When in doubt, TAP it out!

I am a tapper. There are so many other kinds of dance I've studied in my life. Tap is so different though, because it becomes a part of you to the point where it defines you. It's like, not just another genre of dance. It is it's own separate entity.

That probably didn't make sense...sorry.

Okay, lemme try to explain it this way. There are ways that dancers define themselves. (ie. I am a contemporary dancer; I am a modern dancer; I am a ballet dancer; I am a hip-hop dancer; I am a tap dancer.) And it always seems like you can -- if you're really looking for it -- tell what a dancer's core training is. Their modern movements always have a tiny hint of the angularity and pulse of a hip-hop dancer, or the tiny hint of épaulement and emphasized turn out of a ballerina. But other than an impeccable sense of timing and rhythm (which most every dancer has anyways), you probably couldn't pick out a tapper from a crowd of dancers.

And that, I think, is why tap is so vastly different conceptually. Because it is so vastly different in practice, from all other styles of western dance. It is also, I think, why tap is so often undervalued.

Without tap I would die. I would seriously just stop existing.

When I was little I took tap in combo classes. Our classes were 45 minutes (I think...it was many moons ago) and we would have half an hour of ballet or jazz, then 15 minutes of tap, all in the same class. Back then, I was not a huge fan of tap. It was okay, but I just didn't really care. So when I was 8, I decided to just stop taking it. I didn't feel I needed it.

But then, I saw how much my sister enjoyed tap. And I loved watching the placement tap dances in our studio's recitals. And I began regretting quitting tap. It looked like so much fun. So, when I was 12 I started again, taking a super, super beginner-level tap class. I still had a decent amount of the tap vocabulary, and I remembered a decent percentage of the basic moves. Within a few weeks my teacher at the time -- Miss Rian -- asked if I thought I could handle moving up into one of her higher level (but still not placement) classes. I gave it a shot. And I LOVED it.

The next year I got accepted into the placement 1 tap class. And from there I kept moving up, and I really started to get addicted to tap. After I had been in the top placement level for at least a year, my teacher at that point -- Miss Amber -- started a tap company at our studio. The studio already had a pre-professional Repertory (Rep.) company, a hip-hop company called Ensemble, and a performing gymnastics company called Exhibition, so Tap Co. joined the ranks. I had been a part of each of these different companies at some point, but Tap Co. really stuck with me.

As much as I love all dance, I cannot live without dance in general, there are some days when I just don't feel like going to classes. But I have never felt that way about my tap classes and our company time. When I would have a crappy day and have a ballet or modern class to go to after school, I would often feel like, "ugh, I don't want to have to go to dance today. It's just such a hassle. I don't feel like moving. etc." But on days when I would have tap class and Tap Co., it was always more of "Geeze, this has been such a crappy day. I can't wait to get to tap."

I don't know if they're going to read this or not, but in case they do, this next part goes out to my former tap teachers.

Miss Rian,
Thank you so much for everything you taught me. You really helped to reignite my love for tap, and that means so much! <3

Miss Amber,
You made Tap Co. into a family at a time when everything else felt so disconnected. With all of the injuries and disappointments I had to face in the last couple of years, I felt like a lot of people had just plain given up on me. But you never did, and that was so important to me. I don't think I can ever thank you enough for that. <3
 

Two steps forward, one giant grande jete back...

I seriously envy those dancers who have never had and injury ever. They have no freaking clue how incredibly lucky they are.

I rolled my left ankle (read: bad ankle) in a rehearsal tonight. One second I was doing a triple coupe turn and the next I was lying on the floor. Now, it's not really bad or anything. Worst case scenario it's a first degree and I just need to ice it, rest it, and take it easy in my dance classes for the next couple days. The worst part about the whole thing was that it was at the end of the rehearsal and it was supposed to be the last run thru of the dance before we gave up the UC studio. So there were about a million people waiting to use the studio who saw me bite the ground.

Okay, so it wasn't a million. But it was like fifteen or so people, and that's still not the most ideal of situations.

I've said it a hundred times, but I'm just sick of this. Even after my multiple sprains, and a surgery, and months of PT, it's still a liability to me. It pisses me off.

I'll be fine. I am fine. I'm just pissed and in a mood to rant. Lo siento.

Different people, different priorities

Recently, a surprising number of girls I just graduated high school with have been getting engaged and married.

My first thoughts? :

I just don't get it! Why in the world would you get married straight out of high school? Why not go off to college, establish your career, travel a million places, have a million awesome experiences before settling down!? It just doesn't make sense to me.

But then again, it's not me. It's them. It's their lives, and experiences, and dreams. They are different people with an entirely different set of priorities than I have. I have trouble thinking outside of my own head sometimes. Understanding others. Other people's thinking just doesn't compute for me.

I have been obsessed with dance and performing since the second I first set foot on a stage when I was three years old. I get really tunnel-vision-y sometimes. All I can think about is "My career. My career. My career." And I think that's just how I am. My career will always be the most important thing to me.

Most little girls dream of getting married and having kids. Not me. It's just never really been a goal of mine. Of course, when I was little I guess I probably assumed I'd get married and have kids someday. But it was just never that big of a deal to me in the grand scheme of things. So now that I'm "an adult" and I'm "in the real world" (but not - as my sister puts it - in the real, real world) I quite frankly don't give a crap if I get married or not. I know that I don't really want kids. But getting married? Meh. It'll happen or it won't.

