Day 1 in Beijing

After some rest we needed breakfast,well the breakfast here is not like the breakfast we have.

Thoriso calls this boiled lettuce

 Breakfast is a bit tough but we just sit and enjoy our rice.

more boiled lettuce

We then needed to get our bodies going after the long and tiring travels. So we walked around and found the National Centre of the Performing Arts(NCPA)
Here are some pictures. It is BEAUTIFUL!!! very modern.

 We then took a taxi to a ballet school to do some class and rehearse. It was very tough, but that is to be expected. this is why I like to arrive early to get this feeling of jet lag out sooner rather then later.
We rehearsed for about 5 hours. We are performing the Satanella pas de deux for the first round.
I have the most beautiful tutu. I will post a picture later on, It is the most stunning tutu ever!!!!
Thank you Alta, once again I get to have one of the best costumes at the competition.

We are now being registered for the competition, where we received some amazing gifts. Leg warmers, a jersey, a bag and even a pair of pointe shoes along with some other goodies.
After registering we got to go inside this beautiful theatre. You actually walk underneath the water to get to the theatre. The ceiling is glass with water above it.
I have not managed to take photos of this yet, but here are some of the other photos of the rest of the theatre.

Tomorrow we will be choosing our numbers at random and this will determine our placement in the competitions running order.

I hope I get a good number.

Arriving in Beijing

I apologize for this post being so late. I am unable to log into the blog here in CHINA(its amazing)
So, I have asked my lovely fiance James Fraser, to take my messages and put it on this blog for me.
It feels strange not having him here as my partner for the 3rd Beijing International Ballet Competition.

This is my 5th International Ballet Competition, and people ask me "why do you do so many ballet competitions?".
Well, my answer to that question?. It is the best way to push myself as a dancer and a person. In doing competitions I learn from other dancers too. The atmosphere is energetic and you get to meet so many people from so many different countries.

My partner Randol

Regarding learning and other countries. My sensational coach Thoriso Magongwa who is experienced and is also dancing in a country in Europe is here to take my dancing to soaring new heights. I am blessed to have him here sharing his knowledge and experience with me.
For this competition my partner is Randol Betancourt who hails from cuba. We will both be competing in the senior category.

On the 5th of July we left for Beijing.
It was hard yet exciting at the same time as I had to say good bye to my friends and family for now, as I will not return to Johannesburg after this competition.
But, I will be joining my fiance in Seoul(South Korea) and will be working with the Universal Ballet Company directly after this competition.
It was a big decision to make, but due to the passing of both my parents over the last 6 months. I need to be away and give my grieving heart a chance to heal.
I miss my parents dearly, but I know that they can now watch me dance wherever I am in the world. In this sense, I keep dancing not only for myself but for them as well.

Our flight to Hong kong was extremely long. 13 hours!!!
Randol and I sat together and got to each other better. But Thoriso on the other hand had the pleasure of someone brushing his teeth in their seat and snorted for the duration of the flight. Hence the man earned a nick name. "Snorty".

Once we arrived in Hong Kong, we had a 3 hour wait before flying to Beijing. The jet lag was starting to kick in already because Hong Kong as well as Beijing is 6 hours ahead of Johannesburg.
Randol kept telling me to stay awake to try stay awake on the flight to Beijing so that my body gets used to the time difference. Well.... That was impossible. my eyes would just close and the next thing I knew we were there. in passing through customs I was one of the lucky people selected at random to have my temperature checked due to the MERS breakout. But i was cleared.
Then coming out of the arrival terminal, there was no one there to fetch collect us. Normally the organisation that runs the competition will send a cab or a driver to collect us from the airport and take us to our hotel.
Now. The issue with no one there to collect us is that English is not a first language in China and to find someone who speaks it is difficult. It is really hard to get around by yourself.
Thank goodness Marise (a very good friend of mine) told me to have the address of our hotel and the phone number of the person who organises the competition.
We managed to organise a taxi and we were informed that it was an hour travel to the hotel "if there was no traffic".
We were so tired after such a long journey that all we wanted to do was eat and sleep.

