Happy Anniversary to ME!

Wedding Wednesday will return next week... 

Until then, enjoy my walk down memory lane!

The next 7 days I will be celebrating my 10 year Anniversary in NYC!

Today we go from birth to junior high! 

My first solo award.
April 1994.

This story begins so long ago I don't even know the real beginning. 

I guess you could say it begins from the very first time I was asked that age old question, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" You see, unlike most children I had the same answer from the first day I was asked until, well, now! I have always wanted to be a dancer. Always. No wavering from this decision. Even when I left the college dance department... I still wanted to be a dancer. It is both a blessing and a curse to know what you want from such a young age. But I wouldn't have it any other way. 

Like any other life long story (career) mine has its ups and downs. Mostly ups. 

You see, I came into the dance world naturally... my mother is a dancer. And when I was a kid she so badly wanted to not be pushy... that she enrolled me in gymnastics. NOT DANCE! Ugh! (backfire much?) All my little friends took dance, but not me. So sad. I did not start dance until I was 5 years old. While this may seem young, I was in the 1st grade. It's old in dancer years people! :) Anywho, my mother taught dance at a local studio in town and I took my first classes from the owner. I loved it. I got to be "teachers kid" but not really. Best decision ever! Had my mother been my teacher at 5 years old... I think she would have killed little bossy me. 

My first real downer (or so I thought) in dance was the summer before my 4th grade year, when my mother decided to open her own studio and leave the place I began my training. I can only imagine what she felt like when I told her I still wanted to take jazz at the other studio because she was just a ballet and tap lady! (Oh boy she must have wanted to kill me!) But ...I will never forget my mother calling the old studio and asking if I could still take one class there. The answer was, "No". She asked for me! Can you believe it?! What a woman! I was heartbroken but soon learned how awesome it was to take from my mother! 

"Keep Warm" Jan. 1992
(and yes, I am still a foot shorter than these girls)

The next few years were a learning curve for us all. I started to get really great ballet training (Thanks MOM!) and Mom learned the jazz & funk world inside out. By the time I was in 6th grade... we won our first high score overall! 

"The One" April 1993

After 7th grade, I attended my first dance camp. Talk about falling in love. Oklahoma Summer Arts Institute was and still is one of my favorite places in the world! Ballet for 6 and half hours a day and I loved it!

Mountain View Cabin... LOVE!
June 1994.

And by the time I was in 8th grade... we were killin it! We were, and still are, the only dance studio to perform at an OU halftime. We promoted the opening of the Sam Noble Museum of Natural History all year long! It was amazing! Not too mention... got a PERFECT score at competition!

"Jurassic Park"
Promoting Sam Noble Museum of Natural History April 1995.

I attended Quartz Mountain again this summer and then my whole world got rocked...

Stayed tuned for the story of the boobies tomorrow! 

Zumba Anyone?

Saturday I shot a commercial for a women's gym. 

It was a blast! (and exhausting!)

Group photo after 10 hours of cardio! I look smashing!

There were 25 girls in cast for the commercial and we were split into 2 groups so that we weren't over worked. BUT... there were only 4 blondes so we danced in most of the groups. My first thought was "Yippee more camera time!" My second thought, which came after turbo kick round 4, was "HELP!" 

We filmed on a green screen so that they could put whatever background they wished behind us.

I know that floor may look all fun because it is green but it was concrete. Yup. Jumping Jacks all day on the concrete. My calves are not very happy with me. I didn't really notice it while we were filming though so no worries. 

Other fun facts about this shoot. 

1-My make-up looked like a cracked out hooker. Sorry I have no pic!

2-I learned that I can turbo kick like a champ.

3- For the Zumba portion of the shoot, I was dressed in cargo pants, crop top and a do-rag. Complete with hoop earrings. Ghetto-fabulous! I was loving it!! Again, no pic... I was too busy.

4- The dressing rooms and such in this place were insane! My dressing room was meant to look like a medieval times kind of place. The dressing room across from mine was a tiki hut! The lunch room was a rain forest and there was a board room that looked like a castle. 

Apparently this sound stage was originally used to film adult type films. So... they needed some special scenery.  Ha!

All in all the day was a lot of fun. I got a nice paycheck (finally!) and I made some great new friends!

I LOVE MY JOB!!

By popular request...

Seems that my readers would like to hear more about life in NYC, auditions and all that jazz.

So, we introduce The Subway Series! 

Ahh... my daily subway stop. 

I figure, I am full of stories that seem odd to all but those that inhabit the streets of Manhattan. 

Here goes with story number one!

The other day I had an audition down by Chelsea Market (Chelsea Market will deserve a post all its own) and because I had to walk all the way to 9th ave (too far) I saw several things that caught my eye. 

First we had this on the train.

See what amazed me by this particular saggy butt was the tight jeans. (& belt) I mean, they are fitted jeans. Perhaps he was taking a walk of shame and had to borrow the chicks pants? And look how tight his shirt is. Either you want to be a hipster or you want to be a gangster but I am pretty sure the 2 don't mix. 

Then I was walking back to the subway from my audition and noticed this.

Look very closely. Who decided to leave the car? When do you think it became someone's newspaper storage unit? And why, why of why, is there no parking ticket? I got a ticket when I rented a car for 2 freakin' hours in the city! How is it that the Upper East Side tickets every car on the road but somehow on 15th and 9th you can leave your car and use it as a trash can and it doesn't even get towed?!!  Seriously?!

Stayed tuned kids because I LOVE talking about NYC! 

Run, John, Run!

Today we went to the NYC Marathon! 

I do not like running, so as you can imagine I find this practice of running 26.2 miles ridiculous! And, until I moved to the East Side I never really paid attention to the marathon. (Really, I was in a bubble while living downtown!) I have noticed that marathon Sunday brings more people to my neighborhood but I was unaware this was such an event! 

TONS OF PEOPLE stand in the cold for a brief second to cheer on their friend! And some people just go and cheer for FUN! Uh?! 

I will say, it was fun and I am glad I went to see what it was all about.

Our friends from North Carolina came to run! Well, he did. She is 7 months pregnant! 

We were able to track his progress on our phones so we wouldn't miss him! How cool is that?!

There was a pretty large, and loud, group of us screaming him on as he passed!

We were so loud that they interviewed his wife! 

ABC 7 and Kimberly Williams!

There were all sorts of characters in the race but these guys were pretty neat! 

They were dribbling basketballs the entire way! Now that is athletic! 

It was a fun day! Now we are off to New Jersey to celebrate with the runners! 

Flash Mob Mayhem

So, yesterday I did a job I normally would not do and was in a Flash Mob. 

It was for the launch of Xbox Kinect and Dance Central. 

Let's start with all the reasons I never do jobs like this.

1- They hired about 350-400 dancers. (The news said 600 but that is not true, no way.) 

2-Learning choreography with that many people is like learning at dance convention all over again. 

3- When you hire that many "dancers" there are bound to be some people that make me crazy. Mostly because they are those types of people that have no sense of their own personal dance space vs. your personal dance space. 

4- It is not a great paycheck for the number of hours involved. 

5- Would anyone ever know I was out there dancing my butt off?

Now the reasons I did the job!

1- I need a paycheck! Small one or not!

2- My resume' will now say that I danced with Ne-Yo and Lady Sovereign. Who cares that 300 other people did as well. 

3- I had a great time and I wasn't waiting tables! 

4- I made some new friends!

5- My face was on the big screen in Times Square while I was dancing so that is always cool. :)

Below is a video I saw on YouTube this morning of the event. It doesn't have my small group dance on it but you get the idea of what went on!