An Amazing Spring Break. Back to the Hurst for the Last 10 Weeks Ever!

  My Spring Break experience dancing with the Mercyhurst Choir in Orlando and Tampa, FL was amazing.  Being in the warm weather of 80 degrees and higher each day for a week was such a tease for summer weather.  I met some really fun people on the trip and we even got a standing ovation at the church we performed.  What's even better, I got to experience Disneyworld at the Magic Kingdom for the very first time! It was incredible! I could not believe how much was there and how magical it all seemed.  I even got to meet some famous characters :)

 
   But now that we are back in 30 degree weather here in Erie, it is now time for my final 10 weeks of college in Spring Term.  My other senior friends and I are working on completing our bucket list of different things we have yet to do in Erie and Mercyhurst for the past 4 years.  It is definitely going to be a fun couple weeks!
    As for the future and auditioning, I auditioned for Columbus Dance Theatre last week and was one of two girls who made it all the way to the end of the audition! I really enjoyed the audition and even got to learn a little bit of their repertoire which was great.  I would love to be able to dance for them in their company.  Right now I'm still playing the waiting game and hope to hear from them in around a week.  Cross you fingers for me that I might have a job!

Successful Interview

     This weekend I had my interview for the RA position for the Boston Ballet Summer Dance Program.  As an alum of the program myself, I was familiar with the studio and administrators.  It felt great to be back in Boston, which is definitely one of my favorite cities.  I interviewed with the program director and came out of the session feeling very confident.  The program would offer me an intense job for about 5 weeks of my summer with the opportunity to live (for free!) in Boston during that time.  They wanted to check with my references as well as have a personal interview with me so I will hopefully hear about the decision soon.
     Boston has always been a place I wanted to live and now after being back there, I'm really going to consider moving there and finding some dance work down there after graduation, that is if I don't get any other company jobs worthwhile elsewhere. Then who knows, maybe I'll end up at Med School in Boston too! I just love the city atmosphere and the lifestyle there.  Truthfully, if I would have loved to have gone to college there.  Unfortunately, there we no schools there that offered the academics as well as dance like I had wanted.  I hope I at least will get the chance to experience living in Boston again this summer and who knows, that might just be the city meant for me!

 My dad and I at Fanuel Hall

      My parents and I at a celebratory dinner at Legal Seafood :)

Dancing in Florida during Spring Break!

    7 Days more and I will be traveling down to the Orlando/Tampa area in Florida to perform with the Liturgical Dance Ensemble for Spring Break!  Five dancers (including myself) are traveling with about ten choir singers to perform in a number of Liturgical Performances in churches all around the area in Florida.  We have been rehearsing for about two weeks now and this weekend we will be learning our last dance, along with cleaning some of the other choreography.  This gives us a total of 4 dances we will be performing.
    While down there, we will be staying in this gorgeous villa equipped with 8 bedrooms and 5 baths along with game rooms and two swimming pools.We are also planning on going to Disneyworld! This will be my first time there so it will definitely be an experience. I'm so excited to get to spend some time relaxing, possibly getting a tan and laying by the pool, after the end of my last Winter Term.  Although I will still be working on my Senior Thesis Project, I am looking forward to a much less stressful Spring Break beginning in March.  I will also be auditioning for many more companies in hope to find the best one for myself and hopefully soon will begin looking forward to a new life after graduation.

Save the Last Dance!

This weekend's Raw Edges Performances showcased my last dance performance at Mercyhurst!  The concert was absolutely wonderful with some amazing student and guest artist choreographed pieces that left the audience astounded of the talent fostered in the Mercyhurst Dance Dept.  Although my body was physically exhausted and bruised from all the rehearsal and shows from the weekend,  Raw Edges definitely allowed me to go out with a BANG for my undergraduate dance career.

Photo Credit: Maggie Sullivan

Here you will see the choreography of Jessica Stachelrodt during my last dance on stage at the Mary D'Angelo Performing Arts Center 

In State of Emergency on Mercyhurst Campus...Erie Festival of Dance proceeds with show

       Mercyhurst Erie campus went into quite a frenzy this past weekend due to water main breaks that left students without running water.  Thursday afternoon, all classes were cancelled through the weekend and students were instructed to evacuate back home or to friend's house nearby because of sanitation and heat issue.  Luckily, our townhouse was not affected more than with low water pressure.  We never lost all water or heat.  With the Erie Festival of Dance set for the D'Angelo Performing Arts Center stage at Mercyhurst, the Erie Dance Consortium had to change the venue to McDowell Intermediate High School here in Erie.  However, this presented a lot of confusion and anxiety for the Mercyhurst students who were planning to perform in the show but were instructed by the administration to evacuate the campus.  Many students were put up in professor's home over the weekend so that they could perform in the shows.  However, SoMar Dance Works had a slight problem with their organization and dancers.  The dance we were supposed to perform called for four of us (me included).  But one dancer had already scheduled her trip home before discovering that the Erie Festival of Dance had in fact not been cancelled, but relocated.  Unfortunately, the one dancer who could not make it was the one dancer who did not have an understudy :/ So throughout the chaos, our directors made the executive decision to let us free for the weekend and they would perform and dance in our place at the show.