After finally arriving at the hotel(which is lovely) we had to find food. It being 11pm at night, everything is closed except luckily, McDonalds, and like everywhere in the world it is open almost all the time. But this is a problem for me as I love McDonalds but because my first round of the competition is danced in a tutu. I  need to eat healthy. But it was the only place open so that a great excuse have the good old Big Mac.

That first night. We all slept very well.

A cute picture from McDonalds

Some pictures from the beginning.

Myself, James and our friend Guilherme from Brazil on our way to Varna.

When we arrived in Varna, we wanted to walk around and stretch our legs from the long plane trip. What better way to do that by taking a walk along the beach :). I had to be careful not to burn or get any tan lines because I really don't want to have funny marks showing when I wear my beautiful costumes. A funny story, Guilherme was taking pictures of the beach and when we were looking through the pictures, it is so beautiful that he had not even noticed that he had taken a picture of a topless woman!!!!

Registration

These are our name tags that we have to wear in order to get into the amazing theatre, our program and a little glass cube with the 50th anniversary inside.

THE FAMOUS VARNA STAGE!!!!

The Open Air Theatre.

The performances take place during the evenings from 9pm.

The flags from all the competitors from around the world. Can you spot the South African flag on the far right...

The members of the International Jury.

 James and I still can't believe that we are here! Thank you so much to everyone who has supported us from your wishes to the very generous and amazing donations! We thank you from the bottom of our hearts!!!

Welcome to VARNA

We are finally here

I must apologize for only posting now, it is a huge struggle with wifi. The line keeps disconnecting, so I will post every now and then. Please be patient.

Varna is such a beautiful City. You can see the ocean right from our hotel balcony and hear the sounds of the seagulls. Its the perfect place to kick back and relax for a wonderful European holiday. Well unfortunately, we are not here for holiday, we are here to take part in the World famous, Varna International Ballet Competition (IBC), which is considered the DANCE OLYMPICS!!!
Myself and James cannot believe that we are here!!

What makes this competition so famous, besides it being the Dance Olympics, is that the competition takes place in a beautiful, out door Open Air Theatre! The only competition in the world to do this. Almost all of the most brilliant ballet stars of the world during the last 5 decades are laureates of Varna IBC. Some famous names are: Vladimir Vassiliev, Natalia Makarova, Mikhail Barishnokov, Patrick Dupond, Vladimir Malakhov and Sylvie Guilem!!!
We are so lucky to take part this year as it is the 50th anniversary of this competitions existence and only now, James and I are making History by being the first South Africans to EVER to part!!!

Over the years there have been from over 200 countries! This year the International Jury is: Prof. Vladimir Vasiliev CHAIRMAN (Russia), Aurora Bosch (Cuba), Assoc Prof. Biser Deyanov (Bulgaria), Eldar Aliev (USA), Yoko Morishita (Japan), Johann Hans Vogl (Germany), Constantin Dutu (Romania), Acad. Krassimira Koldamova (Bulgaria), Luca Masala ( Monaco), Maximila Guerra (Argentina), Prof. Petar Loukanov (Bulgaria), Sara-Nora Krysteva (Bulgaria), Cyrille Atanassoff (France), Prof. Sun-Hee Kim (Korea), Dr Seon-Hee Jang (Korea), Prof Suhua Xiao (China), Tursynbek Nurkaliyev (Kazakhstan)

On the 14th of July, it was the number draw, where your name is called out and you pick a number randomly out of a bag. My number is 124 and James is 128. Round 1 takes place over 5 days and guess what, due to our high numbers, we will only perform on 18/19 July, the last days... We will perform Flower Festival in Genzano, my favourite ;).

