Some pictures from classes and the competition

This was when I was warming up. You have to be really warm for a Russian class. The studio was very raked so I also had to adjust my weight and try and get used to it.

 
 

The warm up exercise was almost 10 minutes long... I was already dripping with sweat, just from the first exercise! The class was taken by Zane Lieldidzha-Kolbina/Lolita Soifere. Wow I have NEVER seen such extreme sway backed legs ever! You can sort of see the teachers legs is in this photo.

This was the grand battement exercise. Now, if you notice the girl on the far right... You will notice that she is pretty flexible! When we were warming up, she went to the chair, put her foot on it and went into the splits. I have seen this before so I was thinking ok... Then she turned into the middle splits and was STILL flat (her hips were touching the floor), then she turned all the way around so that her leg that was front on the chair was now at the back and she was STILL flat!!! I was like, WOW!!! As you can probably guess, she is Russian.

 

This was just another exercise in the centre.

 

 

 

This is me and the awesome teacher! The class was amazing! Was really difficult, but I feel like I improved so much just from that one class.

 

This is the pianist and Paulina (the girl from Finland that I made friends with). They don't use CD players, even for rehearsals, they only use a pianist and this is just the school.

 

This is the flower that I picked and I got number 41. This was not so nice when it came to the competition as it meant that I was always at the end of the program and it was really difficult to calm my nerves.

This was on the day that we had to do our placing for Round 2. I was so tired, but had to keep on going...

 Luisito with all his energy!!!

This was the 2nd master class with Anton Boytsov. Behind me is Miles Gilliver who we made such good friends with.

 

 

 

These are the other dancers: Paulina (Finland), Veronika (Russia) and Artem Markov (Russia)

 

 

Myself and Luisito with Anton Boytsov. He loved Luisito!!!

This was myself and Luisito preparing for the actual performance of Round 2. As you will notice, we were both really nervous...

 

 

 

Me all dressed and ready to perform Flower Festival for Round 2.

Striking a creative pose after the contemporary in Round 2.

 

 

 

This is me with Anna Romenkova, one of the helpers at the competition. We also made really good friends with her. She is so sweet and helpful, really going to miss her.

 

This is James with Anna.