Full Days

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Thursday: I Begin my morning at 8am with my "Reading Dance" seminar.  I really like this class.  It gives me the opportunity to read, write, and discuss the history and philosophy behind my art without being a ginormos drain on my time.  The discussions we have in class are usually pretty good (as long as we all stay on-topic and take turns).

9:40am Technique class.  Our instructor for the first 8 wks of the semester is Calvin Kitten, former principal dancer with the Joffrey Ballet in Chicago (retired 3 weeks ago, so he's in amazing shape.  mezmerizing to watch demonstrating things).  He has an insane amount of energy.  It's good to have that much motivation coming from the front of the room, but it's a lot to handle sometimes.  Getting my left foot back in shape has also proved more difficult that I'd anticipated.  It's regrettable mostly because Calvin's classes are so fun (dang hard, but fun) I hate having to sit out of center.

11:35 Class ends, and I frantically run upstairs to try to squeeze in some more reading (and some lunch) before my next class.

1pm Writing for Publication.  Quite the superfluous class for a ballet major; this class is essentially a workshop for those writing their masters or doctoral thesis.  Since my major is project based, the professor doesn't really know what to have me (and the 2 other ballet grads) do for our assignments.  Still, I'm learning a lot about how to publish in scholarly journals and how to be a better writer (and getting assigned close to 100 pages of reading each week. boo.).

2:55pm  Speed-walk across campus

3:05pm Pointe with the 3290 level.  It's actually going fairly well.  The girl's seem to be trusting my corrections more and I'm hopefully getting a better sense of what they need from me.  Working up to renverse, back pique attitude turns (Giselle Act I), and sequential arabesque turns.  They love me right now (sarcasm).

4:30pm Sports Psychology (finally, a class I can wear street-clothes to!).  I love this class.  Not only is my professor incredibly smart and witty, she seems to be genuinely interested in us as individuals and invested in our education (rather than our grades).  We have really great discussions on the application of the material we're learning, and I think I'll be able to use a lot of it in my teaching.

7pm Meet my awesome sister Malorie and chat as we walk across campus to the inaugural performance of the Utah Wind Symphony (of which my brother-in-law and several other of my friends are members).  It was a really cool concert.  A few very moving pieces on the program: O Magnum Mysterium by Morten Lauridsen, and James Barnes' Third Symphony.  The final piece listed in the program was Sousa's Black Horse Troop, and I was really looking forward to hearing a Sousa I was unfamiliar with, but they faked everybody out and played Stars and Stripes instead.  Disappointing.  Still, I love randomly adding artistic events like this to my days.  Not only does it make me feel like I'm actually appreciating the world I spend so much time studying, it's just kind of cool to go to many different places in the course of my day.

9:30pm Head home while drinking my daily dose of refreshing Gatorade.

12:30 Bedtime!! after doing such studious and responsible things as homework, e-mailing, scheduling rehearsal times, tooth-brushing, tidying my room, and texting friends :)

Life is good. Love being busy!

~~*Shaun