Hello Everyone!

What motivates you?

I have many motivating factors.  Whether it be with my kids, my husband, with my daughter’s dance or son’s sports, it’s requires motivation.  It is about completing a job well done.  I always reach for higher expectations than I could go for.  There is no job I take on to do half way.  I think that in life when you give more than you have to, you will almost never regret putting the effort in.  Even if the outcome isn’t what I expected or hoped for at times, it still makes it all worth it.

Of course there are always the wins.  The times where you reach high…almost too high and you surprised yourself.  There is never shame in shooting for the stars, even if you fall short.  There is only shame in not trying hard enough.

So now I ask…what will you reach for next?  How high will you strive to climb with that dream?

Hello Everyone!

My name is Shelli, and as you might guess this is my first blog…ever! Not exactly sure what I am doing but I’m going to wing it anyway.  I guess the best place to start is to give you a little history about myself.

To begin I wear a LOT of hats in life.  Like most moms I am completely twisted and pulled in many different directions.  I am to begin a mother of 3 amazing kids (I know we all say that…but they really are).  My kids are very close in age but for the next month I don’t get to look completely insane and tell you that my kids ages are 21, 21, and 19.  Until my baby turns 20 March 2^nd.  Then the head scratching begins when I say my kids are 21, 21, and 20!  So yes I did have twins (boy & girl) and a 3^rd just 15 months later.  They are a dancer/business owner, a senior at Chapman University (Graduating with top honors), and a sophomore at Idaho State who also plays football for them!

But aside from a mother of 3, I am a wife of 23 years, a business owner for the last 20 years, the matriarch of my entire family. I am also a grantie (yes that’s spelled right) of 5 nieces, mother to my 4 dogs, 3 cats, 3 bothers, 1 sister and sometimes my Husband & my father.  I am also partner in a dance wear business with my daughter, and the PR & Special Projects Manager for Discount Dance Supply.

So what does that have to do with my knowing anything about dance and dancers?  Well, I guess it begins with my daughter.  She’s an amazing young woman who has navigated her way thru the maze of being a student, a competitor, a protégé, a professional, a teacher, a judge, and a business owner…all in the world of dance.  And I have been there with her every step of the way. And even now that she is walking her own path and needing her mommy less and less in her journey, I find myself back head first into the dance world with DDS!  So without a conscious effort dance and the dance world have been a very big part of my life for 15 years now.

What I would like to accomplish with blogging is to talk.  About every possible subject I can either speak with relative confidence about.  I know that as a mother of a dancer, there were so many moments that I needed a friend…a confidant…an advisor who knew the road I was on.  Hopefully I can provide some of this to you.  I have been thru it all as a mother of a ballerina and now out there watching it all from different angles in the business world of dance and competitions.  So feel free to comment back to me…ask questions…give me your thoughts.

I want to leave you with some questions to begin the conversation….

What’s your goal in dance with your child?  What motivates you?  What motivates them?

Setting Makeup

I love this trick!

After applying your foundation and powder, I like to set my makeup either with a spray, or with…….a Baby Wipe.

I know some of you are thinking that this sounds very strange, but it works. This is also a great way to soak up oil on your skin after a long day of dance, or even at school. It refreshes your makeup, absorbs oil, and gives you a nice clean finish.

It’s easy. All you do is take a baby wipe, and gently press it into your skin. Your powder will come off a lbit on the cloth, but that’s ok. The rest of it will soak into your skin and stay put!

If you feel oily or blah after wearing your makeup all day, do this and you will have a refreshed look!

A spray that is good is either an evian spray, or a makeup setting spray called “Model in a Bottle” I think I’ve talked about this before.

In the Opera world they use aresol hairspray as well (EWWWWWWW, can you imagine)? I think the baby wipe works the best!

Good Luck!

Hi everyone!

Hope you’re all doing well and are enjoying your last days of February. Well, this has certainly been an eventful weekend for me. This past week we had our MFA Concert, which went very well, and my fiancé, mother, and grandma were all here to support me. My fiancé, Chester, had a very difficult time flying into the city due to the snow storm last Thursday and Friday, but after a whole 20 hours of traveling and diverting to Chicago he finally made it here Friday afternoon. I was so glad because he can only stay for 3 days!

