Walk Before You Run

I love to dance, travel, and I really love to laugh.  Tosh.0 is one of my favorite shows to watch, and I was so happy to see this video of one of Tosh.0's 'Web Redemptions' for a young man named Sasha who gained internet fame for his video of his audition for the Denver Broncos Cheerleaders.  Sasha has a passion for dancing, even though he has only been dancing for 2 months.  I appreciate and adore Sasha's pursuit of his dreams, but I think we can all agree that this is an instance where Sasha needs to learn to walk before he can run.  Passion will only get you so far in a dance audition--at some point you need to learn technique, gain strength and flexibility, and look the part for which you're auditioning.  Although the Denver Broncos Cheerleaders may not have chosen Sasha to be on their team, I hope Sasha doesn't ever stop dancing--it clearly brings him joy!

<a href="http://tosh.comedycentral.com/video-clips/web-redemption---male-cheerleader---uncensored?xrs=share_copy"></a>

Bruno Marz makin me wanna dance

Did you guys see this performance on Saturday Night Live last Saturday?  I just watched the episode and was completely mesmerized by this performance!  Of course Bruno Marz's voice is amazing, and combined with his backup musicians/dancers/vocalists I had a smile on my face the entire time and couldn't stop watching.  Loved it!  Going to add this song to a playlist on Spotify right now.

where to begin

It's been 5 weeks since I posted anything, maybe six. But I've been busy, Ok? I mean, I'm getting married in less than three weeks, so cut me some slack. I'll try to catch you up a little with some pictures from our informal cast picture day! Here is the entire cast of the Radio City Christmas Spectacular:
Here is the line of Rockettes:
And here are the Rockettes with Santa!:
And here is our little lamb licking my sweaty tights!

It's a hard knock life for us

Not many people get a look at the Rockettes when we are backstage and un-glamorous. We hide the pains we feel on stage because we get paid to make it look easy. But the truth is, this dancing is HARD! Last Saturday we had our first four-show day. It was a jump from having only done two shows in one day to four shows in one day. One at 11:00, 2:00, 5:00, and 8:00. Luckily they feed us on those days since there is only one hour between shows and we don't have a lot of time to get nourishment, fix hair and makeup, and work out any other problems. After our long "Christmas in New York" number we get a 15 minute intermision that seems to fly by. We generally lie on the floor for a bit, maybe roll the cramps out of our feet, and elevate our tired legs before we have to strap on a 15 pound fat suit for the dance number where we all dress up as Santa Claus. Here is a picture of Ashley and me resting at our stations during intermission of the fourth show of the day. We are wearing our tights for the "Ragdoll" number which is after the "Santas" number, and our t-shirts that absorb the sweat from prancing around in a fat suit. That day was an unprecedented challenge for us. But we're not complaining. It's the only four show day we have to do in the whole run! Yay! The other cities have to do them every Friday and Saturday.

The coffee table book is now available!

So, I haven't seen it in person yet, but the coffee table book celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Radio City Rockettes is now available! My friend Leah went to pick one up at Barnes and Noble today because she happens to be on the cover. I am supposedly featured in this book, though I haven't confirmed it yet. I flew back to NYC this summer for the photo shoot where we got to wear vintage costumes of the Rockettes. It is entirely possible that they left out all the costumes that my group wore, but I hope not. Here is a link to the book on barnes and noble.com: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&EAN=9780061565380&itm=1
and here is the front cover with my friend Leah (who is also a new girl and who I stand next to in the kick lines) front and center!

A Thanksgiving Miracle

So, our final number in the Christmas Spectacular is a live nativity. We have three live camels, and three live sheep, and a donkey. Apparently one of the sheep was pregnant and when we came back for the show on Sunday she had a little lamb. They gave her the day off to take care of her baby, which I think was appropriate. The rumor is that she actually went into labor on stage the night before and her water broke on stage, but it might have just been urine. I don't know what to believe. But either way, look how cute!

Truly Thankful

So the best part of my Thanksgiving day this year wasn't the delicious lunch I had courtesy of Ellendale's restaurant in Nashville, nor was it performing that evening with the Radio City Rockettes, it was immediately following that performance when I came home to find my fiance waiting for me at home. I knew that he would be there, it wasn't a surprise visit, but it had been 5 weeks since we had seen each other and that is entirely too long. I am so grateful that he traveled all day on Thanksgiving to be with me! It was the best thing ever. It was one of those moments that I kept trying to picture in my mind, wondering what it would be like to see each other again, playing out different scenarios in a dream like bubble. It couldn't have been better. I meant to take a picture of the entirely store-bought meal that we had at 11:00PM that night, but I guess in my excitement/hunger/tiredness I forgot. It was actually really delicious. I guess I bought things from all the right stores. I had a fantastic weekend with my Greg. The next morning I got to meet his brother Patrick and wife Jen (the only family members I hadn't met until then), and we had some fun trying to navigate the city. That night they came to the show with a couple of friends who were in town, and imagine how pleased I was when they seemed to like it. We snapped some photos afterward. The next day we went to the ICE! exhibit right next to the Opryhouse where they have an entire wonderland made of ice. This year it was celebrating the 50th anniversary of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas". It was pretty terrific, despite it only being 10 degrees inside. They did bundle us up in Smurfy parkas to keep us warm. Here we are going down the slide made entirely of ice! We were lucky enough to see one man overestimate the strength of the plastic handles that were embedded in the ice at the top of slide--he tried to push off of them from a standing position, and he took the handles to the bottom of the slide with him. So, we had to merge lines with the other slide and ride the bigger one. It was a pretty impressive display overall! Greg came to watch me dance again that evening, as did my friend Camron and her husband Adam, which was so much fun! They even sacrificed a chance to see Billy Ray Cyrus and Hannah Montana to come hang out with me and Greg and drive our non-rental-car-having butts around town. I laughed more this weekend than I have laughed in the last 5 weeks. I remembered how funny Greg really is! Sadly, the fun weekend had to come to an end this morning, but I will always be grateful fo this Thanksgiving weekend with friends and family.