Hi everyone!

I’m so sorry I haven’t been blogging lately. These last couple of weeks have been super busy! First, I have to give you my response to the Karole Armitage concert. It definitely was not what I expected at all! The dancers were beautiful and the one African singer and two dancers were phenomenal, but the way Ms. Armitage incorporated the two kind of rubbed me the wrong way. Don’t get me wrong I think the dancers are very talented and definitely have great technique, but they were not meant to be African dancers. They were meant to be contemporary dancers. I realize that Ms. Armitage might have simply wanted to try something new with her company, but I personally don’t think that was a great match. It’s kind of difficult to mix culture into contemporary dance unless that’s what the company specializes in, otherwise, it just looks as if the dancers are trying to be African dancers when they’re not. So there’s my two cents about that show.

Okay, so the reason I’ve been out of my blogging loop for so long because these past couple of weeks I have had two different concerts at Tisch. The first one was a student choreography showing that included a solo piece that I choreographed myself. It was the first time my choreography premiered at Tisch…yay! It was also great working with a composer – another student from NYU’s Steinhardt Music School – and he played live piano on top of electronic music while I danced. I got a lot of positive feedback on the solo, and it felt great to premier my work.

This past week we had the Faculty Performance Workshop, which is basically a concert to feature 5 of our faculty’s work that they’ve been working on since the beginning of the semester. I was in Renee Redding-Jones’s piece, and it was a big hit! We closed the show every night, and Renee got a lot of positive feedback. I’m really glad I got to work with her, and got to know her better she really is a great teacher.

Also, my mom came into town a few days ago! She’s staying here until Dec. 1st and she’ll be here with me during Thanksgiving. It’s been so nice to have mom around, and I definitely do appreciate her taking care of me while she’s been here. It’s definitely been such a treat to have home cooked meals that weren’t the same old, same old that I’ve been cooking myself for the past 3 months. We’ve been running errands, and taking care of business so it feels great to get things done. I have school until Wednesday afternoon and then the Thanksgiving holiday begins. We plan on seeing Complexions Ballet on the 28th so I’ll make sure I’ll give you my feedback on that concert as well. Here is their review from the NY Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/20/arts/dance/20comp.html

Anyway, so since I have a holiday coming up I will be sure to keep blogging and keeping you all updated! Thanks so for reading!

I am going to talk about eyeliner today.

When it comes to stage makeup…you need to find a product that will last the entire day of performing. That said, I would definately stay away from pencil eyeliner. So what about liquid?

Liquid liner has amazing staying power, but you really need a steady hand when applying. Here are a few steps for an easy liquid liner application:

Start in the middle of the eye, and work your way towards the outer lashes. You might want to pull your eye a little tight for a smooth surface. Then start at the inside corner of your eye and connect it to the line you’ve  already made. This is easier then doing the line in one swoop.

Liquid liner does have its downsides too. If you put it across the bottom of your lashes, it can make your eye appear smaller. Using a pencil in this area is definately not a good idea, since it will melt and spread within an hour.

Here are some fabulous options.

1: You can use a product called I line. It is a  clear gel that has a brush. you use it to mix into a dark eyeshadow and paint it on like a liquid liner. It turns your normal eyeshadow into WATER PROOF eyeliner. It is much easier to control then a liquid, since it’s a gel. By using this on the bottom lashline, it creates a softer edge, and eyes appear smokey instead of small!

2. You can also use your favorite liner, and then go over it with a product called “She-Laq” from Benefit cosmetics. This will waterproof your makeup. It looks like a clear nail polish. I love this product so much!

Try to remember that by lining just the outer corners of your eyes, it will create the illusion of wide big eyes on Stage!!