Anyway, they were all here to see my first group piece choreographed at Tisch and I was so glad. I felt like I received a lot of positive feedback from my colleagues and faculty. I actually didn’t think I was going to be choreographing much when I first came to Tisch, but after being inspired by my colleagues and my composition teacher I really felt up for the challenge. I am so glad that I took the chance to produce some work because it was very fulfilling. Here’s a link to a video of the piece:

I’m going to be submitting this piece to the Raw Festival for the Dance Now Organization of NYC. It’s a studio series designed to promote emerging choreographic voices and artists previously unseen by the Producers of DanceNOW[NYC]. This is what the site says, “While serving as a means to identify works for the Fall Festival at the Dance Theater Workshop, this program provides valuable exposure for artists, as well as access to a rich peer network, subsidized photographers, videographers, and producers from other dance presenters in New York City.” This will be a great way to try and begin to market myself outside of the school and in NYC. I’m hoping this will be a good starting point for myself not only as a dance, but as a choreographer as well.

Other than the performance it has been absolutely amazing having my family and fiancé here with me in the city. My fiancé, Chester, has never even seen my whole get up here in the city yet so it has been exciting to show him my tiny apartment and my school. I wish he could stay longer, but he of course has to go back to work.

During this past weekend I also got to go wedding dress shopping with my mom and grandma!!! I knew this would be the only time they would both be in NYC together so I thought this was a perfect opportunity to schedule an appointment at Kleinfeld. I found the PERFECT dress. Actually, there were 2. I loved the bodice from one dress and the skirt from another. Since they both were created by the same designer (Pnina Tornai) AND since she was in town for her trunk show I was able to personally ask her if she could combine the two designs together for me. She was delighted and loved the idea! It was quite a fun experience trying on dresses and so much fun. To try and get the idea of the look of both the designs together I actually got to wear BOTH dresses. You could see the bodice from one and the skirt from the other OVER the one I had on. It was quite heavy with all that material on me, but I definitely got to see the real picture of how it would look like. Everyone in the store who walked by were “ooh-ing and ah-ing” at the dress. The designer especially loved it. They all told me that I absolutely HAD to send pictures of my dress from my wedding. The dress is absolutely PERFECT and I can’t wait to see Chester’s face when he sees it at the ceremony . If you’d like to see a picture of the dress you’ll have to email me personally: fishortyfi@gmail.com. It has to be a surprise for Chester!

…..

Some disheartening news…our puppy, Ernie has been diagnosed with glaucoma and for those of you who are unfamiliar with this – it’s a disease that eventually leads to blindness. We’ve known about this for 3 weeks now, but we are still hoping that since he is only  a year old that it can be reversed. He’s currently receiving eye drops (very expensive ones) 4 times a day to try and reduce the pressure that is forming behind his eye. Without the drops he would be suffering from terrible migraines constantly due to the pressure behind his eye. At this point we are hoping that the pressure will decrease in both eyes. The right one seems to be back to normal, but the left is still having issues. If the pressure doesn’t go down then he will need major surgery to remove the eye. And since the dogs are in Juneau Ernie would have to be driven through Canada down to Seattle because there aren’t any eye dog specialists in Juneau. There isn’t an option to send him by plane either because of the pressure in his eyes. Chester and I are still hoping that by some miracle our puppy will make it through and will only have to deal with eye drops. However, we’ve been very stressed about the situation and are both fearing the financial ramifications that come along with this disease. Everyone keep Ernie in your prayers and hope that he can somehow get better. We both can’t stand to see our puppy suffer. This disease is apparently hereditary, but our breeder says that Ernie’s parents have no history of glaucoma. There’s no way we could have anticipated this.

Anyway, we are trying to stay hopeful and positive. I will be flying to Juneau in 2 weeks during my spring break to help take care of Ernie and to visit Chester and our other baby, Emma. Right now I’m trying to enjoy the time I have to spend with Chester.

Hope everyone had a great February! Keep Ernie in your prayers!

Competition season is upon us, and this is such a great experience for dancers, but it can also be very stressful.  I have come up with a list of competition essentials to help dancers get through this crazy time.

#1 – Get plenty of sleep.  If you are not well rested, there are greater chances of injury and forgetting choreography.  Get at least 7 hours of sleep the night before you compete so you can be refreshed and ready to go in the morning!

#2 – Always eat something.  Your body depends on food to give you energy.  If you are performing all day, you are going to need plenty of energy to perform your best.  Make sure to eat plenty of fruits and light carbohydrates.  Stay away from junk food and heavier foods that may make you feel too full.

