Brought to you live from ITALIA!
Some news: the date of RAW Artists was changed to the day I flew out of Italy so I was unable to perform with If/Then :(. But hey, I'm in Italy. Got in this morning and have so far been up for an ungodly amount of hours.
Arrived in Rome with my brother and we know no Italian and sort of just went with the flow. Apparently our hotel in Rome is in China Town...that's right, China Town, Rome.
So far ive had the best cappuccino ever, and I smell like a true Italian...(gross)
The most interesting experience of the day was either the seven foot tall tranny that looked like the Italian Cher,
OR
When mike and I used four languages to get a sim card for our phones out here. (English, Italian, Spanish, and mandarin).

I don't think i can upload pictures from my iPad to my blog, so see my twitter or Facebook for any of those.

We've finally been allowed to check into our hotel after roaming Rome for three hours. And after a siesta we are out for a drink. Ciao!

Late June Updates and some Job Advice

As I figured, Vital Dance didn't take me because I will be out of the country for their next performance. Boo.

Missing Paul Taylor's annual beach party because I'll be in Italy.

Haven't been really able to do any new auditions because the auditions/rehearsals/performances are for when I'll be away.

And lastly, the date of the Raw Artist series has been changed to June 30th, so I will no longer be able to perform with If/Then Dance, because I will be in a plane somewhere between Washington and Rome.

But on the upside...I'M GOING TO ITALY!!!


As for some other news, my internship with Paul Taylor will be ending next week before I go away.  I've got tons of workstudy hours, so I can continue to take classes for this fall when they start back up.

Also I'm looking into some job transitions.
Here's the deal:  Starbucks does not pay enough for my rent/living/loans and I can't be workings 35+ hour weeks on my feet trying to make it happen.  It is SO draining working nonstop on your feet like that.  My body feels unhealthy, and like it's shrinking.

Here is some job advice for dancers without rich Daddies, that I've collected from my teachers upon graduating, and now have come to understand through experience.  Because let's face it, dancing won't pay the bills:
DON'T get a job where you're on your feet for long hours and long weeks
DO get a job within your interests
DO get a dance or fitness related job
DO get a job where you can sit down and rest your body or have short weekly hours
Office jobs are GREAT.  As long as you can fit in class and rehearsals.

Through taking classes at Taylor, I've come to understand that a LOT of dancers nanny for a living.  It's nothing to put on your professional resume, but it can pay BIG bucks in this rich city.

So, I'm off to Prospect Park tomorrow for a little interview for an afterschool babysitter.  20+ hours a week, two children, good pay, late afternoons and evenings so I can take class or rehearse in the morning.  I have lots of babysitting experience, especially growing up with little sisters, so I will have fun.
Just what I'm looking for.

OR

If you're REALLY lucky, you can just have Mommy and Daddy pay for all of college, your rent, your travel, your food, and your living expenses!!!! (note tone of sarcasm and bitterness)

Dance is such an unfair and elite profession that is only for the rich.  All of this job and money stuff really limits and holds you back.  I for see in my near future, days where I eat cereal for all three meals, but I've really got no other choice :P

Got some partnerin' ta do

On the train back from an audition: Vital Dance
Started with a smooth improv warmup (I did a floor barre and abbreviated ballet barre at home)
We learned a couple phrases, and she had us play with some musicality and quality.
Then some quick partnering at the end.
What the heck AU Dance?! Makin' me look like a fool at two auditions now because I don't know much of anything about partnering :/ One HUGE flaw of Adelphi... Hopefully they're working on it but I tend to doubt that...

Anyway Vital Dance was looking for a couple dancers for the company and some upcoming things (one in July which I will be in Italy for). The choreographer, Shawna, was great; she was very enthusiastic, excited, and passionate about her work and the process.
All in all it was a very fun audition, almost like a relaxed rep class or something.
I'm just a little disappointed in my lack of partnering skills.

I'll be hearing back from Vital Dance tomorrow-ish.
In the meantime, I am currently chuggin' down some Gatorade and replenishing some electrolytes.

Fixes

Images from last couple of blogs that never uploaded (ma' bad). 

The first is from Natalie Walter's article (the AU Dance majors at graduation!)

