Dance Bag Challenge

I know I'm a little late with this, but it's been crazy busy over here, with taking about 21 hours of dance a week and then teaching 6+ hours a week (my privates run over sometimes and I don't mind at all!).

I was so excited to do this challenge! It was first posted by Wellies and Pears and as soon as I saw it, I knew I had to do it! Mine is always completely stuffed and bordering on ridiculous. Not that I'm complaining - I like to be prepared! Be prepared though...it's definitely photo heavy.

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I got my bag last semester after my other bag was just not cutting it. I had the other for about ten years though, so it was a trooper, but just not nearly big enough. This one is plenty big and has a pointe shoe pocket, water bottle pocket, little mesh pocket, plus a little front zipped part with a little mesh part inside it. A downside is that the tightening thing for the water bottle pocket broke right away and the bag is ripping above the pointe shoe pocket. I really need to not pack it so much.

This is the bag I use for my shoes. It's mesh and I've had it for years but because I tend to carry too much, one of the straps is ripping so I'm glad to have finally found a use for it this semester. I really just never got around to getting a mesh pouch for shoes, so I started using this a few weeks ago. It actually works out nicely. In the front zipper, I carry a little sewing kit and tape that I'll admit I never really use, but it's good to have just in case.

Can you believe I actually use almost all of these? This is the contents of my mesh packpack. The pointe shoes on the top left are the ones I'm currently using and actually live in the pointe shoe pocket but I threw them here for this picture. Everything else lives in this mag inside my dance bag. I've got my beloved gel toe pads, and old pretty dead pair of pointe shoes (both Russian Muse), tan jazz shoes, black jazz shoes, 2 pairs of canvas ballet flats, and three different pairs/styles of footies for modern dance. My dance performance classes have plenty of modern dances, so these are a must for me. I don't really use the footies that have the holes for the toes, but they've come in handy when my boyfriend forgets his own. The leather ones are holey and I'm not sure why I still have them in there. I am loving the canvas pair. 

The contents of the little mesh pouch on the dance bag. I usually have my hair down for Dance Performance 2 and sometimes for 1, but need it up for ballet, so I need these. Also, occasionally I've been asked for one if others forget to bring something to stick their hair up, so I'm glad I have so many. The button is from when I saw the show with my boyfriend and it's a favorite of mine so I leave it in sight!

This crap was all in the front zipped pocket. A couple granola bars, a 90 calorie cookie thing, and a case with safety pins and buttons. I took this jewelry off the first day back to Dance Performance 1 this semester, and forgot to take it out. I've had the pointe shoe necklace for years, and got the other two from my boyfriend's mom this past Christmas. It's a music note bracelet, and a dancer necklace. I love them all.

This is the contents of the main part of my dance bag (plus the mesh backpack goes on top of it all before zipping up). Vitamins, pre-workout for Dance Performance 1 when I'm just dead (it's from 4pm-8:45pm twice a week). A water bottle, deodorant, moleskin I never use, two pairs of legwarmers, a sweat towel (green), a stretch band (purple), a wrap skirt for ballet, an extra set of clothes, and various types of tapes (for injuries), and a bandage for when my knee hates me. 

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That's probably a bit much. Haha.

Now on to the questions!

1. What’s in your dance bag and why?
All of the above, because I swear I'll need all of it. I could probably stand to take a few things out though.

2. Where did you get your bag and how long have you been using it?
I got it from a local dance store last semester (Fall 2014) because the one I used for ten years was just too small.

3. Is there anything dance related that you keep in your bag at all times… you know, the essentials?
All o' that! ^

4. Is there anything that you keep in your bag for good luck?
Nope. I'm not superstitious. 

5. If your bag had a name what would it be?
Misty! Because it's tough, but pretty. :)

6. How badly does you bag smell right now?
Haaaaaaa...let's not go there. *throws in some dryer sheets*

7. If there is anything you could change about your bag or its contents, what would it be?
I want one of those spiky balls because they sound luxurious after hours of dance. And I have a heel spur and digging things into my arch feels amazing. Also I wouldn't mind if my bag had more color. Like, maybe PURPLE. Or if it were floral (pastel).

8. Anything else you want to mention?
I now would very much love a Vera Bradley bag. Haha. Beauuutiful!

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Thanks to Wellies and Pears for this challenge! It was fun.

