I’m Still Alive |Dreams That Glitter

I barely even remember the last time I blogged wow… I have absolutely no idea if there’s anyone left to read this as my blog has been completely and utterly abandoned and neglected for about a year! But I guess I kind of want to start this up again, at least for the summer – how else am I supposed to spend the next 6 weeks I have off school? (Ignoring the mountain of work I have to do before we go back, eek).

So I guess this post is just going to be a little life update and then I’ll start planning some posts properly, maybe even queue a few and have a set day to post them. Maybe. There’s also just as much chance of me writing this post and then not returning for another year…

Anyway. So as I said, I’ve just finished my first year of sixth form, I’m studying Fashion & Clothing BTEC and A Level Dance, I did Drama at AS as well but I finished it so long ago and I’ve been so busy with everything else that it kinda feels like I never did. Fashion literally takes up ALL of my spare time, it’s a double qualification equivalent to 2 A Levels so we have 10 hours a week, and basically all of my frees are spent in the department as well desperately trying to meet deadlines etc… I might do another separate post about the course and some of the things I’ve made at some stage?

So when I’m not doing Fashion, I’m dancing – my life basically revolves around dance entirely now, more than it ever has before. I’ve been on the Hertfordshire CAT Scheme this year (we have our final performance at The Place next week ahh!!) and that’s been really good, I’m also now in a local youth dance company so I’ve done a few different projects with them and I’m carrying on with that next year too. I did my Intermediate ballet exam last week as well, so now I’m officially an advanced ballet student… and I’ve been helping my ballet teacher with some of the younger classes which I’ve really enjoyed and hope to do more of when we go back!

Now I’ve got 7 weeks of dance supposedly… I looked at doing a residential intensive but decided to use my money to start learning to drive instead (I’ve had about 15 hours now so probably about half way there, I’d like to pass my test by the end of the year ideally). Last year I did a 3 day intensive at Hot House Dance and did workshops with Rambert, Akram Khan, Wayne McGregor and Richard Alston company members which was all amazing, there was a range of styles across the few days including ballet, contemporary and commercial. Unfortunately that isn’t happening this year, and another course that I applied for got cancelled due to lack of numbers… But I am hopefully doing a 5 day intensive at Rambert in a few weeks but it’s not booked yet so not entirely finalised… (watch this space).

Staying on the subject of dance… I auditioned for the English Youth Ballet production of The Sleeping Beauty in Stevenage a few weeks ago, I didn’t get in on the day but they put me on the waiting list and then contacted me a couple of weeks later offering me a place! The casting day was last week and I’m one of the ‘Guests’ which obviously isn’t a major part but I think I’ll be en pointe for the whole thing and should get a couple of dances, so I’m really excited and think it’s going to be a fantastic experience. The performance is in October so we have a few intensive weekend rehearsals from September-October; it’s going to be completely exhausting but totally worth it!

I think that’s it for now… I’m not really sure when I’ll post again but I’d like to get back into it.

Thanks for reading!!

Ballet Show Feburary

On stage at the London Coliseum after an English National Ballet Workshop

Meeting Dianna Agron after seeing her perform in McQueen

With my mum at the Red Nose Day Danceathon

Fitness Event: The Armageddon Project |Dreams That Glitter

Above ~ one of my freebie t-shirts from Sunday

I’ve been meaning to do this post all week but I’m only just getting round to it now, Friday evening as I’m sat watching The Face (I can’t decide if I actually like this show, all the bitchiness is putting me off a bit, it’s a bit annoying) as ballet is cancelled due to my teacher not being in the country…

Last Sunday I spent the day in a sports hall full of sweaty people for 7 hours, basically. I was at an event called ‘The Armageddon Project’ which involved a lot of hard work, in a few words. It started with an Armageddon class, which if you don’t know is HIIT training – High Intensity Interval Training. After warming up you have so many stations and go round each for 45 seconds each and a 10 second change over in between each one. By about half way round you want to die… And if you’re not working hard enough you get taken to the naughty step…

If any of you in the UK watch The Biggest Loser then you might know that Richard Callender is one of the trainers on the show and Armageddon is his thing. Basically he’s injured and came in on crutches on Sunday after everyone thought he wouldn’t be there at all, and he sat at the back and watched everyone. When I got round to the burpees station I was right in front of them and when I stopped for a few seconds he stood up behind me and pulled my hair to get me back to work and it made me laugh because I didn’t even see him move even though he was right there next to me… my mum found it even more hilarious as she went round the stations with me.

The next class was Urban Funk which was a bit like zumba mixed with street dance, usually it builds up to be a routine at the end but this time it was different and more like zumba in the sense that it was just one track routines that didn’t build up to anything. After that was a class I can’t remember the name of but it was basically more interval training.

Next it was Fierce Pilates and it was definitely fierce. It hurt. A lot. It was then Total Conditioning which also hurt rather a lot, by which point I really just wanted to curl up in the corner… There was zumba after that, which was a bit more relaxing if even a little boring… I’m so bored of zumba it’s unreal.

