Elevation NYE

As I've mentioned, I've been on the job hunt. For anyone who's looked for a job full-time you know how depressing and tedious that can be. So, to get my mind off of the searching, cover letter writing, and failed interviews/auditions I'm currently dealing with, I'm going to jump back a couple of months and post about my awesome NYE experience! 

It all started in early December when a friend sent me an invite to a single's NYE dance party to be held at a photography studio in Anaheim. He sent it to me specifically because this NYE event was featuring a handful of aerialists. I wanted in!! I contacted the event organizer and asked how I could throw my hat in the ring to be one of the performers. Being super accommodating, he had me send him a few videos of what I could do, and then later he contacted me to say he would be able to squeeze me in at the beginning of the event for a routine or two, since their other performers were already promised so many routines. I was thrilled! Better to be a paid performer at the beginning of the night than not perform at all!

Before flying home to Colorado for Christmas, I looked up a couple of aerial studios online to make sure I could work on my routines while out of town. My mother picked me up from the airport when I arrived, and she agreed to stop by Aerial Dance Over Denver on our way home so I could get an updated copy of their schedule and see when I could take advantage of their open gym times. Upon meeting the studio owner and a few of the other employees I knew I wouldn't be stopping at the second studio - this one all but handed me a key; they were thrilled to have a visiting aerialist utilize their space. They were so warm and welcoming my mom told me to grab my workout clothes from my suitcase and get to work right then! It was fun to have her there while I worked on my hammock routine; she had never seen me practice or perform in person before.

I visited the studio many more times over the next week and a half, and headed back to LA a couple of days before New Year's Eve feeling good about both my hammock and hoop routines. Just before leaving Colorado however, I was contacted again by the event coordinator and asked to perform on tissu during the finale when all of the other aerialists would also be performing. Tissu is my weakest apparatus, but challenge accepted, I immediately headed to my studio in LA to put together a routine that wouldn't wear me out.

On NYE I arrived early and checked out the rigging for where the hoop and hammock would be hung, touched up my makeup, and started warming up. The crowd was a little thin during my hoop routine, but that was to be expected since it was only a half hour into the event. More and more people filtered in throughout the night, and by the finale we had over 650 people dancing inside the warehouse! There were a few handfuls of attendees I knew, most from here in L.A., but also several from my college days in Las Vegas - including an old roommate!

Pretty much the best New Year's Eve I've ever had!