Other blogs I read who have done the challenge:
We Do Ballet
balletandorbust

Click on over and check them out, along with the original!

The Name (Pic Heavy) and My Bedroom

 So, back when I was a little one, I was OBSESSED with teddy bears. Seriously, my childhood bedroom looked like a teddy bear museum. And/or a Boyd's Bears museum. I'm not even kidding. This led to my childhood nickname. When I was around five years old, my uncle started greeting me with "Erika Bearika of America!" Over time, this shortened to "Erika Bearika" and then, finally, "Bearika." I'm 29 years old and this nickname is still used by a few family members. (I usually use another nickname, Hysterika, for some social media, but Bearika is near and dear to me.)


So, now, as a 29 year old, I live with my boyfriend about half the time, and live with my best friend half the time. My fur babies live with my best friend because my boyfriend and I haven't gotten a place of our own yet and my babies can't live where we currently are. So I share a bedroom with my boyfriend Monday night through Thursday night and stay in my own bedroom at my best friend's house Friday night through Sunday night. I miss my babies too much to be away from them the whole time. The wonderful thing about having a room of my own is being able to decorate it how I want. It's like 50% teddybears and teenage decor from when I was a teen and about 50% "Oh-a-dancer-lives-here." So, it probably looks like a 12 year old's room. hahaha.


I also recently got some of my things back from my parents from when I was a kid so I'm surrounding myself with these things of comfort.




This was one of the teddy bears I cuddled up with when I slept as a kid. I loved Precious Moments.

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 Some super heavy bookends I had as a kid. Boyd's Bears, I'm pretty sure. (Sorry the second one is blurry.)

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An adorable bear I love because of the color.

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A bear my best friend got me years ago. Skelanimals are pretty great. Fits me so well. :)

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The top one here went above my bed as a teen. A Boyd's Bear, as is the one with the hat. I think the Winnie came from The Disney Store.

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This was a thrift store find (a few years ago). How perfect is it that it mixes two things I adore!?
Bears and ballet. Yassss. (This should have been the picture I used at the top but I'm too lazy to do it now.)

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And now, just because, a few pictures of my bedroom. Needs improvement, obviously.

I should have turned the light off. I threw and old dance ("Step In Time") performance hat over my fan. Old school calendar turned to the Phantom of the Opera photo. This calendar is from the 60's, I believe. Above my closet, BAD WOLF is spray painted in stencil. Points if you get the reference.

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My paternal grandfather traveled the globe and brought back those two dolls near the corner. Yes, I do still have my old Treasure Troll collection. *smirk*

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I need to find a way to make this prettier, and wash my actual comforter (not pictured), but I love my room. I have so many more dead pointe shoes I could add to that but I'm not sure if I want to. I kind of want to hang some of that fake snow above them so it's more like the "pointe shoe cemetary" I envisioned it to be. This was just a quickie thing.
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Anyways, feel free to link up your bedroom in the comments, or tell me the story of your blog name! I'd love to hear it.

Photo Dump from 3.2.2015

     So, Mondays have been a frustration for me at the studio I teach at. Before the December show, I had more students in my Monday class (I only had one Monday class and one Friday class at the time). A problem with the area I live in is that it's a spread out desert area and jobs are harder to come by than in many other areas. This leads to people not being able to afford to put their kids in dance (or adults not being able to easily afford hobbies that cost nearly $50 a month). 

     This, paired with the fact that the only time I could get to the studio was three hours early, led to me getting in some much needed pointe practice. I just got back into technique classes again and though I have been en pointe for nearly five years, I have craptastic feet and I'm not where I could be. 

So, though I'd taken Intermediate Ballet at the junior college en pointe that day, I decided to get in some extra practice. My feet were hurting. Especially my big toe on my right foot. I decided to try to get some photos of me failing dancing en pointe. Most are stills but I took screen grabs of a video for some chaines that definitely need work. I had thought they were okay, but seeing the pictures...no. haha.

Anyways...

Purple tights I forgot I owned. I need better turnout. 

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What photo dump wouldn't be complete without a smudgy mirror pic?

I need to work on turning out my back foot.

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I'm over my box...but my feet suck. It's an issue I need to work on. Perhaps some love for my elastic band is needed. Okay, ALL the love.

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And strettttchhhhh. I'd possibly love this if my knees were over my toes.

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I actually really like this one (shitty turnout aside).