So I went to my ballroom competition I told everyone about and my rankings went up!!! It has taken some getting use to, but this “ballroom way” of competing is actually quite interesting. If jazz, ballet, etc. competitions could somehow integrate this way of scaling, it might make things a bit more interesting. So every ballroom dancer when entering any competition has to enter with their NDCA number (national dance council of America)…you must register yearly for this membership. Every time this number is entered into competition, you can actually log-in online and see where that dancer has been and how they scored at the competition with heir different partners, different dances, etc. it is very interesting. Every ballroom competition is run under one main organization and follow the same set of rules and require each participant to be a member o the NDCA. Each competition has a different organizer who puts the event together but there are never any competing competitions in the same area on the same weekend, so the same people compete each other constantly to get ahead in their ranking. Anyways, I thought I’d share this new way of thinking with some of you to see what you thought…let me know.

Briana Haft

Hello!

My name is Rachel Ross. I am a professional makeup artist and hairstylist from Hollywood, Ca. I have worked on many television shows, including “So You Think You Can Dance”. I an currently working on the daytime drama “The Young and The Restless”

I was a dancer growing up, and am now on staff with Showstopper American Dance Championships. I tour with their competitions, and conventions to share my knowledge with students and dance moms all over the country.

I have created a perfect makeup kit for competition dancers that I sell on my website, www.rachelrossmakeup.com. It contains 3 eyeshadows,false lashes,red lip liner, red lip gloss, and a white highlighting pencil.

I will be blogging about everything related to beauty. On and off the stage.

Hi everyone…have had some busy weeks lately, sorry you haven’t seen anything from me…but some cool things have happened and wanted to update you all. Just this last weekend, I had competition again in Woodland Hills. Mary Murphy, from SYTYCD took over ownership of the competition this last year and it was her first time putting it on. The event was called “Hollywood Classic”…it was a ballroom competition. I was extremely impressed with how well it was put together…the theme when you walked in was all Hollywood glamour…disco balls and boas on the tables, red tablecloths and chairs, red carpet when you enter, a huge academy award background, Oscar statues around the room, cut-outs of hollywood superstars…it was very nicely done. Due to it’s first year there were not as many entrants as a normal competition, but I think that will change next year. My partner was pretty nervous this time performing again, since we have not competed in about a month. I think he did okay considering, but still a lot of hard work ahead of us !!! That night after we competed we stayed to watch a wonderful showdance couple, world champions of the world perform 3 different cabaret (theater arts…kind of like pas de deux…all lifts) routines by Victor Da Silva & Hanna Kartunin…amazing!!!! At this time Mary gave Nigel Lithgoe a lifetime achievement award for all of his work on the dance industry, as he has opened so many doors and accomplished so much since he has been in America. Overall it was a great weekend, and now back to work since I will be going to competition in another two weeks and then my Christmas showcase with my professional partner December 5th. Have a great Monday…

Briana

So instead of watching a performance and giving you feedback I’m going to read the review first and then see the show on Saturday. Here’s a link to the review in the NY Times.

From reading this review her work sounds very interesting. I’m anxious to see what she means by “pop-ness” because we all know that LA dance has the stigma of being very commercial and “pop” music oriented even though there are many modern and contemporary choreographers and dancers trying to make it out there. I hope that Ms. Armitage can express what contemporary dance mixed with commerical or pop music would be like. I’ve always struggled with that fusion – well not struggled, but have always TRIED to fuse the two together since those are the best of both worlds for me. I’m excited to see the performance this Saturday, however, I may now be partial because of that awesome picture of the woman tilting. Such beauty! Just incase you missed it here it is again:

A scene from her “Itutu,” with Luke Manley and Kristina Bethel-Blunt. The African ballet is coming to the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

Here’s a link to their website and to view some videos of Ms. Armitage’s work:

I don’t want to watch too much of her work just yet so I don’t get too biased before seeing her work so let me know what you think! Thanks for reading and I will keep you updated after I see the performance

