August in Instagram |Dreams That Glitter

It doesn’t really seem like a whole month has passed since I did my last month in instagram post, wow time flies. I’ll try and keep this up if nothing else and in a month’s time you will have September in Instagram!

 

So August has been a lot of dance again, practising with Maisie in the studio, and a lot of book purchases which I am slowly making my way through! You may have noticed I have a bit of an iced coffee addiction too, my top three favourites are Costa Coffee Coolers, McDonalds Mocha Frappucino and Starbucks Triple Caramel Frappucino… I’m craving one right now. I’ve got myself a Costa coffee reward card and then realised that 90% of the time I get my Costa coffee from one of the franchises which you can’t use the cards in…. boo.

Never Miss A Chance To Dance|Dreams That Glitter

These are some photos from Saturday, taken by Maisie (highstreetspy.wordpress.com) when we were dancing in the studio. We’re taking every opportunity we have to go and practice, we’re going again on Friday… I’m going to my nana’s on Saturday until the following Sunday, which means probably no exercise or dance for a whole week, what am I going to do?!

What’s In My Dance Bag?|Dreams That Glitter

A slight twist on the regular ‘What’s in my bag?’ posts! What are your favourite dance products?

Dance bags – top, Sansha; bottom, Capezio

These are my current favourite dance bags. I got them both from Move It back in March. They’re both really good sizes and they’re strong, perfect for carrying everything you might possibly need with you. I don’t travel lightly… I like to have everything I need and more, just in case, you know?

Scissors, safety pins and stick on velcro

These essentials came in very handy for my most recent exam… The velcro on my character skirt came off, but luckily I had spare to put on and save it! Safety pins are an essential whether it’s an exam or a show, you never know who’s going to need one. Having an assorted pack is also handy, then you’ve got every situation covered.

Foot essentials- Resistance Bands and Tennis Ball

Every dancer should own these. Resistance bands come in all different strengths and lengths and are so versatile they can be used in lots of different ways. They are brilliant for strengthening your feet and ankles for pointe work, and even professional ballerinas use them to warm up their feet. You can start with a low resistance one and move up the strengths as you build up your muscles. They can be purchased in any good sports shop or most dance shops, and even on ebay and amazon. You can also get them from your physio. Tennis balls or golf balls are often used by dancers to massage the arches in their feet and this can help with foot flexibility, but they can also be used to relieve tight muscles by rolling the ball around the affected area.

Wella hairspray, bobby pins, hair pins, headband, hair bands, bun doughnut

I love this hairspray, it’s great for keeping all those strays slicked back and holds your bun in place well, but it also brushes out very easily and doesn’t leave your hair hard or sticky afterwards. The bobby pins I have at the moment aren’t great, they have a kind of rough finish and really hurt to get in and out of my hair! The head band and bun doughnut are both from Claire’s, the headband is made out of a really soft stretchy fabric which would fit most heads and finishes off your look, or alternatively could be wrapped around your bun to give it extra staying power. The bun doughnut is great because unlike most, it has a popper, meaning you can undo it and wrap it around your ponytail and simply click it in place again. It’s a bit big for the length of my hair at the moment because it takes me ages to position my hair evenly around it so it’s all covered. I think the rest is pretty self explanatory.

Pink Plume Seamless Footed Ballet Tights 

I’m on my fifth pair of these same tights now, I love them. They’re quite thin so you don’t get too hot in them, and although they can get laddered quite quickly if you’re not careful (long nails aren’t a good idea when putting them on – speaking from experience) but at £3.95 a pair they’re good value for money. In the future I’d like to try convertible tights.

Moving on to shoes…

Freed Classic Pointe Shoes – Size 4.5 XXX

These are my second pair of pointe shoes, my first were Freed Studio II’s, but they didn’t quite work out for whatever reason. They just didn’t work for me I guess. These fit my feet a lot better than the last pair but I’m still struggling a bit, I don’t know if it’s the shoes or me! I would like to try some different brands though as Freeds are the only ones I’ve tried on.

Katz Full Sole Satin Ballet Shoes 

These are my old satin drawstring shoes, I think I had them for about 2 years hence the awful state they’re in… I do love these though, a classic full sole, single elastic pair of shoes.

So Danca Split Sole Canvas Ballet Shoes

I got these from a cute little ballet stall at Move It, and they are my first pair of canvas shoes, and the first time I’ve had split sole shoes. They’re a little tight in a size 4, so if I go for these again I’ll be sure to get a 5 or even a 4.5. I found they got dirty a lot quicker than the satin shoes do, but they’re stronger and haven’t got great big gaping fraying holes in them yet like satin ones would after 5 months no doubt.

Katz Low Heel Character Shoes Size 4

I’ve never had any other kind of character shoe in my life, I’ve only gotten through about 3 pairs in 10 years. These are great, they last ages and fit fine.

Katz Jazz Shoes Size 4

I’ve never had any other jazz shoe other than Katz either. I think I’ve had two pairs in the five or so years that I did modern, and that was only because I grew out of the first pair. These are brilliant, they’re very hard wearing.

PS. The photos were edited by my wonderful friend Maisie 🙂

Coming up… a ‘My Leotard Collection’ post!

To Be A Dancer|Dreams That Glitter

So, I’ve always loved dancing, I’ve done ballet for ten years now, that’s a long time, the majority of my life, in fact. Although I’ve never quit or given up with it, it’s always been in phases – phases where I drift in and out of having my entire life taken over by dancing. Up until late last year, when I decided I wanted to be a dancer. I didn’t admit it to anyone for a while, but then I thought, well if I don’t, how am I going to do it? I can’t work my way there by myself. This year I’ve really focussed in ballet classes (I’ve been doing Grade 8, Inter foundation and started pointe work last September – with a few problems along the way) and I think I have improved quite a lot, because I’m putting more into it.

