For the first time in years, I was with my mom, dad and sister Kate on my birthday! We spent the day in Santa Barbara, driving along the PCH to a private beach near Malibu, played in the sand and surf, drove through the beautiful mountains, had an awesome birthday cake and watched the July 4th fireworks with our neighbours. It was the best birthday ever!
Thank you to everyone who sent me birthday wishes...I'm so grateful for the friends and family in my life.
The Pulse on Tour - Alumni Reunion
This summer I had the privilege to dance in the Pulse Alumni Piece at the National Gala in New York City. This year the Pulse on Tour celebrated its 10th Anniversary and in honor of this huge milestone, every Elite Protege Alumnus from the last ten years was invited to participate in a special performance recognizing 10 years of the Elite Program! To date 66 dancers have been selected as Elite Proteges and approximately 20 Alumnus danced in the routine choreographed by Rhapsody James!
We wore oversized black and white jerseys with our last names printed on the back and the year we were Elite Proteges on the front. We performed to a J Lo track "Waiting for Tonight" right before the 2014-2015 Elites were named! It was an honor to dance with my fellow Alumnus in front the the Pulse Faculty and Guests. The best part of the night was seeing how proud Brian Friedman was of us all as he stood crying, cheering us on. We were greeted by the faculty as we exited the stage to many hugs and kisses - It was an amazing moment I will never forget!
Thank you to Brian Friedman and The Pulse on Tour for this incredible opportunity!
This was the view of Central Park from the room I shared with Kaylyn - I was so happy she was my room-mate - the best roomie ever!
Thursday was "clean the bathroom day" in the dorm...Sophie, Kaylyn, Sarah, Brianna and myself shared the duties!
With Ray, hanging out after the performance.
Juilliard was an amazing experience - the individualized program focused on technique and artistry. It was one of my favorite experiences yet! Being on campus and dancing with Juilliard students left me so inspired and I met so many amazing people.
Monsters of Hip Hop Show 2014
For over a decade, Monsters of Hip Hop has toured North America providing training and career opportunities to hungry dancers with their down to earth, world-renowned faculty and positive, family-oriented convention environment.
This year I was selected as a 2014 Show Cast Member and I am proud and honored to have worked alongside my fellow cast members, the Staff of Monsters and Show Choreographers to create a show for the dance community, unrivalled in concept and execution. A huge thank you for selecting me for this prestigious honor....it was the most intensive dance experience I've had to date in my training!
For two weeks, the Cast rehearsed in North Hollywood at mL, Nappytabs or Downtown Los Angeles, at the venue - an old industrial warehouse made up of a myriad of rooms, old brick, beams and graffitti.
It was the perfect setting for the show and reinforced the concept of "Madness & Mayhem" - a journey to "La La Land filled with Madness and Mayhem at Every Turn" - an interpretation of the journey, triumph, trial and error we experience while navigating our careers as dancers!
As an added bonus, The Cast performed Tony Testa's choreography at the 2014 Choreographers Nominee Emmy reception! The venue was right around the corner from Nappytabs so between rehearsals, we made our way to the event and performed in front of Kenny Ortega, Nigel Lithgoe and the Emmy Nominees as one of the five guest performances. The event was hosted by Jesse Tyler Ferguson - it was such an amazing opportunity...THANK YOU Tony and Monsters!
Here is footage from the Emmy Reception...thank you to Tony for posting this!!!
This year's show was created, directed and produced by Tabitha and Napoleon D'umo with Assistant Director Tony Testa. There were five shows in total and they were all very well-attended by dancers and dance enthusiasts!
The Cast danced in 12 pieces and Monsters Alumni performed two pieces. Choreography was done by Tucker Barkley, Kaili & Kassidy Bright, Lisette Bustamante, Phillip Chbeeb, Nick DeMoura, Laura Edwards, Alex Fetbroth, Parris Goebel, Brandon Harrell, Rhapsody James, Ande J, Nick Lanzisera, Brian & Scott Nicholson, Chonique Sneed, Tony Testa, Hannah Gossett & Jazmine Rafael!
It was an amazing show and the feedback was overwhelmingly positive. It was great to see so many dancers support the show and dance celebrities including Nigel Lithgoe and Paula Abdul. I am very grateful to Jennifer, Will, Moe, Hannah, Irina, Robert, Willdabeast, Nicol, Ashley, Jacqueline and my family for coming to support me!
On Wednesday, August 20th, I had the privilege to see the pre-tape portion and live results show of SYTYCD Season 11 when they announced the Final Four Dancers! Thank you to Will Wingfield and Monique Borromeo for the tickets for my mom, sister, bestie JQ and myself to see the taping!
We arrived early in the afternoon at the VIP entrance to obtain our tickets. "Some" of us were a little awestruck by the people coming and going...including Scooter Braun who was there to see the performance by Rixton!
The show was amazing - it was great to see the size of the stage, the Judges, Christina Applegate and Kat Deely in person and watch how the show unfolds. We also were able to hang out backstage following the show to see Will walk the press junket while we got a few pictures with dance celebrities like Willdabeast, Cyrus and Nick DeMoura. We even saw Mary Murphy do the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge live!
It was an awesome afternoon - Good luck to the Final Four!
Check out video of Will Wingfield dancing with Jacque and Willdabeast's choreography for Valerie and Twitch!
Thank you for checking out my blog and to everyone who made my summer so special!
See you next time on Move It With Maddie :)