Last week was very bizarre for me. It felt like about a months worth of things happened in the span of 7 days. To begin with, on Sunday I flew down to Tampa to perform in another gig organized by Daniel Ulbricht. I danced Agon and Nutcracker pas de deux. It was a rather hectic day because I had rehearsal with the company until 7 pm the night before so I couldn’t fly out until the morning of the show. I got up bright and early at 5:30 (actually it was still dark) and flew south, when we arrived we marked through our spacing and immediately got our make-up and costumes on and performed at 3 pm. I honestly don’t know how we all did it, but I guess after performing professionally one learns how to prepare for such things, even in a crunch. What made it more stressful for me was that my original partner sliced his thumb badly 2 days beforehand and was unable to partner so we had to find a replacement last minute. Considering all of the obstacles I think that it was a very nice performance and it is always fulfilling to go to smaller towns and meet the local ballet students and bring them ballets they may never see unless they travel to large cities when ballet companies happen to be performing.
I returned home after less than 24 hour in the Sunshine State in order to make it back in time for my college classes on Monday nights. When Tuesday rolled around I was exhausted considering I didn’t really have any time to rest over the weekend. I had a rather busy day ahead of me as I was called for 3 hours of rehearsal for the new Peter Martin’s ballet that will premiere at NYCB’s gala in less than a month. I was a little confused when I saw the schedule because I remembered hearing that it was his intention to create a ballet with all principal dancers, but there were 4 soloists called to this rehearsal. I figured that he had changed his mind and wanted a larger cast so had decided to expand into the lower ranks. When Peter walked into the room Tuesday afternoon the pianist immediately began playing “Happy Birthday” and all of us quickly realized it was his birthday.  He got started on our movement without any particularly special introduction or explanations. Then about half way into the rehearsal he was refining a step and  was wondering if we could make a single turn into a double turn and specifically said: “Well if you were a principal you should be able to do a double.” He then proceeded to tell the 4 soloist in the room that we had all been promoted! Without much time to absorb this huge news we had to pull ourselves together and continue on with the new choreography. It was not the most glamourous way for a promotion to happen, but none the less it is a huge deal for any dancer. It has been a dream of mine, and I am sure of thousands of other ballet dancers around the world to reach the top echelon of a dance company.  It honestly has not sunk in in the week since this happened. I have been in the company for 9 years (the anniversary of my first day is Halloween) and promotion to principal is something that usually happens a little faster than that at NYCB.  I was perfectly happy to finish my career as a soloist and I’m not sure how many things will be different with my new rank, I guess only time will tell.  But for now I am extremely excited for the future and hoping that I can live up to my new title.

Yesterday was my first experience of Halloween in NYC. It was such a trip! There is an annual Halloween parade every year in the village and unfortunately I didn’t attend, but walking around in my neighborhood is more than enough parading of costumes for me! There were massive amounts of people dressed up in very creative costumes and it was also raining! Not very hard, but it did get a little too wet at times. Here’s a link to read more info about the parade:

http://manhattan.about.com/od/eventsandattractions/a/halloweenparade_2.htm

And here are some pictures of last year’s parade:

http://manhattan.about.com/od/eventsandattractions/ig/2008-Village-Halloween-Parade-/

It’s quite exciting! It’s also very crowded so it was a very interesting and fun experience all at the same time. The only bummer of the night was when I left my purple sunglasses in the cab ride home . Good thing they were only $8, but still, they were purple. Many of you who read my blogs know that is my favorite color. Here’s a picture of me and Wen-Jen, one of my other MFA Tisch classmates (and yes that’s a purple wig…living close to St. Marks has it’s perks!):

Earlier that day we went and saw, “This is It”, and of course I enjoyed it because I am a MJ fan. It might not be the greatest artistic film in the world, but as a dancer who grew up aspiring to one day dance for Michael, I enjoyed it quite thoroughly. It was such an honor to see the creative process that went into that concert. I actually wish that I could see more footage because I can only imagine how much work goes into making a production that large.  Anyway, I’m not a movie reviewer like my fiancé, but I am a fan so if you are too then I would recommend seeing it. If you’re not then…don’t bother.

So Halloween in New York City…it was definitely unlike one I’ve ever had in California! Hope everyone had a safe and fun one this year!