Pointe shoes!

Okay, here they are!!   My mom just took these pictures with my cell phone of me on my new pointe shoes.   I've only had two classes with them since I've started again so I'm not very strong yet.   But they are pretty, aren't they? 

   And here is my other new trick... I can now do the scorpion pose without the help of the wall.

Here I am getting into it:

And there it is...

And my backbends are getting much better than they used to be.

                                                 

All done! 

A New Starting "Pointe"

Yesterday I taught my last lesson as a teacher at MSUB.   Now summer is here.  I will keep teaching some private lessons, and then in August I will move to San Francisco!  Crazy how time flies.  I am so happy though.

This week I ordered pointe shoes for ballet.  I'm excited -  I tried pointe several years ago and then I quit dancing for quite a while.   When I started again this year I wasn't sure if I would do pointe again but now that I'm getting stronger I decided I want to try it again.     I will post a picture when I get them!  

I am also really happy because there are so many ballet schools in San Francisco where I can continue dancing... and there happens to be one that is very close to where I will be living (only a seven-minute bus ride away!).  So I am planning to go there to keep dancing if possible.  It's so beautiful and such good exercise, too! 

April Photoshoot

On Sunday my sister Rachel asked me if she could do a photoshoot of me so that she could try out some new equipment she got for her photography.  She's becoming quite a wonderful photographer.... Here are some pictures from the shoot:

More Happy News

So I got a letter today, that, strangely enough, makes me very happy.   The letter was from the Fulbright Foundation, informing me about the results of my application for a scholarship to study in Italy next year.   Here is the letter:

Dear Miss Weitz,

The J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board has asked the Institute of International Education to inform you that you have not been selected for an award under the U.S. Fulbright Student Program.

I know you will be disappointed, but I wish to assure you that your application received careful and serious consideration by the Board, the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the United States Department of State, and Fulbright supervising agencies abroad.  However, as is often the case in the U.S. Fulbright Student Program, the number of well-qualified applicants this year far exceeded the number of awards available and the limited opportunities for placement abroad.

I emphasize that this decision in no way prejudices your chances for participation in the Fulbright Program at a future date.  Each year's selection is separate.  If you wish to apply again for a Fulbright award, your application will be considered, as before, solely on the basis of eligibility requirements, merits, and the placement possibilities in the country of your choice.

We appreciate your interest in the Fulbright Program, and hope that your interest in and support for international educational and cultural exchange activities will continue.

Sincerely,

Theresa Granza

Director, U.S. Student Programs

Why would this make me happy?  Well, I came to the realization, after I got accepted and offered the scholarship to the San Francisco Conservatory, just how much I wanted to go there to study singing.   It's not that I couldn't have done that, anyway, even if I had been offered the Fulbright, but it would have been a very difficult decision.   It has been a dream of mine for years to go and study piano in Italy, and the Fulbright scholarship would have paid for EVERYTHING for me to do that, from food to housing to school and transportation.   And it would have been a wonderful opportunity to become fluent in the language, to learn about another culture and expand my horizons.... so it would have been difficult. 

However, now I don't have to worry about that decision.  

On top of that, BYU rejected me from their voice program!   And I was actually very happy about that too.   

I had prayed to God in the past month or two, that if I am not supposed to go to either of those places, that I just won't be offered the opportunity - that God would make the pathway clear to me.   And so it has been.   And I am SO excited about the opportunity to go to San Francisco and study voice for two years in such an amazing environment with so many wonderful teachers.   I am so grateful to God and to all the wonderful people in San Francisco for giving me this chance.  

I am so happy! 

Happy News

I have to tell you that I am so happy right now!  On Wednesday I got a letter from the financial aid office at SFCM, informing me about my scholarship - which will be $20,000 per year for the two years of my Master's!   I am so happy about that.  Unfortunately it still doesn't cover tuition... (it's sooo expensive!), but a good portion of it.   For the rest I am going to try to raise some money through some fundraising recitals this summer, and what I don't cover with that I will have to pay for with student loans.

