Famous Dancers Part III

Famous Ballerina Irina Baranova

Irina Baranova was born in Petrograd (St. Petersburg) in the Russian Empire on March 13, 1919. Irina was interested in ballet since she was very young. Irina left Russia when she when she was a little girl and moved to Romania where her mother taught her simple ballet exercises. By the time she was 9 her family had moved to Paris so she could study ballet professionally. She made her debut at the Paris Opera when she was 11.When she was only 12 years old she was discovered by the famous choreographer George Balanchine. At age 14 she danced as Odette, the lead ballerina in Swan Lake. She moved from Paris to Australia when she was 17 where she lived until she died. She retired from dance when she was only 27. She was married twice and had three children. She died in Byron Bay, New South Wales, Australia on June 28, 2008 at age 89.

Famous Dancers Part II

Famous Modern Dancer Martha Graham

Martha Graham is a famous modern dancer who was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on May 11, 1894 and died in New York City at the age of 96 on April 1, 1991. She was married, divorced and had no children. She is considered to be a legendary modern dancer. Martha Graham did not begin to study dance until she was in her teens. Her family moved to California. They did not approve of Martha studying dance. She began taking classes at Denishawn in Los Angeles. At Denishawn she was a student, a teacher and performer. She then moved to New York and in 1926 she established her own dance company. Some people thought that Martha Graham’s experimental style was jarring and ugly but she said that her dance was spiritual.

Famous Dancers Part I

Famous Jazz Dancer Jack Cole

Jack Cole was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey on April 27, 1911 and died on February 27, 1974. His birth name was John Ewing Richter. He was an American dancer, choreographer and theater director known as the father of Theatrical Jazz Dance. Jack Cole began to study dance with Denishawn in New York in the late 1920’s. He made his professional debut in 1930 at the age of 19. Jack Cole studied and danced in New York City and Hollywood, California. He created the style of jazz dance still seen on Broadway shows, Hollywood movie musicals and music videos today. He choreographed many jazz theater dances for famous actresses such as Marilyn Monroe in “Diamonds are a Girl’s Best friend” from the film “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes”.   

Galloping Escapade

“Sophia, pull back on your reins,” my teacher yelled. I was 8 years old and it was my first time at M-Bar-C Ranch, a horse farm in the woods on Whidbey Island. Until that summer, I had never galloped before.  As we drove up the gravel driveway, I saw a donkey, a white deer and horses in the pasture.  The horses were grazing on the dirty green grass. I could hear them snorting, neighing and whinnying as if they were greeting me. I arrived at the ranch with a brown paper bag lunch and my pink boots that I had just purchased from the second hand store in Freeland. I walked into a cold, concrete floored building.  It smelled like a mixture of Kleenex with hay. Numerous people were already there sitting on wooden chairs lined up in the center of the room facing a small white board. Others were sitting around a long, grey plastic folding table, chatting. Some friendly teenage volunteers said hello to me. A handful of campers were already there sitting alone, wearing jeans and holding their lunches.  My mom and the director chatted.

“Nice talking to you”, the director concluded. She smiled at my mom and scanned the room. “Sorry, but we have to start the class.”

I gave my mom a huge hug. “Goodbye, Mommy” I said quietly.

“Goodbye sweetie. I love you and you are going to do great. See you at 3:00,” my mother reassured me kindly. I didn’t want to be left alone but my mom had to go.

I turned my head and looked at the white board. It had everyone’s name on it, including mine, with the assigned horses for the week. I walked over nervously to see which horse I had been given. I got a horse called Dancer!   After the director spoke for a while, the group walked down to the horse ring and I met Dancer. He was a chestnut brown purebred Arabian gelding. During that week we learned gobs about horses. By Wednesday we were ready to go on a trail ride in the forest. I tacked up Dancer and grabbed his reigns and took him to a step stool. I thrust my left foot in the stirrup and pushed myself up while I swung my right leg up and over the saddle. It was a cool, clear morning and we were all ready to go. The campers were jittery with excitement to be going on our first trail ride and we were looking forward to eating a picnic lunch in the woods. The campers, mounted on their horses, filed up in line and meandered towards the trail head. I held the leather reigns tightly in my hands, sitting on the Western leather saddle with a huge horn in the front to hold onto. My furry helmet was fastened under my neck. Cautiously descending the first hill, dusty dirt flew everywhere and I was close to the back of the line.  We passed through a dry grass pasture sprinkled with dandelions still moist from the morning dew.

Suddenly, Dancer broke from the line and began to gallop full speed. I thought I would fall off and become paralyzed, picturing myself thrown from the horse and with a concussion. Terrified, I closed my eyes tightly. Dancer bolted across the flat turf. I began falling off. My saddle was slipping. Dancer finally slowed down and suddenly stopped at the beginning of the line, right next to my instructor’s horse.

“Oh, are you OK?” my instructor asked.  “Dancer probably wanted to be at the front of the line because my horse is his girlfriend!” she explained.

I didn’t want to go on the trail ride any more. I was terrified of galloping again.

“Trust me. It will be fun,” my teacher reassured me.

We continued the ride and went on to a clearing among the trees. My teacher praised me and was proud of me for holding on. I could see that one of the teenage volunteers was jealous of me because the teacher was so proud. We tied up our horses to hitching posts. We had a picnic on the ground next to a big wooden cross.  One of the older volunteers told us a story.  While listening to the story I saw what I would have been missing if I had not gone on the trail ride. I understood that day if I face my fears I will enjoy what I was scared of and find out it was worth it. 

My Halloween Pumpkin

I carved my pumpkin this Halloween. It was a cat. It was easy to do. All you have to do is find a picture on the internet, tape it on the pumpkin, trace it with a thumb tack and then you carve it out. And voila!

This is the stencil I used.