Days with the Dorans

This week was intense for many reasons. Al danced from 9-6 then M-W went to friends to work on student choreography until 7:30 or 8ish and then sometimes came home and danced more! On Thursday she danced 9-6 and had a little show at 6:15. We got home after 8 and on Friday she had auditions. She was bumped up from her last year's auditions which meant learning a lot more choreography and I have no idea how she kept it all straight but she did. HERE is a video of the combos she learned and we all agree Ali is NOT a hip hop dancer! In the end we let her be cast in four numbers. She got a jazz, tap, small group tap and lyrical. She was also cast in only one understudy this year (yeah! I actually wrote that on her sheet) which was an "Open" which I think will be neat. She has some funny stories from the week which will go down in history but not meant for the blog.  See... I am not a TOTALLY open book (but pretty close I know...)

So Al just completed her Intensive Week and Auditions for the Classy Dancer Team.  I relate it to a sort of "Hell Week" in sports. She dances Monday- Thursday 9-6 but also practiced one night with friends until 8:30. Every night (even after the night with friends) she was practicing on her own. She even taught Seany the Hip-Hop combo even though she wasn't trying out for that. Auditions were on Friday from 8:30-3:30. Ali Jane grew so much as a dancer this year and I wish I would have taped her last "show"~ which is where they perform their combinations and student choreography for parents (since we aren't allowed in auditions). Despite her growth, she is still not confident in herself which made me sad. She often talks about demonstrating and the nice compliments she gets from teachers and friends but during the 'show' she always went near the back. When I asked her to move up she said, "I don't know this one that well" even thou...