Dear Diary,

The past month has been wonderful. We just finished our summer season, and very soon I will be starting my junior year of college. I have spent the last month dancing, sewing, and babysitting. My feet ache. I have blisters that won't pop. And I have killed a brand new pair of pointe shoes. I managed to survive a thirteen hour bus ride with 50 screaming people. All for one day of performing.

I got the honor of dancing with five professional dancers from the Oklahoma City Ballet, including Miki Kawamura. Every one of the dancers from OKC Ballet were so friendly and interactive with us kids in the production, and I really appreciated that. I have nothing but good things to say about those five. For our last show, I took the warm up class with the thirteen professionals in Wahzhazhe. It was a much needed ballet class. I haven't been able to take a true ballet class since December roughly. It felt so good. As class progressed, several of the pros sat out because their bodies needed a break, but not me. I managed to make it all the way through even though I'm waaaaaay out of shape.

This past Friday was our dress rehearsal/tech/filming day. We arrived in Santa Fe, New Mexico around midnight mountain standard time on Thursday, and our Friday started at 7 AM. At least it did for me. After breakfast, it took me approximately two hours to get my full performance makeup and performance hair done. Around 10 AM, we left our hotel and traveled to the Lensic Performing Arts Center in down town Santa Fe. Once inside, our company director told us some more of the story of why we are telling the story of our Osage people through ballet. Our director then dismissed me and the two other oldest kids to get our stuff set up in our dressing room. Soon we were starting our first run through. We blocked and teched the show for about two hours before we had to break for lunch. This run was extremely stressful. One of our cast members (and my partner for several scenes) never showed up, so we had to reblock one of the most important scenes in the ballet. After lunch, the pros were taking a ballet class, so I stood at the end of the stage and took barre with them. Then we started our second run through. The second run through was when we were filming. It was the roughest the show has looked. Needless to say, we ran the show again after we finished filming.

During all of our run throughs on Friday, there were some mothers who seemed to think they knew exactly what to do, and thought that they ran the place. These particular mothers were first years with the ballet. They acted worse than the mothers on Dance Moms. What really made me mad was the fact that I am 20 years old, the oldest of the kids, was put in charge of all the kids by our stage manager, and I was getting treated like I was 12. This is also my second season with Wahzhazhe, and I know this show forwards and backwards. I ended up snapping at the mothers when they were yelling at me while I was trying to get ready for one of the scenes that I was in. They didn't bother me again.

Saturday was show day. We had a show at 2 PM and 7:30 PM. At 2 PM, we had around 200 Pueblo children in the audience. The theatre was packed. I could barely see an open seat while I was on stage. The first performance went really well. I couldn't have been more proud of my personal performance, and the overall show. At the evening show, the theatre was packed yet again. My mother, brother, and honorary sister were in the audience. That made me so happy. Class before this show helped me get centered and prepared for the show. Like I said before, it was a much needed class. I loved it so much. The evening show was being filmed, so that made up for the filming on Friday that went so badly. Once the final curtain fell, our season finished. No matter how rough things went in the weeks leading up to our performances, I am so proud of how things went. It is truly an honor to be a part of something so special. I can't wait to see where being in this company takes me.

I have a 13+ hour drive starting in the morning. I move back to school on Tuesday (finally no more being homeless for the summer!). This Thursday I start my junior year of college. It is going to be a very rough year as I'm struggling with wanting to dance more and be involved in music less. Keep me in your prayers this year. I'm going to need it. ORU, I'm ready for ya.

Until next time,

Shelbs