MASP

Hello there!

July means mid-term vacations for most schools and colleges in São Paulo, which means that most of my friends are all free to hang out.

Plus, I decided to do a list with all the places I’ve never been to or it’s been too long since I last visited in São Paulo and one of them was MASP – Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand (Art Museum of São Paulo) and the funny thing is that I’ve passed in front of it so many times and never actually entered.

                                                                                            (MASP – Image from Google)

I had a dentist appointment in the morning and after that, my dad let me and my brother in Paulista Avenue, so my brother could the subway and I walked until the museum to met my friend. We hadn’t seen each other in ages and it was really nice to catch up.

Henry Toulouse-Lautrec in Red was the name of the exhibition on the first floor and it showed a selection of HTL paintings, letters, posters and illustrations. I liked, but what I really loved was the permanent exhibition of their collection on the second floor. They had sculptures and paintings of different famous artists, including some of my favourite ones: Van Gogh, Degas (with the ballerina sculpture and a ballet painting) and Cândido Portinari, an amaaazing Brazilian painter. They had two Picassos and lots of other works.

When we had seen all, we walked to the next mall for lunch and then walked in the Avenue later, until our next stop, which was Livraria Cultura. We came back around 16h40. It was a great afternoon.

I then had ballet at 19h, the adult class I’m also doing. They’re taking RAD classes, so I’m learning both theirs and also the exercises from my group. I like RAD and how you can really work on details and learn a clean technique, but I also miss Vaganova/free kinda classes. Hopefully, we will have some after the break. Cheering for that!

I didn’t have class today, although I thought I had. Communication problems… And I ended up in the supermarket with my mom. Now I’m finishing the night by watching the second episode of Orphan Black in all my jackets. So cold! I love it!

I was pretty lazy today, even that I did a full class in the morning by myself, by my sunny window. I’m going to make tomorrow more productive and active.

See ya!

Love,

Arissa Ayumi

Demi vacations

Vacations from edasp have started, but I’m not completely happy that we are going to be resting during one month. A couple weeks are needed though.
I still have night classes at my other school, which is amazing, since I won’t stop ballet completely.
We had a three-day presentation, two on an outside stage and the last day inside one of the rooms we do classes for maximum two guests, I invited my mom and my brother. My dad couldn’t go due to work.
The first day went so fast! We were freezing cold and, when we finished, I wasn’t even warm. The second and third day were much better and I had a lot of fun during these days. This place has such a good atmosphere and the people there are always lovely.
I love that place and I’m really thankful to have this opportunity, this teacher and those people in my life. I can’t imagine this semester without those precious ballet classes, they made a revolution in my life and changed me as a dancer and as a person.
I still have one more month of the second semester before I head to my adventure studying abroad and, during this vacation, I’ll workout, stretch and keep myself in shape so I can prepare my body to learn more and more. I love this ballet life!

About my preparation, I’m getting more excited every day with all the things I have to do. I’m loving to clean my room. I’ve recently started adding some minimalism to my life. I’ve heard about it before but never really wanted to know what was it about until I saw a documentary on Netflix which explained pretty much it all. I loved it.

Minimalism isn’t about living with the less possible, as I thought, but just living with things that are truly valuable to you, which includes clothes, objects, furniture, relationships and even choosing to keep just the music that you love on your phone. It’s a lifestyle.

And me, as a person very attached to her material things, it’s being a true relief to have less, but just the really needed. I still have a lot to clean, donate or sell, but it already made a huuuge difference in my life. (btw, I’m cleaning my wardrobe right now)

It’s freezing cold today as well and I LOVE IT ❤

Gonna make this week a very productive one!

Hope you have an amazing day.

Love,

Arissa Ayumi

Sunday, two months left, ballet classes, expo, haircuts and living on theatres

Hello there!

Yes, there’s a lot to write about and many many things to tell. I’ll probably be jumping from subject to subject today, as the news are diverse.

It is Sunday! Which means the local market day (although we now are in transition to change it to Thursday, as the Thursday local fair is much cheaper, high quality and nearest to us). As usual, we have a pretty sunny day, even it’s already winter. I really love my city and this crazy weather.

I’ve recently cut my hair. I cut last year on the shoulders, and it grew surprisingly fast! I removed 25cm of hair (!) and now it’s kind difficult to do a bun right now, but I’m learning. I’ll probably donate it again.

Related to buns, my ballet life is pretty much the same. I have classes every day, from Monday to Saturday, I spend my mornings on Praça das Artes and afternoons at my other ballet school. I feel like I’m improving a lot and movements are becoming natural to me, although I wish I could do more about my technique and learn faster.

One of my teachers said I dance beautifully (!) but, as I’m tall and have long arms, I need to work on that and make my movements longer, not short them, as I’m doing. She also corrected my chaînes and other things. She still corrects a lot while in class and I love that. I wouldn’t grow that much without her. I’m really really thankful to have her in my life.