 

Last night was the Opening ceremony of the competition. They introduced the Judges and there were many speeches. Vladimir Vassiliev is the chairman on the Jury and is very famous in this competition due to the fact that he is the only person in the world to hold the title of the Grand Prix Award! This award is above the Gold Medal! After all the speeches,the famous torch was light and then the show began...

I am trying to find enough wifi to upload pictures of the world famous stage. Stay tuned for pictures and more information :) 

Rehearsals

Rehearsals for the Gala

We have been very lucky to be able to use the studios at the Sangmyung University in the late afternoons and evenings. We just come in, warm our bodies up, do some exercises that we need then just do our own class to work our bodies the way we feel we need to. As a dancer, you know what your body needs and can work to your ability. Its nice to work slowly and take your time now and then and work!!! After doing a nice class, then we would stretch and I am so pleased to say that my stretching has improved. I have been working every night since I got  back from Russia. It has felt like it has been doing nothing, but it is so true that if your persevere, you will eventually see results!!! 

Here are my results: 

But this is what my goal is:

Olga, Gold Medalist from the competition.






This is the University where we rehearse






After we were done with all the stretching then it was time to work on Coppelia as we had dedicated so much of our time to all our other pieces due to the competition. Halfway through our rehearsal, Mr Park came in and saw that we were working on our partnered pirouettes (if you know me, its not my most favorite step in ballet). Well, he told me that I must put my weight slightly forward, and that it feels uncomfortable and to feel a rhythm with my head and relax. Guess what!!! It worked every time. He gave me a training exercise that he used to do with his partners. He is not a professor in the Vagonova method for nothing... He gave James and I many other corrections that have helped us so much! He is one of the most amazing people I have ever met in my life. He was the one who originally invited us to the Korea International Ballet Competition, as he is the President of the competition. Mr Park was a Principal of the Korea National Ballet and had many famous partners. He told us that he has no pictures except for 4 that his brother had of him because there was a fire that burnt down his house and destroyed all his photographs. This is so sad! He was also the Artistic Director of the Seoul Ballet Company. He is so kind, humble and helpful. He has done so much for James and I while we have been here. He has given us the opportunity to do what we love, to DANCE ON STAGE!!! He has changed our lives forever and we are so grateful to him!!! We both feel that he is our ballet father. The reason why I say this is because we have heard from many of his students that they call him father. We have wondered why, now we understand. We love you Mr Park, our ballet Father!

Experiences in Korea

Wanderings

James and I had a day to relax and recover after the competition. It is very stressful being in a competition and takes a day or 2 afterwards to recover and feel back to normal. Its very nice that we didn't have to get on a plane the next day and travel and get even more tired.

Mr Park took us to breakfast at a little coffee shop. It was really nice to chat to him and hear about his life. He studied for 10 years to become a Professor in the Vaganova Method, so this man REALLY knows what he is talking about. James and I feel so lucky to know him, never mind chat with him about his experiences and ballet!

After breakfast Mr Park thought we would like to see a little bit of the town, which we were dying to do! He dropped us off at the largest Buddhist Temple in Korea and was going to pick us up later. Here are some pictures:

Some of the Beautiful statues.

The Entrance to the Temple

Isn't this tree stunning!!! Looks really cool

The Temple

These are painted ALL over the Temple!

After seeing the Temple,we walked across the road to a market were they sold many interesting things! Here are some pictures from there just so you can get an idea.

Don't ask, I am not really sure what these are, but by the looks of it they are stamps for wax.

These are all paint brushes.

Rice punch... It's got a very interesting taste, very sweet, an acquired taste I think.

Some sweet little things like chops ticks and Korean items.

Some hand crafted traditional masks.

Some pottery.

A shop for me!!

Another shop that I looooved! Has lots of Asian styled jewelry.

These are all little hand mirrors.

James and I are having a wonderful time! Thank you to everyone who has helped us in anyway possible. We could not be here without all of your help!!!

We feel like we are on top of the world!!!!