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Now, some motion!

At first, I was not aware that my feet were so far apart.

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Better...ish. (took off the top because I need to face being able to see myself like this. Ick.)

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At the front desk after. Where are the students?!

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ALL THE CHEESINESS.

Though I'm not exactly proud of these photos, it gives me something (everything) to work on. But I'm sure I'll have this next Monday to work on things too. *sigh* 

Why Are The Barres Always Gone?

     Today my Intermediate Ballet class finally started back up. My student Jenny (name changed) is back and when she walked in, I was so happy to see her! She is 20 and an adult beginner. She took my class for about 2 months before we had our studio's first annual winter show. Because she came in so late, but determined and passionate, we had quite a few long rehearsals, going as long as three hours!

     Today started like most have, with floor stretches. Ouch, that hurt, as I haven't been stretching nearly as much as I should have been. I do floor stretches and barre with her, so that she can follow the combination. I introduced an ab routine. I have yet to smooth it out, as today I basically jumped into it, but I am going to make a regular routine to some faster, catchy song. Since we were just back after a month and a half, I went easy on her, but the ab routine will be more difficult next week. I was just doing it on the spot today.

     After that, I went to start our regular barre session, but looked around and discovered the barres have been, once again, removed from the room by the owners of the studio next door (the two rooms were one studio before but has been split, literally down the middle since new ownership took over our side). This barre thing is really becoming a problem. I mean, it's BALLET. Barres to ballet are like bananas to a banana split. We could do it in center, and we did, but as she's still relatively new, I didn't want to do that to her already. She's still building the foundation and it's much harder to get used to everything with also having to worry about balancing everything in center.

     We went through plies, tendus, degages, battements (for all of these these, the arms were altered for center), and rond de jambes. After that, I skipped our developpe/enveloppe combination because of time and also, I wanted to teach a few new things. I showed her frappes, with the working foot flexed in between. We spent some time going over singles, and then I showed her how for any even numbers (when to the side/in second), you put the working foot to the original direction and then the opposite vs odd numbers, where you put the working foot to the opposite from where you came first...and so on. This took some time. We did singles, doubles, and triples.

     I also taught a new (to her) combination with fondues and glissades. It's fondue en croix and then the second time to the side, leave the foot out, glissade away, glissade back, returning the outer foot to the back to reverse the whole thing. The second set of glissades returns the outside foot to the front to sous-sus to turn and do the other side. In this case, we had no barre, so I had her skip the sous-sous turn and we instead just did the other side.

     Because this all took so long, and we only had an hour, we then skipped across-the-floor and I instead worked it into learning the first section of the dance. I explained degage walks, as we do them to start the dance. I added some funky arms (basically, flexed hands, with eppaule), as the music is a funky French song. Then, we did a few degage walks with more fluid arms and prepped to go into two side pique arabesque steps. We did all of this basically across-the-floor to practice/learn then worked it in with the music, traveling forward.

     I then showed her emboites. I gave her a quick tutorial, but as time was running slightly over, we will work on them in more detail next week.

     I am so thrilled that she loved my choreography so far. She actually smiled so huge and said "Oh my god, I LOVE it!" This is a great start to this season. I'm so excited!

Lighting for the Spring Dance Concert (Post from 2012...not sure why it reposted)

     So today we had our lighting tech rehearsal for our dance concert. For Nancy's class, rehearsal was from 9am to 1pm. For Lynn's, it was 1:15 to 5. I'm in both classes so I'm required to be there for the whole day. Although it could have gone better it seemed to go by fairly quickly.

     Nancy started off going through the dances from her Monday and Wednesday classes. She basically wanted to get the beginners out of the way first so they could go home as soon as she was done with them. Fine by me. Any time to warm up is awesome. I know it's lighting and having done this so any times, I know we probably won't actually dance, but shuffle from spot to spot, but I want to be warm just in case. She went through Mischief Makers, Too Darn Hot and The Wedding Celebration. I was in Mischief Makers years ago and the Wedding Celebration music is from Brigadoon, which I was in in 2009. I thought it would be the same choreo but only part of it is, I believe. It was hard to tell as they weren't running the dance but just the spacing.

