Nike Cooperation
1 Bowerman Drive
Beaverton, OR 97005

Dear Nike,

As a dancer, I believe that you, Nike, could venture to create the better pointe shoe. Pointe shoes have been made the same for over a hundred years, but I think you could change this. With your unconventional style and athletic knowledge, you could make many dancers happy.

The life of pointe shoes fluctuates between dancers and different foot types, but if made out of something more durable (than glue) they could probably last longer than two weeks. But the structure of the shoe and traditional style must remain the same, because as anal as ballerinas are, we will not allow colored pointe shoes for most classical ballet pieces! But we would love to have a shoe that lasts a month or more.

Also, pointe shoes are not being made with the same quality. Many companies have been slacking in their processes and the shoes just don't feel the same anymore. Just last night, my friend put on a brand new pair of pointe shoes and they were soft in the toes after the first exercise. This had never before happened to any of us and was very, very odd. I think that you could be a reliable source of ballet shoes, and always make a shoe that a dancer can count on to support her when dancing, just like all of your other products.

To conclude, Nike, in my opinion is a very altruistic cooperation. You are constantly coming up with new ideas to help different types of athletes, and i believe that you could apply this also to ballet. Please make the next best pointe shoe!!

Sincerely,
Cheyene Johnson

Falling Economy

The stock market crash is hurting people across the nation. Businesses are going bankrupt, people are losing jobs, and many have gone homeless. A part of our country that is not often mentioned is the dance industry. But this small part of the U.S. has also been greatly impacted by this economic downfall.

Many companies have had to shorten performances, because of this recession. The most surprising is the very successful New York City Ballet. Instead of an intended three week performance, the dates have been shortened by one week. It is sad to think that the most predominant company in the nation is having to shorten performance dates because they cannot simply afford it.

Although the New York City Ballet's loss is nominal compared to the rest of the country, it is still very surprising. Dancers who dance for this company are getting payed less because of the lesser shows. And to begin, dancers do not get payed a lot, so even the dancers in the U.S. are under a lot of turmoil.

Works Cited

Itzkoff, Dave. "Citing Tough Economy, Ballet Shortens Saratoga Season." New York TImes. 4 Nov. 2008. 14 Nov. 2008 .

Diagram of the Foot

This is a diagram of the bones of the foot. A dancers most valuable attribute is their feet, because, obviously, it's a bit difficult to dance without them. Feet are very intricate and contain very tiny bones which enhance a dancers ability to dance on pointe and can bend and move in beautiful ways for a dancer aesthetic needs.







This is an x-ray of a foot in a pointe shoe. If a dancer were to damage a vital bone in their foot, dancing on pointe would become near to impossible.
























Works (photos) Cited
http://runsanfran.wordpress.com/2008/04/14/t-shirts-and-running-shorts/
www.chanhongoh.com/diamond_pointe.shtml

School of American Ballet vs. Julliard School

There are many prestigious dance schools in the country, but the School of American Ballet and Julliard School are the most prestigious of all. Julliard, to me though, seems the most prestigious. Although both schools are very competitive and only the best of the best attend these schools, students of Julliard eat, sleep, and think ballet the whole time they are attending. Any dancer would enjoy the experience of taking an audition class from these two schools, but actually getting into Julliard would be incredible.

The School of American Ballet is located in New York City's Lincoln Center. Out of any other school in the country, it trains the most dancers who move on, to become professional ballerinas. George Balanchine developed this program in 1934 with hopes to create dancers who reflected and enhanced the beauty he loved so much in the dance. To get into this school, auditions are required. Even for the eight year olds who dream of becoming prima-ballerinas. You must show high potential for becoming a dancer and strive for excellence in every step in order to attend the School of American Ballet.

New York City is also the home of Julliard School. Julliard was first founded as a music school in 1905 by Dr. Frank Damrosch, who thought it ridiculous to have to go abroad to continue the study of music after high school, and wanted to establish a school with high-quality music training. This went on and was more successful then ever and in 1951 the dance division was added by composer William Schuman. Since only high-quality learning happens here, it is very very expensive to attend and very competitive to get into. No video auditions are accepted. A prerequisite to attend is a live audition where they must impress the "judges" to get into this school.

All in all, because you must be very very driven to attend both the American School, and Julliard, Julliard is more prestigious. It is harder to get into and is non-stop dancing and studying. The School of American Ballet, is not a college and therefore does not combine studies with dancing. The dancer that attends Julliard, must know that they want to be dancing for the rest of their lives.

Works Cited
"School of American Ballet." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 11 Nov 2008, 19:10 UTC. 12 Nov 2008 .

School of American Ballet. "Overview." The School of American Ballet. 2008. School of American Ballet. 12 Nov. 2008 http://www.sab.org/school/overview.php.

"A Brief History." Julliard. The Julliard School. 14 Nov. 2008 .

The Company

The movie "The Company" is about the dancers of a ballet company, who are constantly struggling to stay on their feet. Literally. The main character lives in a small apartment and works an additional job at a club in order to pay rent. In the company she struggles to hold lead roles, but is a beautiful dancer and important part of the company. Another, male dancer, has no money to rent, so he sleeps on the floor of another dancers home along with many other dancers in the company who also cannot buy their own apartment. Another male dancer is furious when he is replaced in one part of a ballet, and quits on the spot with his angry father. Along with everyday life struggles, the movie illustrates unconventional choreography and bright costumes that go well with the music chosen for the dance pieces.

Other than the dancing in this movie, I didn't particularly enjoy it. None of the characters reached a resolution in the end, and there was no exciting climax. I do think the movie showed really well the life of a dancer and what it takes to make it. Dancers are not payed well and this movie made it very flagrant.