Our last Wednesday started out with outdoor training for our show the 31st of May with Nika Kljun from 9-12am.
Afterwards we headed towards Dance Arts Academy, which is located in the heart of Los Angeles’ mid- Wilshire district, where we were gonna have a meeting/class with the legendary Toni Basil at 2pm. We were told to write down some questions to ask her, so we started out the 1,5 hour we had with her with a Q&A – we questioned and she answered; if she wanted to 
She’s an American singer-songwriter, actress, filmmaker, film director, choreographer and dancer; best known for her multi-million selling worldwide No. 1 hit ”Mickey” from 1982.
She told us a lot of stories, and I made particularly note to one story: She told us that she always had several pair of shoes in her bag, so that she was prepared for every dance situation.
In this business new steps and styles are constantly being found an there will always be someone better than you. That’s why she told us that one should always look ahead, one must constantly learn and absorb new things and learn how to deal with the new – not stall but instead evolve with the surroundings to become wiser and better at what you do!
At the ending she showed and practised some grooves with us to some funky music, pretty fun 
Her inspiring talks and movements made the 1,5 hour we had with her very insteresting and I especially absorbed one thing she said, which I’ll never ever forget: ”Always be prepared!”
Wise words, because you’ll never know when your next huge opportunity is – and it would be a waist to throw it away, because you weren’t just a tiny bit prepared. From now on I’ll carry one pair of each dancing shoe and some clothes too! I’ll be prepared, because this is what I want.
Afterwards some of us went to Millennium Dance Complex to take a Hiphop class with David Moore and another one with Marty from 6-9pm.
We took a quick shower and changed our clothes before heading to the 3rd and last carnival (in this round); The Carnival: Choreographer’s Ball at Avalon Theatre, Hollywood. This night was movie themed, so all the showcases was inspired by movies like Star Wars, Avatar, Despicable Me and Mean Girls. It was pretty fun to watch, but unfortunately I think the two last Carnivals have been better than this one…
It was a great night, which was all about watching the shows, dancing, cheering and being social – just having a good time – and I definitely did!
Tomorrow Thursday I’ve 5 classes at Millennium from 2-8pm to look forward to, besides outdoor practise with Nika and Sonny from 9-12pm – so it’ll be a hard but good day with a lot of training!
I’m gonna take 2 Hiphop classes with Kanec followed by Misha, then Turns and Jazz with Eric Ellis and Improvisation Contemporary with Tasha Hamilton.
With constant love for what I do and an eternal hope to continue to develop myself,
Juliette Schaufuss
