Update Part 1: Dance Escape & first UCSB/UCI Exchange Performance

It's been a while since I've updated, but I've finally found time to blog a little bit before things start getting crazy again. 

I'm in my Spring quarter at UC Irvine, and it's so far been a great quarter-- although I'm finding it incredibly hard to find motivation in doing homework.

I just got finished with two dance shows this quarter:
1. Dance Escape

Dance Escape was a great Graduate choreography show, and I was really lucky to have been casted in two very different but equally awesome pieces.
The first piece I was in was called "81?728" choreographed by Cara Scrementi. Cara was a choreographer that after seeing her piece in New Slate this year, I knew I wanted to work with during her time here at UCI. Her choreography is so quirky and brilliant-- I was more than ecstatic when I saw I was casted for her piece. Though her choreography was a bit of a challenge for me because of its precision and intricacy, it was something that I was really proud to have worked hard and perform it with other talented dancers. Also, I really loved the music we danced to... I'm still listening to it even after the show is over!

Listen to:
Adieu by HitRecord
My family's role in the world revolution by Beirut

A++ songs, yo.

Here's a cool photo from her piece!

I'm in yellow on the far right in the back... Check out Emily (front, center) and her super amazing leg!
Photo By Lisa Bates

The second piece I was in was called "And then what happens?" choreographed by Steve Rosa. I've taken social dance from Steve earlier in the year, so I already had in mind that this was going to be a really fun piece. And I was right! It was a lot of dancers I've never danced with before, so it was great being able to meet some new dancers. We were a pretty goofy cast (in the best way of course!) and it was never a dull moment in class and on stage. Steve was a blast to work with and I definitely had a lot of fun.
Here's a photo of us embracing our weird selves ;)

The second show occurred right after the weekend of Dance Escape::

The dance ensemble I'm apart of ,UCI ETUDE ENSEMBLE, travelled to Santa Barbara to do a research performance exchange with the dance department over at UCSB. It was an amazing experience and definitely too short. We spent the day in SBm took pictures at the beach, and performed Donald Mckayle's repertoire from "Songs of the Disinherited" as well as our Dance Visions piece "Even as the river and the sea are one."

I wish we had more trips like these, because it was such a great way for our ensemble to bond-- even if it was for a brief time. The only thing is, I wish Mr. Mckayle was able to come with us. :(

Here are some photos from the trip!

Even as the River and the Sea are One

Original Class of 2014 <3

Class of 2015 <3

Season's Greetings

It's been a while since I've posted anything on this. Funny how I was so determined to keep this updated every week, but alas, I'm terrible at keeping promises/commitments. Something I'm going to try and work on this upcoming year.


Significant events that happened since I've last posted:

• My SKC co-workers are actually really awesome and I'm glad I was apart of such a fun camp. It was a long week each week, but overall I enjoyed it. I also learned how to make friendship bracelets so that was cool.
• Fall Quarter of UCI started out rough, but slowly got better.
• I joined the Whovians Club and Her Campus writing club (again) and it was probably one of the best decisions I made this quarter.
• I sort of like Linguistics and I absolutely hate Bio Sci- Life Sciences.
• I really love my Etude Family and still can't believe I'm apart of the ensemble.
• I'm staying an extra year of school (I'm not graduating on time because of the year I took off) and I'm still kind of training myself to accept that it's okay.
• Because I'm graduating in 2015 and not 2014, I am planning on picking up a minor in Literary Journalism. I realized that I really enjoy writing and I want to get better at writing. Hopefully that can turn into a major, if I work hard enough in my time at UCI. I'm also thinking about business/management as well... 
• My ankle is slowly but surely recovering. 
• oh and I'M 21 (and invincible)

Anyways, I'm home for the holidays! I drove home from Irvine for the first time by myself. That was kind of a big accomplishment for me since I absolutely loathe driving, so I was really happy about that.

I'll have more to write about when I'm not marathon watching Grey's Anatomy. In the mean time, Enjoy the Her Campus articles I wrote this quarter:

Her Campus Author: Lexi Viernes

Happy Holidays! 

Change is gonna come :)

Happy Friday! (Hey look, It's actually a post on Friday too)

I've got some really exciting news!!! I don't know if I can contain it all into one itsy bitsy little blog post-- so bear with me if it's a bit long...

To get it out of the way:

1) On Monday, I auditioned for an ensemble at my school called Etude Ensemble, which is run by the legendary Donald Mckayle. Etude is an ensemble of about 18 dancers who perform old and new repertory of Donald Mckayle. Ever since joining UC Irvine, I've always wanted to be apart of this ensemble, so auditioning for this was very important to me. And though I may have been running off of little to no sleep, it turned out to be a great audition!!! :D

I can happily say I am now apart of the Donald Mckayle Etude Ensemble at UC Irvine for the 2013-2014 year! Words can't describe how incredibly happy I am to have received the news Tuesday morning. Again, this quarter has definitely been one of the roughest life transitions I've gone through, so it was a blessing to hear news like this. It's inspired me to keep working hard and pushing myself to be the best that I can be-- and I'm so thankful every day that I am fortunate enough to be in such a great university that offers opportunities like this.

2) I just have been hired as a new camp counselor for Steve and Kate's camp! Yay, I have a summer job! I've always wanted to go to a summer camp when I was little, so I guess I'm living those childhood dreams! yippee

And now for some other highlights/lowlights of my week:


1) I trekked out to LA with a friend of mine to watch a small show called PopRocks on Tuesday the 28th! It was put on by Andy Mientus, Michael Arden, and Lady J and it was night full of seriously fun singing. I also met some really cool people. It was just a great night out and I loved every minute of it! Though I wish there were a couple of musical theatre covers thrown in there, the pop songs they covered were like candy for my ears :D

[Photo Credits to Amelia Lourdes]

2) Last weekend, I was supposed to go home to possibly train for a summer camp job as well as present a scholarship check to one of the new Beach Blanket Babylon Scholarship winners. However, unforeseen plans with school came up and I ended up not being able to go... Which I was pretty sad about because I had a good friend of mine in the competition and also knew of the other two dancers.

But, staying in Irvine worked out anyways because it was actually one of my dearest UCI friends 21st birthday so of course, I was able to celebrate his birthday with good company. Had loads of fun, and to put it bluntly: I have some really awesome friends.

3) I got to do a photo shoot over the weekend with one of my best friends here at UCI. She's always liked taking photos as a fun little hobby, so I'm really glad that she's starting to do more with it because she definitely has an eye for the camera.

Here's some snapshots :D

If you like her photography and want some photographs done for any occasion for a cheap price, please contact her at her Facebook Page ---> Lauren Woo Photography

As for the downsides of this week, I cracked the internal screen of my Droid Razr Maxx which was heartbreaking because it was definitely one of my favorite phones to this date-- What happened to the Gorilla Glass being unbreakable?! So I'm currently back to my old phone from last year, which I just reactivated. Thought it's obviously much slower and not as high tech as my Razr Maxx, it will have to do for the time being. It's funny going back and looking at all my old conversations and pictures from a year ago.

Another downside is that a lot of the seniors this year will be graduating! :( It makes me incredibly sad because I feel like I didn't get a chance to spend a whole lot of time with them this quarter... It's been extremely busy for them this quarter, and I really do hope our paths will cross again. In fact, I'm sure they will, because the Dance/Theatre community is really small (something I've realized over my year off).

And with that, I'm signing off! Nighty :)