Old Girl

I'm really learning to appreciate proper care for your body after exercising it. Well, at least for a speedier recovery. It kind of sucks to be older now and to have permanent injuries. My right hamstring is all messed up, and it's very high maintenance right now. I injured it somehow last year when I started the cruise ship contract totally out of shape, it finally healed, and then the Rockettes had to throw a right "jump split" into one of the dances. I thought they were kidding at first, but I should have known better. For those who aren't familiar with the terminology, a "jump split" is when you jump up in the air in the splits, and then you allow gravity to work its course while you remain in that split until you meet with the floor. It's not pleasant. But I digress. I was trying to introduce you to the pictures of our physical therapy room, shown below, where we are all congregating in the morning before rehearsal to prepare for the day of dancing ahead. We are equipped with tons of tape of various kinds, blister treatment/prevention, icing, moist heat, ultrasound for deep heating, stretching, and probably some other stuff, too. I love this place. It's tucked in the back corner of our lunch room, which you can see behind me in the picture below. The real point of the picture is not the lunchroom, however, but my buffness. Our opening number requires that we coordinate our dancing with a prop, which happens to be a large tinseled wreath, and dancing with these wreaths is building our upper body strength quickly. Check me out! my shoulders are unbelievable. Well, they will be by the end of the run, I'm sure. The truth is that I was wrapped with ice and saran wrap for the drive home so my arms wouldn't be so sore in the morning. I'm telling you, it looks ridiculous, it smashes my chest together, and body heat melts the ice into a drippy mess, but it works!!!!

Muscle Maintenance

So, I made it through the first week of rehearsals! I managed to get sick the second day of rehearsals, which definitely put a damper on my first week. I'm not the toughest person when I'm sick. I'm finally feeling better, just struggling with a nasty cough, but getting better. Last Wednesday we had our orientation with the rest of our cast where we learned about our benefits, had some media training for the many interviews and promotions we will be doing in Nashville, and had some fun sexual harassment training and what not. Then we had three more days of dancing where we learned a 7 minute long tap dance. It is craziness. Yesterday we had the day off, and I spent the whole day in bed after going to a non-denominational church in the morning (stake conference this week down here). Doing everything I can to take care of myself and remain healthy and strong. Today we are back at rehearsals for our first week of six straight days of dancing. One of the things we do every day after rehearsal to take care of our muscles is to take ice baths. The budget only provides for two tubs for about 72 girls, so we have to share. We ice anything from our hands (the Rockette style makes EVERYTHING sore) to our entire bodies. These tubs are between 40 and 50 degrees fahrenheit, and we stay in for about 10 minutes. It isn't very fun, but it really does keep the lactic acid at bay so that we don't get as sore. And since it helps to talk through it, it's a good bonding experience for us! Here 's Danielle, me, and Keltie midsoak today .

The bane of my day

So one of the moves that kept getting me in trouble was this awesome 'spin to the back and lean to the right as far as you can and then do a giant ZAPping kick with your left leg'. I never could seem to lean far enough. We decided to take a picture of what it should look like, since I can never see myself in the mirror. So here I am with Leah. I think she and I will be splitting center stage for the show. Surprisingly we are the tallest girls in the show. The beach is beautiful, the air temperature is perfect, and the water is nice as well. I am so grateful for this day off to recover.

Rockette Reality Check

So, today was my first day of rehearsals as a Rockette., and I have the sore body and humble spirit to prove it. We started off at 10AM in this strip mall that the "Christmas Across America" tour seems to have purchased to house their rehearsal spaces, costumes pieces, and set building for show preparation. Each city has their own rehearsal spaces inside an old mall store. I'm a little bummed I can't tell which store was the previous occupant of the Nashville rehearsal stage. But, it turns out to be a pretty good space with a good floor and mirrors and such. I am here three days before most of the 18 girls in our cast. There are 6 new girls to the cast this year, and we are all learning some things together before our other castmates arrive. Today made me realize I was still underprepared, despite my attempt at getting into "Rockette shape". And by that I don't mean losing weight or achieving a specific level of sinewiness. I mean more like, being able to dance in high heels for hours on end without tearing your feet apart, or being able to make kick after kick after kick look easy whether standing in place, sitting on a hedge, or travelling across the stage. Some sort of tendon on the inside of my knee is terribly sore from "flicking" my legs in and out quickly at all different heights, my hips are stiff (though certainly less than they would have been had I not taken that ice bath directly after rehearsal), my wrists are sore from the constant flexing of my hands, and my back is all knotted up from holding my arms and upper body in so many terrifically awkward positions. I achieved a blister on my left heel within the first hour of rehearsal, and managed to split the bottom of my left toe open before lunch. The great thing is that they have physical therapists on hand to treat our every ailment from hurt hamstrings, ankles, backs, hips, feet or what have you. I got a good taping job during lunch and made it through the rest of the day without my feet giving me too much trouble. Instead, it was my lack of strength and stamina that got me. Wouldn't you know it. Though I felt a little discouraged about my own personal overall performance today, as a group we did pretty well. They let us finish about 45 minutes early, which they told us never to expect again, but for which we were extremely grateful . I am really hoping that I find my strength as the days go on, rather than find that I grow increasingly weaker and injury prone. As luck would have it, I get tomorrow off to recuperate and rehearse on my own, and then I go back for rehearsal again on Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday is an orientation with the rest of our cast, and then it's on like Donkey Kong. I just hope I can make it through these next few weeks. I'll put some less disgusting pictures on here at some point, I'm sure.

