Disney Springs

So! I know I haven’t posted anything in a really long time so I want to let you know what’s going on. (Also, I forgot to post this. It was supposed to be up like a month ago lol)

Currently I’m in Miami, Florida, but let me tell you what happened before this.

As you all probably know, I do a lot of dance. I do 4 ½ hours a week, and all this work has finally paid off! The JCC Dance Company performed a 22 minute dance in drumroll please… Disney World, Orlando! We worked really hard on this dance with the Elites and even came in on the weekends for extra practice. I have to say, those 20 minutes were the most exciting, happiest, most nervous, and most cold moments of my life. You may want to ask “why cold? aren’t you in Florida?” and the answer is, unfortunately, it was cold and rainy on the day of our performance. Thankfully, it started raining after it was over, but there were a lot of puddles, and since we had to walk over to our stage, we went through a lot of crazy things. First, walking in jazz shoes outside isn’t the best idea. After all, they were made to dance in, not to walk in puddles. Next, All we had on were tights and a short costume, with our company jackets on. These jackets were NOT made to keep you warm. They are just to make us look like a team with our logo on them. Third, it was simply a 5 min walk, but it felt like we were walking for hours! To make it even colder, we had to walk with our hands on our hips and smile the whole time.

Once we got to the back of the stage, Miss Jamie (the teacher that was going to help us backstage) gave out about 20 towels for 30 people to share! She also started counting minutes till the start for the show, this I have to say, made me really nervous.

Let’s travel back a few hours. It’s 6:55, my alarm goes off. I get out of bed and head to the bathroom, all I do is wash my face and put on moisturizer. Then I put on our team T-Shirts and grab my pre packed bag. It was the heaviest dance bag on earth! I run out the door, and head to Mia’s room. She has joint rooms with Miss Jill, (kind of like the main teacher who set this whole thing up) Miss Jamie, (another teacher who will help us backstage) and Miss Alyson ( teaches mostly little kids, but came along to help with hair and makeup, as well as taking videos from the audience)

I was one of the first people who came so I got my hair done first. It took a really long time because Miss Jamie had to get one hair tie around 4 times! (she did it with both of them) Next, most of the Seniors and Elites arrived, and that’s when the chaos started! I quickly did my own makeup and then started helping Eliana with her eyeshadow. Sydney needed help with mascara, and Noga needed a full face done, but it was already 7:45 and we had to leave soon so,my new record is about 7 min to do concealer, highlighter, eyebrows, blush, eyes, and powder. Since she had really long eyelashes, Miss Jamie said she needed at least 15 layers of mascara, so that took up most of the time.

It’s 7:55 and Mia realizes that she doesn’t have enough makeup on. We were leaving in 5 minutes and before someone could stop her, she was wiping her face with a makeup remover wipe. I don’t know why but I volunteered to help her. Basically, what happened was, we took Drews concealer and attempted to put it on her but it wasn’t blending well, so I did the craziest thing ever. I asked if she had a moisturizer with her but she said no… Then I put body lotion on her face to make it more “blendable”

Now every time I see her, she reminds me of that time. Thankfully, we made it just in time!

When we came down to wait for our bus, it was raining pretty hard…. But Miss Jill said that we still need to rehearse the dance just one more time. That was probably the most fun part of the whole getting ready thing. Dancing in the rain! Yes we messed up a little, yes we slipped and fell, but we were truly happy, I could see it in our teachers eyes. They were proud. They knew we could do it.

When we got to the back of the stage, Miss Jamie was giving us a pep talk. She said the same thing they have been telling us for the past few days. “You guys deserve this, you worked so hard. You are a team, nothing can stop you” and more stuff like that, but this time it actually helped. We were gonna dance for Miss Jackie who got sick right before the trip. She helped us get ready this was happening becuase if her and she couldn’t be there to see us.

“Please welcome the JCC DANCE COMPANY!”

Applause.

We walk out on stage. It’s cold, I’m shaking. I find my spot and get down on my knees. I want to pretend that it’s just a regular practice day. Instead I look for my parents in the audience.

5,6,7,8 I smile and it all starts. The moment we have all been waiting for.

And, I’m back stage again! I run over and hug Miss Jamie!!!! But this happieness doesn’t last for long. Soon, I’m back in stage doing what we call Kick up your Heels. Then comes Rythm of the Night, then Rythm Remix. After that is a dance that only the Elites do, called Conga, so we get a 3 minute break. Next is a dance that everyone loves, Let’s Get Loud! I’m already warm and have no problem doing the heel stretch. The last and hardest dance is the Mega Mix. The audience loves the pinwheel part and when we form the famous rockettes line.

It’s over! We head back stage where Miss Jamie is literally jumping up and down! Now all we have to do is walk through some more puddles to get to our bus.;)