We are going to have our three-day presentation this week when we are going to present a full class to guests, directors and coordinators of Praça and people who are coming over, we are calling it a Master Class and as we do it almost every day, it helped me to have more control and learn more of the technique.

Well, this Thursday I also participated in my very first Dance Festival as a seller. I and my dad drove to Mogi das Cruzes, right before I returned from class and dad from work, around 14h. We then put all of Merci things there, organised the products and the coordinator of the Festival kindly borrowed us a big table. I was really proud of how the space looked like and I loved participating. It was quite an experience. The other sellers were also really nice and we had a nice time working on Merci.

Also, as Praça is part of the Municipal Theatre Foundation, they always offer us tickets to ballet shows. For this reason, I’m practically living on Theatres and I love it.

I’ve seen all the São Paulo Companhia de Dança débuts, including La Sylphide and yesterday I could go to my favourite place in this city: The Municipal Theatre, where I also have the luck to be in front of almost every single day. I went watch Balé da Cidade presenting Cacti (which I absolutely loved) and Paraíso Perdido (literal translation of Lost Paradise). I also had the opportunity to see Ismael Ivo, the artistic director of Balé da Cidade, walking in the Theatre.

La Sylphide with SPCD

Luiza Yuk, SPCD Principal Dancer

Both performances are related to our time and our city, but especially about our people and our country, even they were not specifically created for them and us. But they speak perfectly with our current situation. I wish I could find the talked texts of Cacti, written by Spenser Theberge, they were wonderful and reflexive in an amazing way. I absolutely loved Cacti!

I guess these is all I have to tell for now. I hope I write more often because I love to.

Hope you have a beautiful Sunday and a wonderful week.

Love,

Arissa Ayumi

 

 

My last months in Brazil

(I’m back!)

In 2 months and 20 days  I’m going to leave this country I was born and raised to live independently for the first time in Portugal. How exciting!

I had a hiatus on the blog due to lots of things I was doing. My week is crazy, even I’m not doing any academic stuff at the moment. As you probably know, I have ballet twice (or three times) a day,  RAD classes, sometimes I have rehearsals for competitions, I have an early lunch some of the days, I take the subway, I go to the Mail to send some packages for Merci, sometimes I work with my mom until late and swimming classes happens two mornings per week.

I do all that practically every day and I LOVE it all. I feel physically tired and sore sometimes because of so much ballet and all the workout and stretches I do at home or before classes, but I could do it forever. I’m forever sorry I won’t be able to be a ballerina. I’m forever sorry that as much as I try and study, I won’t have enough technique. But this is life, I made some wrong choices when I stayed at that first ballet school that taught me nothing but neither I or my mom understood a thing about ballet when I was 7, so I just stayed there. Today there’s nothing I can do but try to learn everything I can.

I also had the amazing opportunity to get some free tickets to watch São Paulo Companhia de Dança on their two débuts with Suite for Raymonda and an adaptation of Fire Bird, plus other contemporary pieces, like Ngali…, Pivô, Suite for two Pianos, Primavera Fria (cold spring), 14’20”. First time I went with my mom and as it was the very first night of presentations, the whole audience was composed of people from the dance world who was invited: ballet teachers, choreographers, ballet dancers, balletomanes, students, press related to ballet. It was amazing!

The second time I went with a friend of mine and we had lots of fun, although we had a full day, so we were pretty tired.

I feel I’m getting better and better in ballet classes, but I still have loads of things to work on, plus work my attitude in the classroom. Be more active, and don’t seem so intimidated and fearful. I love all these opportunities I had and I’m really grateful for my teachers and the possibilities I had this year.

I also competed in Campos do Jordão with my school in a dance festival and we got a few prizes. But, most important, we had fun.

I’m also about to get my exams results to see if I am really lactose intolerant (almost sure) and that’s it.

We are going to present a three-day open class on Praça das Artes and this way we end the semester. Can’t believe how fast it passed! I was just writing about the fact that I was going to need to wait another six months to move and now we are talking about 2 months and a half!

Can’t wait to see this next season. Looking forward to the new adventures of every day.

Love,

Arissa Ayumi

 

 

 

International Dance Day

Happy International Dance Day!

I’m happier just by the fact I’m able to dance and learn more and more every day. I may not be the best student in terms of technique, or a good dancer, but my life without dance would certainly be incomplete.

I spent part of my afternoon in the centre of São Paulo, thanks to a program of the Municipal Secretary of Culture. They celebrated Dance Day with lots of differents shows all over the city, including classing ballet, contemporary, modern, street dance, hip hop, stiletto, flamenco and even more.

By 12h30, I and my dad were in front of the Municipal Theatre, waiting to watch the young company of EDASP and after, an excerpt of Cacti, a contemporary piece of Balé da Cidade de São Paulo (which was wonderful by the way).

