Dancing without a strong foundation in ballet is like floating in water without knowing how to swim. You can see all the beauty of the water and feel the waves carrying you, but eventually you must swim to fully embrace the ocean. Ballet is that way, it is the core of structured dance. Learning your alignments, drilling the structure and discipline, and really feeling how a dancer's body is supposed to feel can be applied to all other forms of dance.
Today I partner with Studio Pulse to start The Black Swan Challenge. As a seasoned dancer this challenge means so much more to me than just completing a challenge. It means growing and maturing into the dancer that I am meant to be.
Let me start by giving some background about who I am. I grew up in Chugiak, Alaska and started dancing when I was 14 years old by joining the Chugiak Chaparral Dance/Drill Team. With no prior dance experience I had to learn how to dance and how to keep up with fast paced routines quickly. While dancing with the Chaparrals the fire started to burn deep inside me and dance became a passion. I worked my tail off and my last year I earned the role of Team Captain. That same year I led my fellow dancers to a 2nd place victory at a national dance competition in California.
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After high school I wasn't finished with dance and looked for other outlets for me to hone in on my passion and start learning core fundamentals. I started taking dance classes at Dance Dynamics in Eagle River, Alaska. This dance studio had an instructor named Shari that I loved dearly and looked up to as a dancer. I took any and all classes that I could get my hands on and was apart of their competition team. I took jazz, ballet, modern, etc as well as competed at an international competition in Vancouver, Canada.
I competed in Miss Alaska Pageants dancing as my talent, and showed anyone who was interested how much I loved to dance. I took many dance classes through UAA's Theater and Dance Department including modern, jazz, musical theater, and dance appreciation. Performing always seems to put a smile on my face and lets my expression through dance shine. It seems only fitting that I sign up to be a dancer in Alaska's production of Cabaret at the Wildberry Theater. It was performing in Cabaret that I really tapped into some wonderful experienced dancers in Anchorage's dance scene.
I graduated from college, got a "big girl job", married the love of my life, and started to think of dance as a pastime, a time that I look back at and smile. Wrong! Dance was not done with me yet. I was presented with an opportunity to be a dancer on Alaska's new semi-pro basketball team The Alaska Quake. This was a great time for me to put those performing skills to the test. As the second season started I was given the position as Director and Lead Choreographer. This took every skill that I had ever learned about dance and put it to the test.
Now I am ready to embark on a brand new journey in my forever dance lifestyle: The Black Swan Challenge. This challenge is going to break down everything that I thought I knew about dance and start a brand new foundation. I truly feel this is going to take me to a brand new level as a dancer. For the next 30 days I am taking the Natalie Portman approach to dancing like a ballerina. I will attend classes at Studio Pulse everyday until I have reached my goal of completion. I want to make it perfectly clear that this is so much more than just a challenge for me, it is shaping and sculpting me into the well rounded dancer that I want to be.
There are some things I am VERY excited about.
- Being in Anchorage's hottest new dance studio!
- Training under some of the best instructors in the business
- Improving my technique
- Stretching (yes I said it, I like that stuff)
- Building stronger ankles
- Meeting new dancers
- Reaching a goal of getting on pointe
- Having the achievement of finishing something I committed to
There are also some things I am NOT excited about.
- Sore muscles
- Aching feet
- Being made fun of when I go to get a pedicure and beg the workers not to take off my calluses because I need them (I know a lot of dancers can attest to that)
- Working on my posture every waking moment
- The process of building stronger ankles (I want the strong ankles but the process....)
- Getting my butt kicked, repeatedly
Take this journey with me by following my blog posts throughout this new endeavor. I will be posting pictures and describing in detail my new experiences. When I have completed the challenge celebrate it with me!
Stay on your tippy toes until my next blog post.
Christina Roper Gorlick
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