Dance camp photos

Here are my pictures from camp

Last day and heading home

On our last morning, we have one more session of EBAS with Danile. I took it easy through tech class so I could really participate in Gavin's pirouette class. Danile taught men's class since Pedro headed home in the morning. She included tours and assemble jumps. More stuff to work on at home! While we ate people started peeling off to head home. It's so sad to see everyone leave.
Our own journey home detoured through Alberta St and Salt and Straw for ice cream. Before long I'm at the airport and on my way home. Feels good to sleep in my own bed again. But in the morning, I'll wake up and realize I'm not going to see my camp buddies and I'm back to real life and it will all feel a little sad.

Last few days of camp are a whirlwind!

Thursday dawns with all of us checking our bodies for how we are feeling. My first few years at camp I would wake up on Thursday feeling amazing after going to bed on Wednesday feeling like a truck ran me over. I wasn't feeling quite so good this time. My Achilles tendon is a little sore and I've got a strain in one of my small glute muscles. It's another long day with partnering at the very end. We had Kathi Martuza for tech class and she is a beautiful dancer! She used to be principal with OBT and has the most beautiful extended port de bras. We have pirouette with Gavin Larsen, also former principal with OBT. She is tiny, with a sinewy rubber band body! Her focus for class is spotting, which is so important. She really helped set me up for inside turns. I will need to practice with her suggestions at home. For partnering class, we finish up the performance routine. Thank goodness we only have a bit more to learn. Heidi pairs me with Henry for the performance. I'm excited because he is a wonderful young dancer, with a princely manner about him. We all seem to have a little more energy tonight so we decide to trek over to Tommy O's. My friends were not here for Saturday's meet and greet so this is their first meal here. I think this may be my favourite local place.
Friday comes so fast during camp week. We have a later start to the morning and a short tech class with Gavin. We then run through variations and rep. It's hard to believe but we basically have the rep piece down! A longer lunch gives us time to eat, digest and prepare hair, makeup and costume. For the performance, we run through each group once then again for taping. I feel pretty good about my performances although I know I will see things I don't like on tape. Everyone does an amazing job! It's always such an emotional time!
In the evening, our celebration dinner is at A Touch of Athens, out on their lawn. The weather is gorgeous, the food was terrific, and they had wonderful live music, a belly dancer, singing, and most of us participated in the Greek line dancing at some point in the evening. Pedro and Heidi danced together in an improvisational duet. Towards the end of the evening, we could just see the Fourth of July fireworks above the surrounding buildings and hear the 'bombs bursting in air' all around. Truly a magical evening.

Wednesday

The longest and most painful day at camp but also the most fun because we have partnering! We started our day with EBAS, which felt better today than yesterday (Danile extended the flow to the next several movements). We had her for tech as well again and another fantastic class. She had a brilliant way to get us focused on the initial batement for fouettes. We ran variations again in the little room which was cramped and challenging but we all got through it and were able to clean up each of the steps. After lunch we had our first partnering session. Our group of tall women had Troy (fellow camper), Scott and Henry. I had danced with Scott two years ago. Henry is a young dancer with Oregon Ballet Theater who has studied at SFB school. We also had Jordan with OBT, and Joshua, former Martha Graham/Ailey dancer who is now a leather craftsman (here's a video of him and his dad at his dad's shoe repair shop)! We've only learned part of Pedro's PDD routine. He's got us starting on the ground. Grrr. Our last class of the day was Rep which Danile had to run us through since Pedro was teaching the advanced campers in partnering. Definitely a challenge for Danile but she got us whipped into shape really well! Amazing that she can teach someone else's choreography in one day. Wednesday leaves us beat, mentally and physically. We walked to Black Angus for dinner since it's literally next to the hotel.

Short day

Today is our shortest day and also the hottest weather-wise. I learned that one of the campers, Ethan, used to work with Edie. Small world!

We had tech class in the morning with Danile. Then pirouette class (so great, we always learn so much) and instead of pointe, I took men's class. This first class was pas de deux technique so the guy campers could learn how to partner. Really fun, since we usually only get partnering for two sessions where we learn a piece, it was useful to learn this stuff in a little more detail. Since our day was short, we went into Portland to Via Delizia, a restaurant that we first went to two years ago when we SKD first came to the area and my friends came back last year. We enjoyed the food but were mainly there for the gelato. I had chocolate coconut and mango, both delicious.
On the way back I seem to have developed a small blister near the bottom of my second toe. Not sure how that will play out tomorrow. Otherwise I feel okay.