That’s 6 classes, and the last one of the day was a much needed stretch! I think I recovered from all the aches and pains about yesterday… First lesson on Monday I conveniently had PE and had to do fitness tests I thought I was going to do… I had to do agility tests, flexibility and the 12 minute cooper run – after about two laps my legs were burning… and having just done our exercise plans in previous lessons we were supposed to beat all of our results from the previous tests and mine weren’t getting better on account of the fact I could barely walk without wincing… Then on Tuesday I had a dance exam and our set dance involves a lot of rolling around the floor and being quite mobile which I definitely was not (I still managed to get an A/B though. By Wednesday I could walk normally again so that was ok… until last night when I had to do mum’s weekly Armageddon class.

Wow ok so I didn’t mean for this post to be so long but there you go… Now you all know what I was up to last Sunday, and I don’t have a lot else to say but fancied writing a post. Tomorrow I’m working from 8 till about 5, two separate jobs… so yeah um that’ll be fun.

It’s a Dance Life |Dreams That Glitter

 

Happy Friday everyone!

Thought I’d post a little update on everything dance related I’m doing at the moment. I’d like to start off by saying I don’t think I could be doing much more dance if I tried right now, the amount of choreography in my head is insane, I’m afraid it might explode if much more has to go in there. I’m doing dance on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and some Saturdays extra practice… That includes three different dance clubs at school including dance company which I think I like the most. We’ve pretty much finished our first piece for the show in December based on The Matrix. That’s another thing, I’m currently working towards three different shows at the moment too…There’s the one at school that has a movie theme, which I’m in like half of because of all the clubs I’m doing…

I went to sixth form opportunities evening last night because we have to submit our provisional choices forms so they can make the timetable (I’m going to sixth form at the school I’m at already). Beforehand I knew I was definitely going to take Dance but I went into the department anyway even though I had no questions, and my dance teacher saw me and was like ‘Lauren, I have a question for you!’  and she asked me to do a solo for the christmas show and after a bit of persuasion I agreed, so that’s something else I have to choreograph. It can be anything, but it has to be to a song from a movie. So far my best suggestions seem to be Moon River from Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Flashdance, but if anyone would like to suggest something else that’s not The Matrix, James Bond or Jai Ho, I’d very much like some more options! 

Then there’s another show which I’m doing and did last year because I’m helping my friend choreograph a contemporary piece for the street dance club which is all good fun. We taught the chorus of the song ‘Two Pieces’ by Demi Lovato last week and it seemed to go down pretty well, and hopefully we’ll have it all choreographed and taught and perfected in time (we haven’t actually finished choreographing yet). 

Finally there’s ballet, but that show isn’t until February so I don’t need to stress about that just yet. I have trouble remembering the choreography for a whole week though so… I’m in two dances at the moment but I think that’s going to go up because I’m in some of the highest level, and the fact we’ve already finished a dance in October, I doubt that’s all we’re going to be doing until February. I’m quite anxious to see whether a pointe dance gets put in, we’ve been doing pointe over a year now… 

This week I had my GCSE set study ‘Find It’ mock exam, and got a B (23-4/30) which I’m okay with but I’m hoping to bump it up to an A for the final exam which I have next Tuesday. I have a video recording of the mock, so I’m tempted to post it on here and see if anyone can give me some constructive criticism to help me improve for next week 🙂 

Hope you all have a fantastic weekend, I’m going to be quite busy, I’m off to London tomorrow to meet up with some friends and then on Sunday I’m going to an Armageddon fitness event with my mum, which includes me doing about 6 hours exercise and then struggling to walk for the rest of the week. Fun! Somewhere in there I have to make time for art, science and textiles homework as well as learning a 300 word spanish piece for my writing exam on Tuesday… There’s not enough hours in the day!

X

Dance is painful! My bruises from ‘Find It’

September in Instagram |Dreams That Glitter

 

 

 

It just occurred to me I haven’t done my monthly Instagram post yet as I have the past few months and I wanted to keep that up so here we go.

 

 

 

I think you can clearly see what happens when I go back to school… The lack of pictures here is also because I had to delete the Instagram app off my iPod for a while (I re-downloaded it a few days ago) because the memory on it is so bad (8gb which I think they’ve actually stopped producing because the software takes up so much space these days??? I’m hoping for a new one for christmas). So here’s September, or some of it, a lot of it having been consumed by school. From top to bottom there’s a ring I bought for £2.99 from H&M (bargain!), my signed Kimberley Walsh book (a new prized possession), a drawing of the cast of a pointe shoe for my art coursework, my Madonna fancy dress outfit and my ballet results which have already been posted here previously. Not of immense interest I know! However I think there will be a few more pictures for October 🙂 Hope you’re all having a good month! 

Where did summer go? |Dreams That Glitter

Well, I seemed to have taken an unintentional break from blogging for the past week or so, I really didn’t mean to, I thought I was back on track with getting those stats up, but clearly not. This is actually what happened last year too, I blogged a lot in July/August time and slowly drifted back out of the loop… this time I blame the fact that I had to delete the WordPress app on my iPod because I didn’t have any space for it to stay. 

