe then entered the stage again to dance Zakouski, by Peter Martins and he stole the show once again. I was quite happy to see him because I had never seen any NYCB dancer before!
Marquez and Kobborg came back with a short piece from Manon, nicely executed. She is expressive and her presence is pretty good.
Then the Danish dancers closed the night with Napoli (3rd act), a Bournonville ballet. The girls showed themselves a lot better in this piece than in Apollo. It’s such a nice ballet to watch, it looks so much like a party in the streets or something!
After the performances I got to talk a bit with some of the Danish dancers, but the pictures came out VERY blurry. They were so nice!
I guess for now that’s it. In a few weeks Mr. Baryshnikov will bring his company here and I can’t miss it! Bye!
From the Archives - v 6.17
David Hallberg
Performing in Vail in the Summer of 2006
Carla Körbes
Performing at Jacobs Pillow in 2006
Kristin Sloan
Performing at Central Park’s Summerstage in 2005.
Cathy Godeghesi
Performing at the Festival at Campos do Jordão, Brazil
More next Sunday…