        As all shows go on, Erie Festival of Dance was no exception and from the reviews I have read of the performance, it was a success.  But the missed days of rehearsal because of the water problem, the Dance Department is bit nervous about the Raw Edges performances for this weekend.  Extra studio time and rehearsals will undoubtedly be scheduled for this week making "Hell Week" even more stressful.  But with the talented students performing and choreographing, it is sure to be a great show.  In fact, it will be my last show on the Mercyhurst stage because I have decided not to perform in the Spring Dept Concert.  It's very bittersweet but I'm excited to dance in front of my family and friends who are traveling to see me this weekend :)

One Down, Many More Too Come

Well my first audition is officially over and it went well!  This weekend two friends and I traveled to Northampton, PA to audition for Pennsylvania Classical Ballet.  Along with an hour and half ballet class, we  had to perform a solo variation in front of the the Artistic Directors.  I chose to do the Black Swan variation which was probably one of the more difficult variations performed by the 6 audtionees in our class.  Although they were not handing out contracts this weekend because they wanted to wait until all the audition dates were finished,  I personally thought that I did very well.  They said we should be hearing from them within a month on their decision.  So cross your fingers for me :)  Truthfully, since this audition was only my first one, I am going to hope for the best, but try not to get my hopes up too high just in case.  It would feel great to get offered a contract with them though.  I think the experience was a good confidence booster and preparation for all the other auditions I have lined up.
All my weekends from now until Graduation are officially packed!  Between performances, auditions, and traveling, I will definitely be a very busy girl as I finish my undergraduate career. As I plan my schedule for my last term in college with my advising sessions this week, I'm realizing that I am very prepared to move on with my life from Mercyhurst and show the world what I've got.  Stay tuned for what is to come!

Travel Plans and Auditions Begin!

    This week has been a very exciting week of making future plans.  After sending my promotional packet materials including my resume, headshot, dance shots and my performance DVD.  I have been invited by two companies for an audition.  This weekend I will road-tripping to Philadelphia with some of my friends to attend the first audition for Pennsylvania Classical Ballet. Although, I still need to work on my variation I need to perform for the audition :/  Hopefully I will be able to throw something together.  I am also in the process of scheduling my audition for Rochester City Ballet for mid-March in which I was invited for.  There's no turning back now! I'm ready to dance my way into a job (fingers crossed!)
    Also this week, I was informed that I was invited for an interview for the Residential Counselor position at the Boston Ballet Summer Dance Program!  I would absolutely love to get the position for Summer 2013 for at least five weeks of living in Boston with pay! I have planned to travel to Boston for that interview in mid-February.
       Then three days after returning to school for my second to last set of academic finals, I will be traveling to Tampa, FL to dance with the Mercyhurst Liturgical Dance Ensemble for a week of performing. Although the beach and fun will definitely be distracting, I will still have to continue with my work on my Senior Thesis work.  And as if that traveling wasn't enough, I'm still trying to schedule a trip to Chicago at some point at the beginning of Spring Term to do more auditions.
        Even though these auditions and interviews are coming up, I still need to stay focused on my school work to finish this term out strong since it will likely be my last term with any academic courses :)  Currently, I am icing my muscles from the 15 hours of rehearsals all weekend for the Dance Dept's Winter Concert, Raw Edges, coming up on Feb 1-3.  It is likely that this performance will be my last performance with the Mercyhurst Dancers considering I may not be participating in the Spring Concert. Hope to see you all there!

New Year, 2013! Let's Make Things Happen!

    2013 is finally here which means only 4 more months and 1.5 terms left until Graduation.  I just finished filling out my Graduation information, scheduling my Senior Graduation portraits, and am in the process of clearing all my required courses for both of my majors with the Dance and Biology Chairpersons.  I have also decided that I will walk with the Dance Dept. for Graduation as opposed to Biology, just because it was my initial major and decision for coming to Mercyhurst in the first place.  Although leaving college is scary thought, I'm actually very excited to get started on my life after Mercyhurst.  Mercyhurst provided me with a lot of essential skills and knowledge that I know will prepare me in my life.  I have applied for the job in Boston over the summer with the Boston Ballet as a Residential Counselor and am waiting back to here from them.  Hopefully more jobs will present themselves as I begin to send out my promotional packets and audition for companies.
    You are probably wondering, what about med school?  Well, it's true what they say about the MCATs.  They can make you or break you, and unfortunately they broke me.  They were the only flaw in my applications and seem to be the one thing turning me away from med school.  But med school is still definitely in my future.  I just plan to take a year or two off to figure out my dreams in dance and take a MCAT prep course so that the next time I take them, I will be completely ready and won't just be wasting money.
    I'm headed back to Erie on Sunday to continue the rest of my work for Winter Term and to return back to reality after the Holiday Season!