Twenty Niner

It was my 29th birthday on September 30th, if I can believe it. It was a pretty great birthday week. On Wednesday, my fiance Gregory took me to the LCD Soundsystem/Arcade Fire concert at Thanksgiving Point. It was terrific. On Friday, I had the day off of work, so I spent it taking bridal shots with the talented Rachel Thurston of www. rachelthurston.com up millcreek canyon. What a party! To prepare for that, my visionary friend Molly Hyer did my hair and makeup with some classic 40's glamour, and my dear friend Sarah Lovett consulted and kept us company. Friday night my amazing fiance Gregory went with me (despite me causing us to be late) to learn how to fox trot. The first man to ever go ballroom dancing with me. He wins the prize! Then, I acquired a cold. The only downer to the weekend. Saturday, I spent taking engagement shots with my splendid fiance Gregory, and the talented Rachel Thurston at the downtown SLC library despite an early season snowfall. Saturday night I dined on delicious Japanese food with my dearest friends, and then partook in some bowling with some more dear friends at the Ritz classic bowling. The extraordinary Caroline King graced us with delicious german chocolate cupcakes, and my fiance Greg delighted us with pictures of our rear ends while we aimed for a strike. Sunday I spent with my beloved family. What I'm trying to say of course, is that I would be nothing without my friends and family! I love you all!!!

Living the Dream

People keep telling me things like, "you're living the dream". I suppose it's true. I mean, this Friday morning at 6 AM I leave Salt Lake City to fly to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina to rehearsals so that I can dance with the Radio City Rockettes this holiday season. I am being paid (handsomely, if I do say so myself) to dance, fed breakfast, housed in my own room, and provided a rental car. Then I get to fly to Nashville, TN where I get to perform at the Grand Ole Opry in a national tradition, the Radio City Christmas Spectacular. That's pretty amazing. Not that dancing with the Rockettes, specifically, has been a dream since my childhood, but dancing professionally has been. It was only a few years ago that I realized this would be the perfect dancing job for me, and I set my sights on making it happen. And now it's happening! I am still a bit in denial.

The only sad part about living this dream is that I have to leave my dream man, Gregory Hunt, back in Utah for 2 1/2 months. The irony! I am so blessed to be with a man who supports me in pursuing my talents and my dreams. Enjoy your higher than average amounts of gym time and guy time while I'm away, Gregory, cause when I return it's ON. Full Throttle. Charlies Angels 2.

Feeling Sheepish

So, I was all excited, er, well, maybe anxious is more the word to describe my feelings about finally starting my own blog. I thought it would be a good opportunity to record some of the stuff that is going on in my life--to act as a stand-in journal for the journal that I so often neglect. When I finally found a url that wasn't already taken, I promptly posted my first blog, only to find that I wasn't sure what else to really say. I had all these confused feelings about posting my thoughts on things on the world wide web. Not that anyone is even reading this blog at the moment, but, I had certain feelings that I didn't have anything new to share with anyone at the moment. I was sharing these sheepish feelings with my fiance, Greg, and he shared his own feelings that it's an opportunity to feed some creativity. Now that was a reminder I could use. Thank you, fiance! I have been saddened by what seems to me to be a significant loss of creativity in the last ten or so years. I tend to blame part of it on the eight years hiatus I took from dancing (my major creative outlet), and part of it on the near four-year marriage I was in, and in which I chose to suppress a great deal of emotion in some sort of survival experiment. Whatever the reason, I am renewed in my efforts to forge ahead with this blog thing. Go easy on me, I'm new at this.