The second is for If/Then Dance's upcoming performance June 23rd! Catch me there

L Train Blues

As if things aren't tough enough, things can go wrong before you even get to an audition. Yeah, you may not even make it to the audition part. Like what happened to me today for example!

I was planning on a music video audition (jazz, modern, some hip hop dance for Gordon Voidwell) after my internship. So with plenty of time to spare, I hit up the F to the L to get over to BK. 50 minutes of standing like cattle in a slaughter house, and I'm still in manhattan on the unmoving L train--it's 7pm and the audition has began.

Also today, was an audition for J Chen,which filled up and I got closed out of.
Sometimes, you send in your request for an audition via email with your resume attached, and companies can say, "nah, you can't audition for us. Not worth our time."
Other times, you can get lost and arrive 20 minutes late to an audition, and get turned away (I saw this happen to a girl at Paul Taylor)
Don't even get me started on theatre. Most shows won't even let you audition unless you're union, and guess what? To be in a union, you have to be cast in a show first!

The moral of this dancerly story?
Well there is no moral, just fate.

RAW

Oh! and I forgot.  I have a performance coming up with If/Then Dance and Sam Householder on June 23rd.  Unpaid, but it is something, and it's a pretty big event:  RAW Artist Series

3 Weeks Deep in Post-Graduation

Check out Adelphi Dancer, Natalie Walter's article on graduating with a dance degree! College Dance and the "Real World"

I've been in the "Real World" now for three weeks and I think I still have a lot to figure out. 

My 35 hour a week job at Starbucks is just not working for me.  I caught a cold the last week of school with all the lack of sleep, and have now had a fluctuating cold for a month that I just can't seem to quit with the amount of hours I work and trying to dance.  I just can't get enough sleep.

Which makes me think that Starbucks will not work for me.

Most of the dance classes I want to take are morning classes.  Waking up at 7:30 with a hacking cough and trying to drag myself to a dance class is just not working, which makes me consider something.

What does a dancer do when they are sick and need to go to class?

Back in school, not going to class meant affecting my grade, and going through the humiliation of perhaps being a softy.  Now going to class sick could maybe be rude to the other dancers and teacher.  Not to mention that I am abusing my instrument even more by taking away sleeping time and putting it through something it doesn't want to do when sick.  I think missing class and missing a rehearsal are obviously different cases.  But one of my teachers who danced in Taylor for years told me he missed rehearsal only twice:  once when his first child was born, and the other time when he thought his wife had cancer so he went to the doctor with her.  There should be no excuse for me missing class, especially if it is only guaranteed that I can go about twice a week.  But this morning my body begged me for more sleep. 

So in conclusion to this dance-life-lesson, you can't work on your feet 35+ hour weeks with late/early hours, and try to dance, while staying healthy. 

Solution:  I need to get a new job...

Much Thanks, and my definition of a Dance Job

Shout out to my friends Mckeely, Alex, and Nicole for housing me while I wait for my summer sublet to free up.  You are all dolls and I would probably be living out of my car in the Starbucks parking lot, if not for you.

I'd also like to take some time to discuss what the words "dance job" mean to me, in the field I am pursuing (modern dance).

Upon graduating, and getting that infamous "so, what's next?" question from countless relatives and acquaintances, I've decided to educate you on what a dance job is.  Frankly, even my immediate family, although I love them, does not understand what it means, and I realized this when my dad insisted that it would be best for me to move home until I "got a full-time job."

Dance Job:
They come in many forms, shapes, and sizes.
The goal is something permanent or a long term contract, that pays weekly, and for performances and travel expenses.  This would ideally be with a dance company.

The reality is that this takes time, dedication, patience, hard work, a good audition, talent, and luck.  It often takes a couple years out there before something great happens. And guess what?  You usually don't have an agent or a manager to help you.  Just you.

In the meantime there are gigs of all sorts to help you on your way.
One time performance opportunities
Unpaid work (but performance experience to add to a resume)
Paid performance only, work.
Week long, month long, one-time
Commercials, Musicals, Documentaries, Cruise Ships
etc.