But that's what makes me so different from these girls I see getting married just months out of high school.

For me, it's : Career first. Everything else second.
For them, it's : This is my life. This is how I want to live it. I love this person and cannot imagine a life without them.

It's truly just a matter of having different priorities.

If you are one of those girls I'm referring to, I can't say I understand your priorities, but I most certainly respect them. So congratulations! I wish you nothing but the very best, and I hope that you and your husband/fiancee have a long and happy life together!

Just Kidding!

If you will recall, in my last post I listed a whole bunch of things I missed about home, and how I only had to wait three more weeks until Thanksgiving.

Well that was a load of bull-crap.

Because...... I WENT HOME THE NEXT DAY!!!

In fact, I had been planning to come home that weekend for about a month! Friday morning I got up at 7am and took a cab to Union Station where I got on the Megabus and left Chicago at 9am. I got into Columbus around 5pm Ohio-time and then went to the final Buckeye Valley football game of the season. All of my marching band friends thought I wasn't coming home until Thanksgiving (because that was the straight-up lie I'd been feeding them all on Facebook for weeks) so when I got there they kind of freaked out. My friend Maddy ran down the steps of the bleachers before skipping the last two steps and jumping -- quite literally -- on my face. My friend Sydney literally did a double take when she saw me. And I got to see their amazing half-time show for the first time! The next day I went into town and I got to see my friend Cara for a bit, and I got to surprise Knox by going to his band's show that night. His mom had told him that they had to stop by my house on the way to the show so my dad could buy one of the band's new shirts to send to me. But it was really to pick me up to go to the show. Which, by the way, was awesome.

Basically this past weekend was freaking fantastic.

And now -- for real -- it's only three weeks until I'm home for Thanksgiving. Then once, I'm back after Thanksgiving it's only three weeks until Christmas break starts.

I can handle three week increments.

Things I miss.

This is just gonna be a super short post.

Basically I'm home sick. I have three more weeks until I can come home for Thanksgiving and at this point I'm practically counting down the days. So I think I'm just going to make a list of some of the things I miss.

I miss my friends.
I miss marching band.
I miss my Guardies (my color guard girls) <3.
I miss spending my Friday nights with the aforementioned marching band and Guardies.
I miss the smell of fall.
I miss seeing cornfields (I seriously thought I'd never say that).
I miss show choir.
I miss going to metal shows and such.
I miss trees. Like, real trees. Not the occasional tree in the middle of the sidewalk. Like, forests.
I miss my sister.
I miss HP-Ohio and Harry Huddles.
I miss my house.
I miss my bed.
I miss Goat, my fish.
I miss going to the Mean Bean get coffee to write blog posts.

Three weeks...I can make it!

I think.

Changes

Starting in January of next year I think I am going to be abandoning this blog. My goal was to blog for a year and as of December 31, 2011 I will have accomplished that goal.

I will not be abandoning blogging as a whole -- I surprised myself with how much I enjoy blogging -- just this specific blog. (I will introduce my new blog URL closer to the end of the year.) I am also going to be consolidating my YouTube and Gmail accounts. Right now I have 2 YouTube accounts that are subscribed to essentially the same set of channels, and 3 Gmail accounts thanks to my Columbia email address being via Gmail.

I also hope to use my winter break to download and get familiar with a good video editing software. Then, hopefully, I will start vlogging on my primary YouTube channel. (I will also provide that username -- to anyone who wants to follow my vlogs -- closer to the end of the year.)

I have some other plans in the works but they're going to require some more thinking and planning before I know if they'll work out for sure.

<3 Alicia

Are YOU a Nerdfighter!?

If not, you should be. 

I'll let John and Hank take it from here...

Thank you John and Hank.

I am a Nerdfighter. I've introduced a lot of people to the concept of Nerdfightaria but with a lot of my friends I don't think it's really stuck. I've shown them this video when they've asked what a Nerdfighter is, I've explained my DFTBA bracelet and what DFTBA means when they've asked, I've explained Wizard Rock when they've asked. And while my friends always say things like,  "Oh my gosh! That's so cool. These guys are awesome! Etc." I don't think they ever watch another Vlogbrothers video again. Which is fine. I mean, if they don't want to visit YouTube once in a while to check up on Nerdfightaria, then that's totally their choice and totally fine. I don't hold it against them or anything. It just sometimes makes me feel like there's this world -- and is in fact, a whole other world -- that means the world to me and the people who mean the most to me just aren't interested at all. Kind of like how I feel about chemistry: It's fascinating and I appreciate it's use and place in my life, but I don't care to learn about it or pay attention to it...ever.

The internet has changed my life. I would not be the girl who LOVES being a geek, and decreasing worldsuck, and tries to NFTBA (Never Forget To Be Awesome), and likes to "positive prank" (ie. Ding-ding ditching but leaving a package of tootsie-pops on the doorstep), if it weren't for the internet.

This is something that means so much to me that I can't even imagine how it can't mean anything to everyone else in the world. GAAAHHHHH! FRENCH THE LLAMA it makes me frustrated!

But that's just this Nerdfighter's opinion.

DFTBA