#3 – Always have an extra pair of tights.  You never know what can happen when dancing on stage, and there is always a chance that you will get a big run in your tights during a performance.  If those are the only tights you have, you will be stuck with them for the rest of the competition.  Another mini tip: Have clear nail polish on hand; if you put this around the run, it prevents the hole from getting bigger.

#4 – Make sure to wear blush and lipstick.  The lights on the stage can make a dancer look very pale.  Wearing lipstick and blush will bring color to your face and not drown you out on stage.

#5 – Warm up and stretch properly.  A dancer should always warm up and stretch before any type of dancing to help prevent injury.  Many dancers forget to do this during competition because they are very busy with costume changes and running their choreography back stage.  Try to arrive at the facility early so you give yourself plenty of time to warm up and stretch.  This will lower the risk of injury during the performance.

#6 – Relax and stay confident.  Try not to panic before you go on stage;  just let all of your hard work and practice show in your performance and you’ll be fine.  The more confident you are in yourself, the better you will be;  for competition and for the rest of your dancing career.

Competing is a great experience for a dancer; it can teach you many things that you can use now and throughout the rest of your life.  But most of all, have fun!

Hello Everyone!

My name is Shelli, and I’m here to answer your dance questions! But,  I guess the best place to start is to give you a little history about myself.

To begin, I wear a LOT of hats in life.  Like most moms, I am completely twisted and pulled in all directions, at all times.  I am a mother of 3 amazing kids (I know we all say that…but they really are).  My kids are very close in age but for the next month I don’t get to look completely insane and tell you that my kids ages are 21, 21, and 19.  Until my baby turns 20 March 2^nd.  Then the head scratching begins when I say my kids are 21, 21, and 20!  So yes, I did have twins (boy & girl) and a 3^rd just 15 months later.  They are a dancer/business owner, a senior at Chapman University (Graduating with top honors), and a sophomore at Idaho State who also plays football for them!

But aside from a mother of 3, I am a wife of 23 years, a business owner for the last 20 years and the matriarch of my entire family. I am also a grantie (yes that’s spelled right) of 5 nieces, mother to my 4 dogs, 3 cats, 3 bothers, 1 sister and sometimes my Husband & my father.  I am also partner in a dance wear business with my daughter, and the PR & Special Projects Manager for Discount Dance Supply.

So what does that have to do with my knowing anything about dance and dancers?  Well, I guess it begins with my daughter.  She’s an amazing young woman who has navigated her way thru the maze of being a student, a competitor, a protégé, a professional, a teacher, a judge and a business owner…all in the world of dance.  So without a conscious effort dance and the dance world have been a very big part of my life for 15 years now.

What I would like to accomplish with blogging is to talk.  About every possible subject in the world of dance I can  speak with relative confidence about.  I know that as a mother of a dancer, there were so many moments that I needed a friend…a confidant…an advisor who knew the road I was on.  Hopefully I can provide some of this to you.  I have been through it all as a mother of a ballerina and now out there watching it all from different angles in the business world of dance and competitions.  So feel free to comment back to me…ask questions…give me your thoughts.

I want to leave you with some questions to begin the conversation….

What’s your goal in dance with your child?  What motivates you?  What motivates them?

Hello everyone!

I want to give a little thought to competitions, primarily how you cope when things go wrong.  A few weeks ago, I watched students from my studio compete in a competition, and most of the transitions from piece to piece were smooth and seamless, but the tension built up when one of my friends was about to go on and they turned on the wrong music.  The announcer said “Attention judges:  the next number will be …” The next girl stepped onstage and took her pose, but her music was wrong as well.  They had switched it with my friend’s piece!  Then came the awkward part where the announcer asked the dancer to please leave the stage.  My friend had to wait through about five dances before they straightened out the music and went back to her.  By that time, there is no telling how much her adrenaline and nerves had built up.  She did fairly well, but you could tell that she was past her peak as far as stress levels go.

I once fell during the Medora variation from Le Corsaire, right at the beginning of the piece.  When landing from a jump my foot slipped behind me (slippery stage + pointe shoes = disaster) so I catapulted forward and fell right on my face.  The audience gasped, but for some reason my mind was so calm and set on giving them a show, I bounced back up and didn’t miss a beat in the music.  The crazy part is, I look back and remember that performance as one of my favorites.  After that fall, there was nothing worse that could happen, so I just danced my heart out and the audience cheered at the end.  It felt great!  I find nothing more invigorating than giving a good show.

