Turkey!

I had the most amazing trip in Turkey. Sorry I didn't blog about it sooner. I've included many photos in this post, all of which are mine by copyright. So please don't steal them. 

Anyways, Turkey is the land of eating olives for breakfast. No, okay, it's also full of wonderful people, a very interesting culture, and many historical sites. Did you know Troy was in Turkey? The Akropolis? Not many people do, since we see them as "Greek" sites. 

I made an awesome group of friends on the trip who I won't forget any time soon. I don't have permission to post their photos here, but they were honestly the most wonderful people to spend time with. I already miss the poker and Go-Fish. 

Without further ado....

Blue Mosque

Fairy Chimneys

Grand Bazaar Gate 1

Lights in the Grand Bazaar

Underground City, had some really old churches

Cleopatra Pools

Akropolis

Near the Mevlana Museum

All the dried fruits!

Dancing in Troy while representing Boston University like a boss. 

Hope you enjoyed the photos!

My Thoughts on Miley Cyrus

Well, it seems like the newest, most popular thing to do these days on the Internet is to comment on Miley Cyrus outrageous VMA performance. Since I'm all about jumping on bandwagons, and was talking to someone at school about this today, let's get going~

First of all, what is with her tongue? I'm 99% certain no one wants to see her tongue hanging out of her mouth like a dog. Not only is it incredibly unladylike (though I have been known for sticking my tongue out at people in jest), but it's pretty gross.

Second, what the heck is she wearing?

Darling, there's something called "flattering clothes". They are different for everyone and often depend on body type. However, some things are NEVER flattering- namely, clothes that make you look naked on stage, or shape your butt in strange ways. Please put some real clothes on.

What really annoys me about various celebrities in the influence they have on people. I see lots of dancers trying to figure out how to twerk, when in reality we could all do with a little less booty shaking and a little more intelligent conversation. I'm not into clubbing (have never been to a club), but I'm sure that people are trying to act like Miley and whoever else.

Trying to emulate this sort of thing isn't sexy or cool. It's probably a bit dangerous really, since everyone gets unrealistic expectations.

The biggest thing that worries me about these videos is the message they send to all of society. These videos and behaviours are unhealthy. There are no limits or boundaries to these videos. It goes beyond what is tasteful and what is not. While I am pretty sex-positive and believe people can do whatever they want behind closed doors as long as it's consensual, I don't think blatant sexual imagery does anyone any good. The amount of attention that this sort of thing gets (which I am unfortunately contributing to) means that can hardly be considered art: rather, it is spectacle.

Embracing one's sexuality is called growing up. Waving it around in everyone's faces often damages women's impressions of themselves. Are all women supposed to flaunt their curves and twerk in order to get men's  attention? And does it matter what sort of attention they get?

I wonder if Miley Cyrus has a sense of shame anymore. She obviously doesn't have a sense of modesty if she's letting everything hang out like that. I hate to think about how ashamed I would be if via magic and ultimate stupidity I did something like that. I don't think I would want my name, family or image attached to such a terrible show- or message.
~


You know, her backup dancers weren't so bad, except for the twerking. Pretty high kicks and such :D

Sewing Pointe Shoes

It's been about forever since I've had to sew a new pair of pointe shoes. Somewhere between six months and a year, I believe. Therefore, this routine activity has become special to me, since I haven't done it in so long.

Sewing pointe shoes used to be a really big time-consuming pain that often involved rare TV time, cursing, blood drawn from fingers and stitches showing through satin. Things have changed, being here. They aren't the same brand of pointe shoes this time around- I'm trying Suffolk again. The elastic is different, the ribbon is pinker to match the shoes, and the drawstring actually works. Haven't decided if I'm going to put elastic on them, but most likely because they keep falling off my heels.

I guess that's the same- the darn shoes falling off my duck-feet narrow heels unless elastics and/or rosin are applied to my tights. Oh, and I'm still sewing with dental floss, something my teacher Ms Carrie taught me six years ago. Six years ago- was I really 11 when I went en pointe? I think so, because the next year I danced Sugar Plum at the Holiday Tea, and was barely thirteen for the Peasant Soloist in Giselle.

A lot has changed, then. I'm no longer a soloist, one of the most flexible, or the one with the strongest ankles. Now I'm just one dancer who's a little too curvy (sorry I'm not a stick-thin Singaporean!) for Chinese dance teachers but refuses to lose weight. Oh well.

I'm taking a trial class at Cheng Ballet tonight to see what level I fit into and also if I like the studio. Here's to a new adventure in dance :)