Jane called me yesterday and said, "So you got your scholarship letter yesterday?  You got a good one!" and she was wondering if I was going to come.   I said yes.  She said, "Oh I'm so excited!  We are going to have so much fun."    I'm so excited, too!

I'm going to have so many opportunities to perform and learn vocally that I have never had before in my life -  in masterclasses and with weekly private coachings on my music, and in classes on diction and acting and opera workshops and all sorts of wonderful things.   I'm so happy!

So... that's my news.   :-)

Ravel is Up!

I got my Ravel video up! Hope you enjoy...

Videoing, Editing.... Vlogging?

I've been working for about the past three weeks on editing a video from one of my concerts in San Francisco.  It's almost finished now.  I'm so excited to put it up, but it just needs a couple more little things tweaked before I will feel comfortable uploading it for the world to see.

I've been thinking about maybe starting a vlog (that's short for video blog, right?).  Would that be interesting?  I could video little bits of my life here and there and places I go and things I do, etc. etc.  I think it could be cool.  I think I would probably start a new Youtube channel for it.  I was thinking I would call it, "Life and Music" just like my blog here, but then I saw on Youtube that the name has already been taken by somebody else.   But "This Life and Music" hasn't been.  Is that a stupid name?  I don't know.   "This life" is, after all, the only one I've got here.

On another note, today I held a handstand for almost an entire minute without falling into the wall! That makes me happy.   Maybe if I start a vlog I'll video myself doing it next time.

Alright.  Must sleep. 

Goodnight!  

New Moves

I'm getting more flexible, bit by bit...

While I was in San Francisco I discovered that I can now do this cool new stretch... Only on my right leg, though (for now!).   Here it is - the splits plus.... foot to the head!

And this is me doing another stretch for leg extensions...

               
                    Those were taken in Brother and Sister Fletcher's living room, who I stayed with while I was in San Francisco.   Brother and Sister Fletcher are soooooo nice!!!

            Okay, so then I got home and I tried it again in my house after ballet one night... Maybe I got a little carried away with snapping photos of myself using the timer function on my new phone... But I was so proud of myself for getting my splits that far. 

           And one more without the foot to head...(plus couch cushion intrusion on the left...)

There you have it... Jackie doing the splits!   :-D

Waiting...

Sorry it's been so long since I've really posted much to my blog!   I've been so busy with the concerts and auditions...but now everything is finished (until something else comes up!), and I can rest a little.

Some of you are wondering when I am going to post a video of my Ravel performance... The answer is soon, but it might be a couple weeks more.   I accidentally left my hard drive in San Francisco (when I told that to my teacher Dorothea, she broke out singing, "I left my hard drive in San Francisco!"  to the tune of "I left my heart in San Francisco"!).  The hard drive has several of my video and audio files from the concert.   So my friend in San Francisco has been keeping it for me and is going to send it to me in the mail this week.  Hopefully it arrives safely and then I will be able to begin work on the videos!

Right now I am getting ready for my ballet school's recital in May... I will be playing the piano, accompanying one of the dance numbers, as well as dancing in a couple of pieces.  Won't that be interesting?   I'm kind of excited about it.

Now, I am waiting to hear back the official word from SFCM and BYU about acceptance and scholarships into their master's programs... and from the Fulbright Foundation about my application for a scholarship to study in Italy.   All are good possibilities... So we will see what happens.

Well, I'm tired so I will say goodnight for now.  

Goodnight! 

One more day

It's hard to believe this is my last full day in San Francisco... in about 18 hours I will give my audition for the voice program at the conservatory, and then my plane will leave the next day to go back to Billings.

It has been a wonderful trip...  I will have to write a lot when I get home and have a little more time (and don't need to get ready for an audition the next day!)

I'm sitting here listening over and over to recordings of Schubert's "Du bist di ruh", which I just memorized this week.   I'm going to start with the Bell Song by Lakme for my audition tomorrow (I think).  It's a long aria, so I don't know how much they will hear of anything else.  

Wish me luck! And cross your fingers....  Or even better, say a little prayer!    :-)

Goodnight.