A Weekend full of Dance!

Hello everyone!

Last weekend was so busy, but also so much fun because it was full of dance!  =)
First, we got to attend BU Ballroom's Montage, which is a showcase of not only BU Ballroom Dance club, but also many other performance groups on campus.  It was so much fun to see different groups like Irish step dancing, hip hop, and some acapella groups as well.

BU Ballroom Dance club had 3 different groups (beginner, intermediate, and advanced) and I was amazed at how many beginners we have in the club!

Look at all of these new ballroom babies!!  and they did so well!

David and I don't get to attend team lessons for beginners because of our classes and work, so we don't know the beginners very well.  We did get to know a few of them a little this night though, so that was really fun!  =)

The Advanced piece was a mashup of chacha, rumba, and jive which David and I choreographed along with the other open couple on the team, Jim and Charlotte.  We had been working on the piece all semester, so we were so excited to see them perform!

Wooohooo!  Lookin good!

Aww they did so well!  made my little heart so proud =)

 David with the boys!

All of the groups did so well, and we left with our hearts full and ready to practice our own routines right after the show. We had initially wanted to go celebrate with some members of the team after the show, but we were feeling rather unprepared for our competition the day after so off we went to practice  haha

On Sunday, we headed off to Brown for their 21st Annual Ballroom Competition!

BU had a pretty good representation there, so we cheered on our team through standard rounds and the syllabus latin rounds before we started our own warm up for the open Latin round.

Ballroom babies!!

with my partner for so many different aspects of my life =)

This was our first open level competition together, and I was pretty nervous about it.  We did have a few funny things happen here and there, as it always happens during the first performance, but overall, we got through all of our routines pretty well!  

As an added bonus, we ended up getting 3rd place!  This was basically our reaction when our number was not called for last place haha

We have been working with Helle, who is the BU Ballroom coach, to get ready for this comp, and we are so thankful that she was so patient with us as we struggled to learn 5 new routines while juggling our work/school responsibilities.  I don't think we had time to practice as much as she wanted us to, but she was always so patient!  =)

love her! =D

If you want to see our Paso Doble routine, I'll link it right below!

Thanks for stopping by, and have a wonderful week!
--Janny

Big Apple Dancesport Challenge

Hello everyone!

Last weekend, we (the BU Ballroom Team) went to NYC to compete at the Big Apple Dancesport Challenge hosted by Columbia!

It was a crazy weekend full of dancing, getting absolutely no sleep, and lots and lots of team bonding. I didn't compete, but I did get to watch a whole lot of awesome dancing, and help out with hair and makeup =)

PC: Jimmy Chau

I didn't take too many pictures of the dancing because we have 2 dancers on the team who are amazing photographers, but I did snap a few of the awards ceremony =)

and there were many photo opportunities because everyone did so well!!
aww I was so proud of the team!

look at the BU team representing!  =)

It was an incredibly exhausting weekend, but also a really fun weekend!  I did take some videos of the evening, so if you want to see a few videos, head over to here to check them out!

Also, here is the showcase of Pasha and Daniella  =)  They were so. incredible!

I hope you enjoy the video, and thanks for stopping by!
--Janny

Harvard Beginners Ballroom Competition!

Hello everyone!

Last weekend was the first ballroom competition for Boston University Ballroom Dance Team!  It was just across the Charles River at Harvard, so I went to help dancers get ready and go cheer the team on during the competition!

I had forgotten just how early the getting ready process started... (after all, my last competition was like... half a year ago...)   but waking up at 5:45 am was definitely necessary since we still couldn't get everyone's makeup finished until we got to the comp.

Photo Cred :: Sarah Wu!

Dancers getting ready!!   

and the lovely Christi doing hair!

and then the dancing began!

stellar form everyone!  =)

I thought all of the dancers danced so well, and I was so proud of everyone!  =)

It was kind of hard not getting to dance since David is still in Houston, but I loved being around so many people who are so excited about dancing!  I can't wait till next year when David will be in Boston and we can dance together again!  =D

Photo Cred :: Sarah Wu!

Thanks for stopping by, and have a wonderful week!

--Janny

Austin Open 2014!

Hello everyone!

I'm sorry I've been MIA for the past 2 weeks or so, but life has truly been absolutely crazy.  I'm graduating almost exactly a month from now, and just in this week alone, I have 5 performances... and it's going to be this way for the next 2 weeks!  AAHHH!  breathe... I can survive this...

Anyway, I just wanted to blog about our trip to Austin before the month passes by  haha  

so here is the story about how a 3 hour road trip to Austin from Houston became a 9 hour road trip.

It began like any other road trip to a ballroom dance competition.  We picked up our fellow dancers from Rice, and got on the road with lots and lots of snacks and other food stuffs.  Like some Kimbab.

I felt so much like my mother making these because every Korean child has memories of eating Kimbab on a picnic or a road trip, or really anywhere where you pack and bring food   haha.  My version was really simple though, a bastardized version of Kimbab, and it only contained rice and some seasoned Bok choy.  Very simple, but filling and yummy!  Last year I made ones with rice and seasoned kale, and I think I actually like the kale version better, fyi  ;)

Our road trip was quite smooth, actually.  We slept, took turns driving, talking, taking pictures of smiley water towers, and just having fun like any other group of 4 college students.

Things all changed when we got to the competition venue, however, with just a couple of words from David.  I can't quite remember exactly what it was word for word, but it was something along the lines of "Oh no, we're in trouble.. I forgot my costumes at home".  

And with those words, our 3 hour trip to Austin became our 9 hour trip to Austin.