In my years of competing, I have had several experiences with mixed music, costume malfunctions, and falling flat on my face onstage.  The question is:  how do you cope when something goes wrong?  For me, it all comes down to mental preparation.  A few years ago, my parents gave me a motivational cd series called the Psychology of Winning.  That it my top choice when I need to get in “the zone”.  It’s not necessarily about winning, but having a mindset that anything is possible.  After all, you become what you think about most of the time.  I always perform best when I take a few minutes to be in a quiet place by myself, close my eyes, listen to my ipod, and get in “the zone”.  How do you prepare for competitions and deal with mishaps?  Embarrassing stories welcome!

-Lizzy

In July 2009, Dance Teachers from all over the country converged on New York City Dance Teacher Summit’s recital costume preview and fashion show…and the time has come again! The conference is a 3 day line up of 900 of your fellow dance teachers, 3 motivating days of dance in NYC, World renowned dance instructors and much, much more.

To help gear up, below is a clip from the 2009 summit;  Discount Dance Supply provided all of the clothing that the dancers so elegantly presented.

Get your passes for the 2010 Dancer Teacher Summit today!

Nathan Trasoras, finalist from So You Think You Can Dance, visited the Discount Dance Supply retail location in Anaheim on Feb. 6, 2010 to launch his new t-shirt line.
Brett asks him about the finer points of dance and his career.
Check it!

Hello everyone!

I hope you are all entering a great 2nd week into February. I’m about to embark on my 4th week of school, and the semester has been so busy already! I mentioned in the last blog some of the projects I’m working on this semester so I thought I’d update you all regarding them.

First, I’m performing in “Showing 4″, which is one out of the 5 “showings” we have featuring work by student choreographers. I’m in a piece choreographed by Mandarin Wu, who is a 2nd year MFA and graduated from UCI for her undergrad. We actually know each other through mutual people including my future sister-in-law, Genevieve, because they worked together in LA this past summer. Anyway, Mandy (short for Mandarin) is choreographing a pointe piece, and I’m very excited and scared to perform it all at the same time. It’s been a long while since I’ve performed pointe on stage so I hope that I don’t fall on my face! We will be performing this piece next week – Feb. 18th and 19th. Wish me luck!

My next project I’m working on is a piece I’m choreographing for the MFA 1 concert. All 1st year MFAs get their own concert to feature choreographic works if they wish. I am choreographing a piece set on 6 women, and it is going to be FIERCE. Here’s a little preview of their costumes (still a work in progress…and was custom made and sewn by my MOM, Monica Chua – my Mom is the best!!! :

Don’t they look so awesome! The piece is also set to music composed by Elias Constantopedos (who also composed my solo from last semester) – the music is a fusion of a Baroque fugue mixed in with electronic sound. I wanted to have this regal and courtship look to the piece, and the music suits the choreography perfectly. You can preview a rehearsal video here – just remember it’s still a work in progress:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IP5voHFwoWU

This piece will be premiering in 2 weeks – Feb. 25, 26, 27th. The show is FREE so if any of you readers are in NYC and would like to come to this performance or the one above then come to 111 2nd Ave, 5th floor. Both shows are FREE! I am so looking forward to this performance because not only are my mother, her boyfriend, and my grandmother coming to see the show, but my fiancé, Chester, will be here too! This will be the first time Chester has come to see me here in NYC so I’m so excited!!!

Lastly, the third project I’m working on is for my Choreographers, Composers and Designers class. I’m working with two other ladies, Julia and Wen-Jen, and we are collaborating with set designers, a costume designer, and music composer to choreograph and produce a work. It’s been such a brain-filled experience so far because everyone has such great creative input and ideas that when I walk away from our meetings my brain hurts! Our concept deals with technology, and how it affects our communication – whether it helps or leads us to miscommunication. We are working within that realm, and if you start thinking about technology and how it is taking over our lives this can become a very broad and deep topic. However, we want to keep this piece light-hearted and somewhat humorous. We will be scaling down and concentrating on specific communication through the use of social networking like Facebook and Myspace and how that can affect relationships between 2 or even 3 people. We have 1 female and 2 males in our cast so we might try to work out some kind of love triangle or something to that extent. We are still in the very beginning stages of this project so I will keep you all updated. Here’s a poem that we found that inspired our concept for this piece (it’s actually really funny):

http://www.jamesshuggins.com/h/tek1/rememberwhen.htm

I will keep you all updated on my many projects coming up this semester. Hope you enjoyed reading and hope you have a great week. Thanks!!!