I’d say I’ve been busy, but I’m not really sure I have to be honest… I guess I have sort of. Last Monday I went on a boat trip with my family, we got up a bit too early for my liking and spent the whole day on a boat (don’t ask my what kind of boat it was, all I can tell you is that it had an engine and went about 4mph) so that was quite fun. We just sat in the sun, occasionally getting up to change the locks. 

I’ve been working a few shifts in the library volunteering too (I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this before but you’re going to hear it again). Basically I had to sit behind a desk with a bright green lanyard round my neck while children came up to the desk and told me about all the books they’ve read, and in return I gave them stamps and rewards. Oh and at the end of it (I did about 20 hours over the six weeks I think) I got a little goody bag which included a couple of books, chocolate, a pen, and a voucher to get out a dvd/audio book from the library for free. 

On Friday I went shopping in Milton Keynes with my friends and had a lovely day, I can’t wait to do something like that again soon. We’re planning a mass sleepover with all our internet friends soon, it’ll be epic… 

 

Friday’s only purchase (other than coffee)… can’t wait to start reading this, I’ve heard it’s the best one in the series

 

New schools shoes I got today… I also managed to find some leggings for dance that aren’t completely see through too, which is quite an achievement

 

On Saturday after I went to a step class I worked in the Coffee Pot from 1-5, my friend worked there for work experience and got a saturday job there, and they needed extra help so she called on me. £20 later, I’m hoping they’ll call on me again some time. 

I’ll admit first of all that I’m a real wimp when it comes to theme parks, and on Sunday I went to Thorpe Park with my family. It was an ok day, I mean considering I didn’t go on much it wasn’t that bad (I may or may not have spent a few hours reading fanfiction whilst the others went on big roller coasters, sshhh). The biggest thing I went on was the log flume, because I don’t mind water rides… I would feel guilty if mum had paid for me to go in because it’s like £30+ entry, but luckily I have a blue peter badge which means I get in free so that’s not an issue! Otherwise I’d probably have stayed at home. 

I can’t believe it’s September already, I go back to school on Thursday, boo! Still haven’t touched my homework, oops… I only have dance and there’s a competition in textiles I was planning on entering but I haven’t done any work on it so… (I just want to go to the clothes show). I should probably learn some spanish vocab as well but I don’t have the concentration for that. Oh and I’ve got to read Jekyll and Hyde for english, oh the joys… Speaking of reading, I finally finished Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix yesterday, I only started it in like January… I just kept getting distracted and reading other books instead – shameful I know. So I‘m aiming to finish the series by the end of the year at least. I think I’m gonna read Looking For Alaska next though. 

I guess I’ll try and blog at least once or twice a week from now on, I don’t think I’ll have enough to blog about to make it every day, let alone the time when school starts back, and I might actually have to revise and stuff this year as it’s my GCSE year, I probably should stop winging it and put in a little more effort. I should get my ballet exam results back next week too, eeeek! I’m kinda nervous, I’m not sure if I even want to know what I got oh god. Ok that’s it for now, you’re all updated with my post of excuses for lack of blogging. 

 

Why are people so afraid?|Dreams That Glitter

 So it’s past midnight and this might not make much sense when I read it back tomorrow or whenever, but I’m going to go ahead and post it anyway. It’s just something that’s been on my mind for a while now. I don’t even know if anyone still reads this blog but hey ho.

Why are people so afraid of what they want? Afraid to go out and get something they’ve been wanting for such a long time, afraid to chase their dreams? Even if they have everything they need to achieve what they want, and are perfectly capable of it, they let the opportunity pass by because they’re afraid. Of what though? 

Self doubt is a big reason. I’m included in this, I’ll admit. I don’t always have faith in myself and I know it’s silly because I tell other people they should believe in themselves more all the time, yet I can’t do that myself. Not all the time anyway. Why is that so difficult? Who knows? I think pressure from family or friends comes into it sometimes, but mainly pressure from society. Pressure to succeed. Pressure to do well from start to finish, but sometimes it’s just not as easy as that.

It takes time to get what you want, and it takes a lot of hard work. But in the right mind set and making sure you’re well equipped for what it is that you want to achieve whether it be anything from loosing weight to getting the career you want, anyone can do whatever they want with their lives. 

There’s too much pressure – on teenagers in particular – to be ‘perfect’. Have a perfect body, a flawless complexion or be in line with the latest fashion trends, but is that what’s really important in life? Are people that are ‘lucky’ enough to have all those things really, truly happy? Probably not. Because it’s not all it’s cracked up to be.

If you have a goal with what you want in life, then go and chase it, and do anything and everything you can to make it happen. Because with the right positivity you can do it. You can get there. You don’t have to be like your mum, your dad, anyone else in your family, or your friend. You don’t have to be like your idol, or any celebrity you see on tv or in magazines. You are you. You are your own person. And if there’s something you want to do with your life, then you deserve it. A friend once told me ‘If people aren’t laughing at your dreams, then they aren’t big enough.’ 

❤