My Adventure At Ballet Austin

I haven't posted for a while, but this time, I have reason. I am at Ballet Austin's summer intensive, and trust me, when they say intensive, they mean it. It's intense.

A ballet intensive is like ballet boot camp. Dancers from all over the country come to the intensive and train almost every day. I chose Ballet Austin because it was near by, only three weeks, and it looked like a very good program.

I have not been disappointed.

Saying goodbye was hard. I cried three times. (Once when I left home and my cat, once when I said goodbye to my sisters, and once when I said goodbye to my parents.) But once everything started up, I didn't have the time or energy to be homesick.

My schedule is crazy! I wake up around six thirty, and that is a shock for me, because I sleep in until nine every day. Then I get ready and go to class. I have five classes a day, and normally dance for about seven hours every day. There's ballet technique, pointe, partnering, contemporary, musical theater, Pilates and choreography. In the evening there are normally activities, but I am normally too tired to do them.

Even though this is a lot of work, it is still a lot of fun! The people are so nice, and I have made so many friends! We went shopping last weekend, and this weekend there's a dance party! Also, there are no classes tomorrow, for 4th of July. Yay!

Throughout this whole process I have been trying to connect with God and point everything back to Him. That's hard, because ballet takes up so much thought process that sometimes I struggle with thinking about Jesus too. I find that I think about God most whenever I am struggling. I remind myself that this is just ballet, a temporary thing. God, eternal God, is still my Lord and Father whether I nail the double pirouette or not.

I am about half way done with my experience at Ballet Austin. I am making so many new friends and having so many new experiences, not to mention learning a lot about ballet. I don't want to leave, yet I desperately want to go home, see my family and friends, and sleep in every day.

"Let them praise his name with dancing and make music to him with timbrel and harp."
Psalms 149:3 NIV

Hannah