During this year, while and after I saw Adastra and Risco, and now a piece of Cacti, I’ve been developing such deep respect for this company. They are brilliant! I loved every single thing I’ve watched on them, they are strong, precise, charismatic and they have got a story to tell. They use their bodies to express, exactly what dance is about.

I even saw Ismael Ivo in the crowd. I was hoping to get a photo with him and congratulate Ismael about all his new works with Balé da Cidade, but he was always surrounded by people talking to him and I didn’t want to disturb. Shame on me, shame my shyness #fail.

After the program ended, we went to Galeria do Rock (Rock Gallery), which is basically a huge shopping mall just for rock, CDs, lots of different rock bands t-shirts, tattoos, skates, piercings.  A place where rock lovers find their fellows and buy things they like. We were there to find a specific shirt for my brother, from a band he likes. We found.

We then walked until Rua Direita (literally Right Street – the direction, not like civil rights) and went to Daiso, this huuuuge, beautiful, Japanese store where they sell practically everything with a reasonable price, most of the things being cheap with high quality. I don’t even need to say I love that place.

Finishing our shopping, we walked until Sé and took the subway home. I had a very late lunch (around 4 pm) and we spent the rest of the day at my granny’s.

As Monday is a holiday  (Labour’s day) and on Friday we had a general strike (the reason why I couldn’t go to EDASP to have ballet), I’ll be home for four days, resting my muscles and working on my projects and on my business. I’m loving working on Merci! It’s seriously one of the best things I’ve ever done.

I’ll probably be celebrating Dance Day by tomorrow yet (because every day is dance day, right?).

Lots of love,

Arissa Ayumi

Samedi

Bonjour à tous!

Yesterday I woke up by 6h50, which immediataly reminded of the quote: “work on something that makes you want to jump out of the bed every morning” and I had an amaaaazing morning working on my mini project, which was (drum rolls) a photoshoot for Merci with some of my friends, lots of flowers, braided hairs and fun. 

We all a really great time and I already consider it a sucess. I cannot wait to see the photos!

We spent about three hours photographing and it was really nice. I was hoping to do an outside photoshoot, but I had some emails from the parks I wanted to photograph answering that because the photos were going to be used on a ecommerce website, they are considered for commercial use, and then I had to pay to use these spaces, which I considered fair, until I saw the prices, and I wasn’t going to be able to pay, especially because I’m a really small company.

Anyway, we had a great time and the photos look great and really want to see the final result!

Thanks to the flowers I used there, I now have beautiful arrangements I did myself with petals and flowers left from that ❤️

I spent the rest of my day helping my mom to deliver two cakes, organizing my office and finished by watching (and finishing) 13 Reason Why with my parents. It’s a strong series, but I definitely recommend it!

Full day, productive day. Love it!

Hope you have a beautiful Sunday.

Love, 

Arissa Ayumi

Projects

Hello!

Every day I promise myself I’m going to write on the blog and I’ve been failing for days, but here I am!

It’s kinda complicated because I don’t have my computer always with me and I don’t feel comfortable writing on my mobile. So…

I had my usual classes every day, at the morning in edasp and in the afternoon at my usual ballet school. Monday wasn’t exactly a good day for me in morning ballet class, but it was a good day in general, especially because I finally got my residential visa (yay for that!). All the other days were great too.

Tomorrow I have a big project and I’m really looking forward to that! I still have to plan some things and finish other stuff before, but I’ll definitely post something about. I’m really excited about it!

Today’s a holiday here in Brazil, which is perfect since I can finish all those arrangements and rest my poor tired legs. Also, we had a perfect cold, autumn-like weather, which I enjoyed very much, sadly it seems to be over 😦

Okidokie, I have some other things to do and I’ll finish working on that project (yay!).

Hope you have a lovely Friday,

Love,

Arissa Ayumi

 

Pre-Holiday

Hello!

I had a full day today, starting at 7h45 with swimming class and I still haven’t ended, it’s 23h50 and I’m helping my mom with some orders.

I went to EDASP at 12h, to the 13h ballet class. Today was supposed to be pointe shoe class, but I forgot my toe pads and as almost nobody does it with pointe shoes I went on flats. My friend & teacher was there today, as my other friend who is doing classes with me every day, which was super nice. However, barre was kind of a problem today, I couldn’t memorise all combinations and I felt like I wasn’t listening to my body, kinda lost with coordination. Center was not amazing, but it was ok and so diagonal.