It wasn't too bad though because David and I sang Avenue Q and Disney songs all the way back to Houston (btw, we found that when I drive, it only takes 2.5 hours to get back to Houston).  Don't worry, we dropped off the other dancers in Austin so they wouldn't have to endure 6 more hours of sitting in the car, and possibly worse, our singing.  On our way back to Austin, David drove (which look longer than 2.5 hours  =p) and we just talked about anything and everything.  The extra 6 hours really is not so bad when you have good company I guess  ;)

We met up with the rest of the dancers from Rice at our hotel around midnight, and went to bed after trying to come up with a few routines for our standard (Waltz, Tango, and Quickstep) categories.  You see, we had only focused on the Latin categories (Chacha, Samba, Rumba, Paso Doble, and Jive) and didn't get any practicing in for standard all year..

The next morning, we fueled up with some Texas sized (and shaped) breakfast, and headed to the competition!

The competition began with some country dancing and some International Standard dancing!
Here are a couple of our Rice dancers tearing up the floor!  Woot!  ;)

Because David and I were only dancing the Gold division, thankfully we had some time to come up with a routine for our Standard dances during the Newcomer, Bronze, and Silver division competitions. I have to say though, it was uuubber stressful, and we should probably practice a little earlier than an hour before the competition next time...   

When we weren't dancing, we cheered on other dancers, operated video cameras, cameras, ate some food and goofed around.  After all, the point of being there is to have fun and be with your teammates, not necessarily to be hard core about competing.  =)

Then, finally, it was Gold and Novice level competition, and we got to dance!

So many of us from Rice ended up wearing blue gowns!  haha   yay go Rice!  (our school color is blue too! what a coincidence!  ahem, I mean,,, we planned that. mm hmm.)

Our whole team after the standard competition.

After the International Standard competition, we had a break for lunch, and then began the loooonnnggggg afternoon segment of American Smooth, International Latin, and American Rhythm. David and I were doing the Open level multi-dance International Latin so we were the last ones to dance, and that ended up being around 10:30 PM... way past my bedtime  haha  I'm such a grandma...  =p  but we spent the day doing some more cheering, camera-ing, and goofing off some more.

yay I'm-bored-selfies!

 and a few more pictures of our friends in Latin and Rhythm categories!

and finally!!  as I was about to nod off to sleep, it was our turn to dance!  let me tell you what, there's nothing like a performance to wake you up from your granny-bedtime-grogginess!

It was my first time dancing Open level, and it was so much fun!  Of course, there's a lot to learn and fix and polish and tweak, but overall, I'm happy with our first performance at the Open level  =)  After all, it can only get better from here, right?

oh, and look how tan I am!  ;)  unfortunately, I never got quite as tan as David, but at least I don't look like a ghost next to him anymore!  haha

and a quick video of a part of our cha cha!

I hope your week is going well, and thanks for stopping by!!
--Janny

Stuffed Turkey Weekend

Hello everyone!

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend!

We ate, then ate some more, then,,, ate again!  haha.  It was a wonderful weekend full of good food and amazing company.

On Thanksgiving day, we joined a huge group of friends for an incredible dinner at Miran's apartment (she has a really cute blog too! you guys should all go check it out!)  We know how much work it takes to host a Thanksgiving dinner because we hosted one last year, and they really did an amazing job. It was soo good!! and there was so much food!  I don't actually have a lot of pictures from it because,,, I got distracted by the food.  I mean, seriously, the food.   They even had homemade ice cream.   Need I say more?  haha

The company was really awesome as well.  I don't have pictures, like I said, but Satoko and I did end up snapping this photo together  =)   Something was really funny at the time, obviously  haha  We've been playing together for the past year (she's an amazing pianist!) and I feel so blessed to have gotten to know her and have had the chance to play with her!

Sadly, I don't have pictures with the hosts, or with anyone else at the party... le sigh...  but I'm sure some photos will be going up on Miran's blog soon  =)

some Thanksgiving selfies with my guy.  on the way to his lab.  because he had to work on Thanksgiving.. such a hard worker that one! 

We didn't participate in Black Friday madness..  actually, I have never participated in Black Friday madness..  I know, what girl hasn't participated in it at least once, right?  but yup, every year, it rolls around, and I just don't feel like going shopping!  Don't get me wrong, I love shopping as much as the next girl when I have something I want to buy, but it seems the need/want to go shopping never lines up with Black Friday.. Perhaps next year?  haha

Anyway, after spending a productive Friday at home, David and I hosted a Ballroom movie night on Saturday!   we basically ate a lot of food and watched a lot of Youtube videos (4 hours of it to be exact), laughed until our abs hurt (who said ballroom dancers don't have humor?), and just really enjoyed being in one another's company!

some snacks.  gotta make up the calories lost while laughing.  and the watermelon is there because we felt like we had to have 1 healthy snack,, being dancers and all...  haha  There was a lot more food later (like pies, cakes, awesome smoked salmon appetizer, etc, but again, once the party started rolling, I forgot about my camera until the very end when we took the group photo above...)

All in all, it was a wonderful weekend, and I feel so blessed beyond words to be able to enjoy amazing foods (so thankful for food  haha) with the incredible people in my life  =)

Oh, and are you guys participating in the December Photo Project/Challenge?  There are multiple ones floating around, but the gist of it is that you take a photo every day for December.  I think it would be a good way to document the important/mundane aspects of my life in December, and see if I can stick with it for a whole month.  I probably will forget a day or two here and there, but I'm going to try!
Here is the first photo of the month  =)

My 5 year old student wrote this for me on the board on Sunday.   it melted my heart.  seriously.  loving the backwards 'y', the sweetness of the gesture, and the time I get to spend with such a spunky, energetic, but overall extremely sweet little human being.  =)

I hope you all have a wonderful week, and thanks for stopping by!!

--Janny