For about three years prior to that, although I rarely miss a class, I’ve just been there, I haven’t really been there. I’ve just got my way through the class, without taking everything in. I’ve found that I don’t actually have that bad a dance movement memory and actually I can remember syllabus. The whole pointe thing was a bit of a disaster at first, but I’m getting there now, slowly but surely. I still have a lot of work to do on that side of things.

Now I think I know I’m never going to be a prima ballerina, but why not give it my all anyway? Why not give it my best shot and see what happens, with lots of extra stretching and strengthening between classes there could be a big improvement. Realistically I know that to be a dancer I need to be fitter and probably lose weight too to where I’m at now, but I can do that. I’m willing to work for this because I love it, and I know it takes a lot of input to get anything out, and I know it’s a competitive industry and I know it’s not going to be a piece of cake to get where I want to be, but this is my dream, and why shouldn’t I have a good go at it?

I had a careers appointment at school on the last week, and I’m still decided if it was helpful or not, which I guess it wasn’t too much. The lady was lovely but she didn’t really seem to know much about what I was talking about, I’m probably better talking to my dance teacher at school because she’ll know what she’s talking about more. I’ll go see her when we go back. She told me a lot of what I already knew beforehand, like after GCSE’s I basically have three options: college/specialist College, sixth form or an apprenticeship (which isn’t really appropriate for this). What I’ll do is apply for sixth form at my school (here I’d do Dance A level and a dance leaders qualification, and Fashion and Clothing BTEC course which is the only other thing I really want to do there, which is good for a back-up plan if the whole dancer thing doesn’t work out for whatever reason). I looked through all the leaflets I got from Move It back in March, and put aside all the ones that might be of use to me. Much as I’d love to go to a ballet school I’m not sure on my chances about getting in are, I’m short, I don’t have the body (now at least) and I don’t have the best technique in the world, I’m just not sure I have what it takes to be a ballerina, much as I’d love to, and I am prepared to work on that and I will. I think I might be better suited to go more in the direction of contemporary dance, but then in most dance schools both of these styles are compulsory classes, and many schools train their dancers in a variety of different styles.

When I go to Move It next year, I’ll go around and ask about the different colleges and what’s available to me post 16 and post 18 and see what the better route to take is. I have to consider which is going to need more qualifications to get into, but also all the different courses on offer, funding and transport/accommodation. It’s a lot to think about so it’s probably a good thing that I’m starting to think about it now, so I have a while to sort everything out, rather than leaving it all last minute…

So yeah, now I’ve put all that out here, I feel like I have all the more reason to work as hard as I can in dance and try and get into a dance school next year maybe. Or stay on and do A level dance and do as well as I can in that, whatever it is I decide to pick in the end. Either way, I’ll update this blog with everything. If anyone has any advice or experience they’d like to share please do comment and get in touch! 🙂

Summer Fitness|Dreams That Glitter

Me and my friend Maisie are doing a fitness plan for the six weeks we’re off while we have some time off school and dance so we can improve flexibility and such…We might be teaching a dance class for middle/lower school kids at some point too, so we’ve been working on some routines for that. I’m also teaching her ballet technique and some syllabus work so she can start a class in September!

So far we’ve been in the studio twice, usually for around 3 hours at a time… We’re going again on Saturday. We’ve also started yoga and Body Step (a little challenging but great for building stamina?), I’ve been in the gym a couple of times as well. I’m trying to do something active every day, I don’t want a repeat of last summer… Today I went to Armageddon (it’s like circuit training) and zumba with my mum (she’s a fitness instructor). Day off tomorrow though, so it’s all good! Can’t wait to see how much progress we can make by the end of the summer.

And you can’t forget to treat yourself after a good workout… Iced coffee or Costa’s new ‘Coffee Coolers’ are just the best, I totally recommend them.

In Costa

Practicing a bit of pointe work 

My current favourite drink 

Pointe at Last|Dreams That Glitter

Pointe at last…. I feel like I’ve been waiting forever to start pointe work, to get my first pair of pointe shoes, in reality it’s probably been a couple of years. That’s still a long time in my mind… anyway, I got my first pair of pointe shoes yesterday! I’m so happy to finally have them, you’ve absolutely no idea! When I went to get them fitted I just kept panicking that something was going to go wrong, that I wouldn’t be able to get them for some reason – that they wouldn’t have a shoe wide enough for my feet (I was assured by the lady who gave me the shoes not to worry about that, English girls have wide feet, apparently), or they just wouldn’t have any in stock, or the shop would be closed and only open on a day that I couldn’t go… you get the idea. It just seemed too good to be true. But it happened so quick, I was out with them in about ten minutes! I put them on as soon as I got home and of course sneakily had a little go… they were coming on and off my feet all day really.

The only downside now, is that where I do ballet, classes don’t start up again until the 8th August (next Saturday) and I have classes on a Friday (I’m doing Inter Foundation, Beginner’s pointe, and then RAD Grade 8, back to back). But I have to check the shoes with my teacher before I darn them and sew on the ribbons… so that first lesson will just be assessing the shoes I guess…. So basically I have to wait a month to start pointe properly. In fact, 4 weeks from now, I will probably be sitting blogging about it, a little later than it is now.

 

My Freed Studio II pointe shoes, 4EE 🙂

 

Also…

 

 

I sort of feel like my blog is losing it’s original purpose… and I don’t want to do that. It’s becoming more fashion and beauty orientated, which is fine, but my blog is still called ‘If You Believe You Can Achieve’ and it will always be. The original purpose was to share hopes and dreams and opinions, and keep track of achievements and such I guess, so please don’t forget that, I’m trying not to let myself forget that. And NEVER let go of your dreams. Ever.

 

Thanks for reading 🙂