I returned to Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet for my summer intensive that summer. I was placed in D2, and was extremely mad at myself for not being in a better level. On top of that, I had an awful roommate. I cannot go into detail on the horrible things she did, but I will tell you one instance in which the next day I told my mother that I wanted to quit the summer intensive. I did not quit, but this was one of the many times I was on the verge of departing the intensive. My roommate, Lillian, had come home from ballet for the day, and instead of going to dinner, she decided to stay in our room. The next day, she stayed home from dance and then produced a whole trash can of trash in one day and made me take the trash out. The next day, she stayed in our room, again, and produced yet another can full of trash for me to take out, again. I then told her that I would not take the trash out. Her response to me was to proceed to put the trash can in her closet for the room check. She also left her wet clothes in our hamper and let them become moldy.
This contributed to my loss in passion for dance. The summer I had looked forward to for over a year had been ruined by just one person. Even though she was just my roommate, she just ruined my experience at CPYB.
In the fall, I was introduced to Denis Gronostayskiy and Anastasia Babayev. I was excited to start a new chapter in my ballet training, moving from Balanchine technique to the strict Russian etiquette. However, when I began dancing, I felt there was no true passion from the teachers. Each had to follow a specific way of teaching, and they never felt happy to be teaching. My teacher, Ms. Charity, was my variations teacher as well. We practiced every Tuesday from 7:30 to 8:30 on variations, from a pas de trois from Swan Lake to the precious metals from the Sleeping Beauty.
I danced up until November, when I injured my back and was out for a month. Once recovered, I went to rehearsals for George Balanchine's the Nutcracker, and I practiced every weekend and later on, in the afternoons. I had thirteen shows in total in the Nutcracker, and was excited to begin the dance in a real class back at the School of Pennsylvania Ballet. However, through all my initial excitement, ballet just seemed boring now. I could not stop thinking about other topics and was happy when class was over.
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