BASICALLY a whole lot of jumping around, temporary, up-in-the-air things.
There is rarely such thing as a "full-time dance job."  And things are pretty uncertain.
Just because it didn't happen for you this audition, does not mean devastation or the end of the world.
Dancers are BEASTS!

I hope that clears up a few things.
I've been pondering this all a lot lately post-graduation, and all I can think of is what a weird lifestyle it is, and no wonder people can't understand it.  But then again, dancers are weird.

Quick note!

Oh and by the way, sorry for any annoying typos, just got an iPhone!

Fish & Ponds

Two big auditions have passed, Paul Taylor Dance Company and D
Parsons Dance. Two huge companies, in case you didn't know.

I got callbacks for both.

I am in LOVE with Taylor and it is my dream company. I really enjoyed the audition, where we walked for Mr Taylor and performed some choreography from "Sunsets," such a beautiful piece. The callback however was difficult and nerve racking. Go find a video of "Scudorama." (sorry if I butchered the spelling) I like thinking of how I got to dance for the legendary Paul Taylor, and his own choreography too :)

Parsons audition was more of a class. David Parsons was once a Taylor dancer himself! He's a pretty funny dude. The choreography is more jumpy and quirky and flashy (in a good, fun way). VERY fun. Lots of sweating. The callback was pretty intense. Some chick scratched the hell out of my hand though and drew blood, and I started to feel pretty tripped up on my cold medicine. I could NOT figure out one of the jumps, but fakes it as best as I could.

Audition > callback > job
Now I just have to make it past the callback phase. There is a different feel to them and I can longer just pretend that "it's only a class"
The tension in the room changes and it's harder to concentrate.
Next step is figuring out callbacks...

On a lighter note...I graduated yesterday! Very exciting day :)
My plan for the summer is to stay in Long Island, Stabucks, dance internship and classes with the company, along with other classes in manhattan and long island.

And so the little fish jumps into the big pond.

Pre-Graduation Crunch

Some Recent Thoughts:
Exactly three weeks until I graduate and enter the real world...

Saw Christopher Fleming's Tommy The Rock Ballet at Adelphi University, performed by my peers.  Shocked at how bad the professionals were in the show.  Although the students weren't used to such rigorous pointe work, there was true artistry in their performance.  The professionals looked bored, limp, and some had some technique issues that seem to never have been fixed...  Not to mention the choreography seemed out of sync and anticlimactic compared to the music.

HATCH performances at The Works studio in Manhattan with If/Then Dance May 7th and May 14th


Also performing a work by Adelphi faculty member and recent Taylor alum, Orion Duckstein, on May 6th and May 13th at Adelphi University in Garden City, Long Island.  Beautiful piece with music by Part :)

An update on HT Chen Company:  The other seven dancers and I invited to the callback, have been asked to continue coming to rehearsals three days a week.  After the audition, callback, and a rehearsal, I realized it was just too much for me right now, unpaid, with graduation lurking around the corner.  I had to tell them that unfortunately I couldn't make rehearsals at this point, but  I will be very much available in three weeks and hopefully they will think of me in the future.

Daise

If/Then Dance had their second HATCH series last weekend, and it went pretty well! Great experience to share with two of my best friends (choreographer Sam Householder, and fellow dancer, Kelly B).  After much baby powder, yellow makeup, live flowers, and some costume malfunctions almost resulting in flashing the audience, it turned out well and I'm psyched to do the next two HATCH performances April 6th and 13th.

Here are some pics from a dress rehearsal at Adelphi, and here is a dress run of the piece
Coming soon is an edited video (courtesy of my brother, Mike)
Tomorrow:  HT Chen callback!

Upcoming performance- HATCH

My first professional performance, with If/Then Dance Project!

Will be premiering a duet, "Daise" by Sam Householder.  Hope to see you there!

Face

I recently had the opportunity to work with a photographer/great lady that I know, Julia Gerace.  She is a truly excellent photographer, based out of Connecticut, and I first met her when she was shooting out of her house, way back when! Anyway, she now has a gorgeous studio, and asked me a couple weeks ago to come in to play around with a fantasy model shoot, featuring the four seasons.

Here is a link to her blog post about our shoot. Click to check out a shot from each season.