     The first number we ran that I'm in was the pointe piece, which is titled Pas De Quatre ("Step of Four"). This one, we went through fairly quickly, just stopping a few times for light queues. The music has a Spanish feel, with castanets throughout. Our costumes are black and red and frilly and definitely Spanish looking. We were originally supposed to wear pink tights but we changed Nancy's mind. She sometimes has an awful idea of which tights should go with costumes. She will almost ALWAYS select pink tights, but they don't always look right. We also helped her to see that pink tights would look awful with our black and white dresses for the ballet piece and those are now nude tights. Anyways, we were just doing lighting so we started in different shoes. Kat in her jazz shoes, Sierra barefoot, Lauren in ballet shoes and me in my white wannabe Ked's (my Hairspray/Grease shoes). When Nancy was running Sierra's and Lauren's solos (made so Kat and I have more change time), I took my shoes off because I thought I would look prettier barefoot. So we ran the number kind of (no music) and then we moved on to Raymonda Ballet.

     In this number, Kat is the soloist and does it beautifully. She's so darn adorable and she knows it. lol. This is the number with the black and white costumes. They're so beautiful! I wore one of them when I danced to Listen To Your Heart, which I loved! This number is not too exciting but it's cute. I'm in the core but I have a demi-solo with Sierra. Well, the other girls are doing some cabriolles back and then they do a port-de-bra in a way to present me. I run out, slide my right foot forward and do a port-de-bras, mostly to fill time. Then I do 3 chasse en tournants. I hate those but when Nancy asked who knew how to do them, I was the only one who did. lol. So anyways, I do three of them then do a pique arabesque in center and a bouree turn. Then I do three chasse en tournants to the right as Sierra comes out doing three to the left. So we cross each other. Then we do a pique arabesque and bouree turn all facing away from each other, then coming toward each other, we pique arabesque, recover, pique arabesque, recover, pique arabesque and do a I-forgot-what-it's-called with our backs to each other. Then we develope, pique arabesque past each other and run into another formation with toi, pas de bourees and so on. That dance went pretty smoothly.

     The next dance we did was Danse Macabre. I need to start out by saying that I have no idea what Nancy's problem is with me lately, but she's driving me insane. I have a lead in this number as the devil and she's stressing me the fuck out. I had to get my own devil costume, which I expected. The only one I could find that was anything close to what she wanted was like $70. I liked it but I was afraid just in case Nancy didn't like it. In the end, I couldn't really afford to get it because RENT, but I found a red dress at a thrift store and cut it up to look just like the devil costumes I saw online. All of my friends loved it and it looked pretty good on me, which was awesome, but then Nancy was doing lighting and from the sound booth, she asked me to come forward so she could see the costume. She had mentioned in weeks prior that I could take one of the poofy black and red tutus that she had gotten the demons and I could use it to spruce up my costume. I had no intention of wearing the tutu though because how in the hell do you wear a tutu with a dress? So she's in the sound booth and I stepped forward and everyone starts clapping and whistling, which embarrassed the hell out of me. haha. I'm sure my face matched the red dress. So Nancy says "Didn't I give you one of the tutus?" And I'm like "Yeah..." and my tone said "Yeah, and what the fuck's wrong with what I've got on?!" So she says that it looks like a Flinstone costume and I turned around and walked back upstage, totally pissed. My friends said Nancy's on crack or something because my costume looks good. So Nancy could probably tell that she upset me because she said something like "Well, with the fishnet gloves and " blah blah blah... and then she says asks that I will be wearing black jazz shoes, right? Um, no Nancy. I've only worn black jazz shoes every day but today by pure coincidence. Grr. So we ran the number and it went well and I'm still pissed but dammit, I did awesome.

     Next we did the modern piece, Don't Give Up. The music is by Josh Groban with a song of the same name. It's an anti-suicide piece and one of the better things Nancy has choreographed. The performers split up in two. Half of us are depressed and half are rescuers. I'm a rescuer. Jadie is my depressed beauty. We all start out as a group but then the rescuers run forward and we do something different from the depressed. Then we join our partners and it's partner work for the rest of it, basically. At the end, everyone goes off and Becka, who plays the Jumper, comes up the stairs onto the stage and is about to "jump" but Manny comes onstage, looking like he's trying to talk her off the ledge. She walks back, past him, looking like she's stressed and then runs past him to jump off but he catches her in a lift and it's...beautiful. She runs and jumps again, they do another lift, both lower to the ground and it ends...it's beautiful. It really is.

...and that was only half of my dance day. But I'm out of time. lol