Blast from the past! While I danced for the Chargers, I was one of thirteen girls chosen from the team to go on a tour for the Armed Forces Entertainment, and visit Army and Navel bases in Japan, Guam, and Hawaii. Above is a video from one of our performances that I hosted and got the audience to participate in a little pushup contest with an unexpected winner :)
During this trip, we performed multiple times, taught master classes for the kids on the bases, had calendar and poster signings, and were taken on tours of the bases. Above, I have included a video of one of our performances on the Anderson Base in Guam, as well as below, a few photos taken during the trip. In an overall sense, the trip was an unimaginably humbling experience but also a time of non-stop fun!
Lunch With the Soldiers
Fire Truck in Japan
Performance in Guam
More from the Guam Performance
Sight-seeing in Japan.. Which was also my 21st Birthday!
Michelle, Kylette and Me in firefighting gear
On to the Showstoppers competition I attended last weekend. I have never been so proud of my girls and for their first competition, all four of my dances did wonderfully! My youngest girls who performed Far Far look angelic and all the judges agreed! They received gold first for their dance. The next to perform was my soloist Mia dancing to Black Widow and she earned a Platinum First as well as 10th over all, work!! My third routine was That's Not My Name which got 4th overall and they looked fierce! Finally, my last dance to perform was Creator and those girls blew me away! They got Platinum First and the best remarks from the judges. YAY! Next competition is in two weeks and I cannot wait :)
I just returned from a weekend in Orlando, Florida for the UDA Nationals Competition. My little sisters were competing in Pom and Jazz and I must say it was one exhausting blast! The girls were wonderful and received fifth overall for their jazz routine choreographed by Jaci Royal (one of my idols and instructors growing up), and sixth overall for their pom routine. AMAZING CHICKAS! If you go to the link below and search Chaparral Pom Jazz, you can find the girls jazz video and believe me its so worth it!!
As for my personal update, I have finished my three competition routines for the studio I teach at in Chino and they will be competing those dances this weekend. I'm so excited but I feel like its even more nerve racking being on the teaching side of things! I have also gotten things completely set up with my new agency DDO and I begin teaching at a studio in Pasadena this weekend. So many things going on and they are all amazing! Expect videos of my dances to be on here next week, but in the mean time I want to share a dance I am choreographing for fun. It is to Mike Posner's Please Don't Go and I hope you all enjoy! Please forgive the less than professional video, I have been having quite a bit of trouble getting my camera to work with my video editing programs but I should have it figured out soon!
I must dedicate this post to my assistant Sarah. She is an incredible person and a fierce dancer, and I don't use fierce lightly. This past weekend, she attended the PULSE convention in San Fran, and earned herself two scholarships. Work :) Above is a video of the two us dancing a routine to Watch Me Burn by Rhianna and Eminem. Its one of those that sticks with you and yet you can never do it enough.
And now another blast from the past!
Last summer, I was given the opportunity to put together a six member dance team to travel to China and dance for an American All Star team. The event was held in Hangzhou, two games were played, one televised, and we performed multiple routines in both games.
The USA Starlettes
For the first time, after being a part of two professional teams, I was to head my own. I had to assemble the team, do all of the choreography, coordinate practices, put together two costumes on a budget, and all of the other responsibilities of a coach. Not only this, but I was also one of the dancers in the team. It was amazing and things went quite smooth! Hope you enjoy the pictures and I hope to find footage of the dances soon!
During last summer (2010) I taught an advanced jazz class in Chino, California, and found this exciting clip of some of the girls doing my routine:
The song is by The XX and titled Islands. These girls are some incredible dancers, ranging from age ten (the shortest girl in the video) to fifteen. I can tell you right now, there is no way I could handle this kind of dance at such a young age. It is like we are growing prodigies here in the US.... crazy! Special shout out to Sarah in the video, my assistant and bestest buddy :) adore you darlin! Hope you all enjoy the style!
Snapshot from the video
I also danced in the "Eenie Meenie" music video with Justin Bieber and Sean Kingston during the summer. It was so great and I must say those boys' kicks beat mine 100%, especially Biebers purple nikes... amazing! Below are a few snap shots of myself in the video, it was so much fun!
I would like to begin this blog with a shout out to my twin little sisters (only little by age) Hailey and Kirsti. These two just competed in Arizona's State Pom competition and not only got 1st over all for their jazz and pom routines, but they also won high score above everyone in the entire competition in both divisions. So proud of my girls!
So on with the blog! Above I share an extremely rough cut of three dances I am choreographing for a studio out in Chino, CA. I currently am working on a 5-7 year old lyrical routine to Far Far by Neil Yam, a 12-14 year olds solo to Queen Bee (shown), a 12-16 year old jazz routine to Creator by Santigold (shown), and another jazz for 8-12 year olds to Thats Not My Name by the Ting Tings (shown). Before the holiday break, my sisters came out to visit me. Hailey's boyfriend came and surprised her from long beach while my sister Kirsti came with me to dance and we collaborated on some of the choreography. I must say it was rad! Dream team? Perhaps. :) The video has only me and the dancers in it but hopefully a cameo of both my sisters will come soon. Enjoy!!