And this is one of the shots from "Winter"

P.S.  This looks NOTHING like me haha

Anyway, after our fun shoot, Julia insisted that I have got to look into modeling.  I've heard so from friends of mine, and my boyfriend, but always assumed it was them being partial to me or flattery.  Hearing it from a professional really did it for me though, and now I'd seriously like to look into modeling, but am unsure of how or where to start.  I'm only 5'4'' so runway and things of that sort are out of the question.  But I really enjoy modeling and would love to make some side cash. 

Where do I start ahhhhhh

Late coffee and good news

Today was productive.
Abs, Modern, Ballet.
Rehearsal with the seniors for Orion Duckstein's piece
Work (AU Dance office & Starbucks)
Rehearsal with Sam Householder and If/ Then Dance (Like If/Then Dance on Facebook!) or (follow us on Twitter).

I was going to post after my audition last week with HT Chen Company, but making money got in the way.  I was basically going to say that it was a small audition (it was split up by days and groups) and a positive experience.  And I enjoyed myself :)  They told us we would hear by monday by email, so I thought nothing much of it for the rest of the weekend.  Que sera, sera.

As a side note:  I was really impressed by the company.  They have their own dance center in China Town, do a ton of outreach, teach, perform often, paid rehearsals and performances, the company has been around for over 30 years, and they seem like a great, yet low-radar/uncomercialized company.  Oh and of course, I enjoyed the movement style and choreography :) The atmosphere was really great as well and I liked the company dancers who I met.  Plus, HT Chen is a hilarious old Asian guy. (He came in really late to the audition, with his tie around his fedora hat, which he thought was the best idea every).

Now down to the point-- I GOT A CALLBACK!


Just checked my email, and there it was.  April 20th, folks.  I'm in disbelief.  This is about my fifth audition, and now my second callback. (last year being a callback for Paul Taylor, which also knocked my socks off).  I'm not expecting anything.  Because I don't think you can expect anything for auditions and callbacks; you'd drive yourself nuts if you did.  I just hope to gain something out of every one of these experiences.

Well, better practice my Tiger's Mouth. (hand posture HT Chen often uses, where all the fingers are together, except for the thumb which sticks for out.  Put thumb and index finger together, and it makes a "Tiger's Mouth") ;)

Intro

Welcome! I'm Elissa.

Blogs seems kind of silly sometimes, along with other social networks (gotta love Twitter), but I certainly think they have their place and purpose.  I first had the idea to start this blog when I started planning for a trip to Italy this summer.  I thought, "wow, I want to be able to share all my experiences of the two plus weeks that I'm there with my friends and family."  

I'll be leaving for Rome on June 30th with my brother Mike, accomplished engineer working at Apple, and we'll then travel to Naples, Capri, and perhaps meet up with some distant relatives the first week.  Week two will consist of staying in Castellana Grotte for the World Dance Movement, where I'll be taking class from Desmond Richardson of Complexions Dance Company, along with my friends Amanda and Morgan.   We also plan to visit the nearby port city of Bari, and Mike and I haven't booked a return flight because, heck, we're in Europe!  And we may decide to take a weekend trip to Germany/Spain/France while we're there.

A second reason I decided to begin a blog is because I end up reading a lot of blogs.  At my internship with a major modern dance company of NYC (not sure if I'm supposed to talk about anything publicly so I won't mention names), I take anything written about the company on the internet, convert it into a beautiful looking word document, imitating a newspaper article along with headers and pictures, and put it in a nice binder for the staff, board members, and choreographer to see.  This blew my mind.  Wow, little blog posts about this huge dance company, are being seen and read by so many! This is a powerful thing.  So as an avid dance fan, if I have something to say about anything I see, I want to share what I think about it.

And lastly, I'm a dancer.  Dance is a pretty selfish profession; we have to be selfish to survive.  Selfish, but humble as well.  I think what I do, and plan to do is very interesting and unique; it's certainly not normal, especially in this economy.  So I'd like to share my experiences, so that others who may not entirely understand the world of dance, can take a peak.  And hey, why not market myself? Haha.

So these are my reasoning for this blog.  I hope you enjoy!

Update:  HT Chen audition tomorrow, 8 weeks until graduation from Adelphi University!