I guess we all thought the teacher was going to give us a killer class when everybody leaves practically dying, because of Easter holiday, but it was normal. I was feeling terrible afraid to turn, for no particular reason and I really don’t like when that happens. I can’t do doubles and my singles look terrible too, just because of that unconscious fear off turning. Now I’ll only see ballet again on Monday (not counting my daily workouts and tomorrow’s class I’m planning to make myself in the morning)

I arrived home and helped my mom until 18h when we left to deliver the cakes, sweets and all that and she dropped me in ballet school in the middle of the way. We had rehearsal for the festivals and competitions we are going to compete and it was really nice.

I gave three chocolate eggs (our Brazilian Easter tradition), one for my edasp ballet teacher, one for the edasp ballet pianist, and one for my two teachers, they all liked and I’m really pleased!

Plus, I decided I’m not going to have an Easter egg this year because 1) I eat chocolate practically every day, 2) I’m trying to avoid eating too many sweets, because it’s not healthy, 3) I really want to follow my Short Term Ballerina Project, and keeping a healthy diet helps me to get there and 4) I don’t feel like eating that much sweet, even if divided for several days.

It’s past midnight right now and I’ll soon go to sleep.

Hope you had a nice day!

Love,

Arissa Ayumi

Making progress

Good evening!

I had a usual Sunday, going to local market, buying fruits and vegetables, having lunch at my Granny’s house, napping and now I’ve just finished working on my online shop, there are lots of new things coming, including some Capezio products.

Merci is finally starting to look more like what I wanted to. There are a lot of work to do yet, but from the first beginning, I already wanted to make sure everything was going to be exactly as I always wanted for an online ballet shop here in Brazil. I’m slowly getting there. This is a new project, but it’s already making me so happy and proud!

I’m on day 5 of my Short-Term Ballerina Project and I’m enjoying it. Helps me to fix all my corrections and apply them the next day and know my body dealing with soreness and classes as well. I see a great improvement since I started making ballet classes at EDASP, Praça das Artes. Of course, there are looots of things to work on yet, but I’m happy I don’t feel and I’m not stuck in technique, memorization and class in general.

I’ll definitely stretch more this week. Stretching prevents injuries, right? And I felt so sore last week that I could barely walk and those subway stairs were a nightmare to me!

Also, yesterday I went to the Theatre next home by 18h40 to watch a festival my school was participating. They competed with a jazz, a contemporary piece and two variations. I had such a great night! I love to be with all my friends and teacher!

I need to sleep now. I’m looking forward to this new week!

Lots of love,

Arissa Ayumi

 

The short-term ballerina project

Hello!

I had two greaaat classes.At EDASP 11:30 and at my regular ballet school at 15:45.

It’s been some weeks since I’ve started thinking about a ballerina project. Because I’m a visual person, I have better answers when I write, draw and put the things that have been going on my head in the paper. So, I’m planning to start a guide to achieve or, at least, get better results in ballet.

That will include food and all vitamins and nutrients I need to get the best of my body, planned workouts and stretches I will organise in order to not overstretch or get too many days off as I do while I haven’t planned, correction I get in class, corrections I could improve, how I feel before and after classes, achievements. Practically a journal + planner that I believe will help me, even just a little, to get where I want in the short-term, but that will be refreshed as soon as I achieve what I need so I can get long-term results.

I know it’s just a simulation and probably just a dream, but I want and will work really hard to when I complete 22 years old (I’m 18 right now), to be at least closing fifth positions and somewhere near to my teacher’s technique and attitude in class because she is the person that inspires me the most right now. She’s a wonderful teacher & coach, an amazing friend and a beautiful ballerina, but she just conquered all that because she’s a hard worker and I’ve seemed she growing as a dancer since I met her and her mother, who’s my teacher as well, in August 2014. That really makes me want to work harder and harder every day.

It’s important to set short and long-term goals because you need to know what you aim for your future so you can start working now.

The things I believe I need for a short term are: work more my breath while keeping my core tight, en dehors (or turnout), balance, feet strength and spot while turning. My future goals are to have a better upper body,  better arms, quickness while doing barre and center exercises, balance (short and long term), fifth positions (being able to close it), 110º/120º arabesque, being able to do a tilt, don’t sit on my hips while doing exercises, double pirouettes en pointe on both sides and three pirouettes without pointe shoes. Probably everything is on my long term list.

I’m feeling my back kinda hurt, because of a variation I’m rehearsal on (❤), so I’ll leave back exercises, cambrés, arabesques and so to work later, when I feel completely comfortable with it.

Todas was day one of my Ballerina Project, and I divided in some pages to “what I struggle with today”, “what do I aim to achieve shortly and in the future”, “steps to get there” and I’ll write things just like a journal: “what corrections did I have today”, “what do I feel I need to work on”, “good points on class today”, because we need to reward ourselves when we achieve sometimes good, “today’s meals” and so on. I’m really liking it and keeps me motivated!

Going to keep it updated!

Hope you have a lovely week! Happy monday (or Tuesday, depending where you are).

Love,

Arissa Ayumi