My view on this whole “gun” situation…

Ok I’m about to have a rant about guns… Either don’t read this, or lets have a DISCUSSION where you can either agree or disagree with me.

First things first. President Obama is not, I repeat: NOT going to take away your guns!!! He is calling for stricter laws about the types of guns you can buy.

Hunting is a legitimate part of American life in most of the country, I am not going to say we should ban hunting outright. But do you really need a gun that can shoot more than 60 bullets in a single second?!?!? Are you trying to kill the animal or are you trying to completely wipe it off the face of the earth?!?

Is there really a need for you to have a clip that can hold 30 rounds? (As a member or the armed forces, engaging in battle you probably do) but to use it to hunt a defenseless being? No. To “protect” your family, loved ones and home? No.
If somebody breaks into your home to attack you or the previously mentioned family/loved ones. Do you want them to have the ability to shot everything in sight with 100s of bullets in a matter of seconds?! NO!

In my opinion, what we really need are tighter law regarding the sales of guns. We need stricter background checks, including (but not limited to) Mental and Psychological evaluations. Mandatory gun safety classes (and tests) in order to purchase a gun.

In the US there is currently a ban on Surface to Air missiles. How many planes have we had blown out of the sky? As far as I’m aware (feel free to correct me if I’m wrong) None! There is NOT a ban on assault weapons. And how many attacks and murders have we had involving those? Too many to think of!

The Second Amendment grants citizens the right to bear arms: From Wikipedia “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed”
Please keep in mind that this was written at a time when the United States was still only just a few years old, and there was still fighting against British Forces happening.

To conclude my rant, I honestly don’t think we should ban guns completely! Most drugs are illegal yet that doesn’t stop people. Clearly if the same were to happen to guns there would be chaos.
All of the “Mass-Killings” that have happened in recent years, were made with guns purchased fairly and legally. THAT is the issue that we have to address.

Feel free to argue with me/hurl abuse at me/hate me in the comments section below!

– Oliver

From Pas de Deux to Pâte à Chou: Dinner with Legendary Balanchine Ballerina Violette Verdy

Reblogged from Ryan Wenzel:

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When Lincoln Kirstein asked George Balanchine to move to the U.S. to start a ballet company, the young choreographer famously responded, “But first a school.” It was a savvy move for Balanchine. The School of American Ballet, after its founding in 1934, began to supply Balanchine with a steady crop of dancers trained in his method. Balanchine sometimes looked elsewhere for male talent, but the majority of his star ballerinas — from Maria Tallchief to Darci Kistler — were graduates of the school.

Read more… 1,101 more words

Check out what happened at the last #BalletCookBook Dinner

What a difference a year makes… (part 1)

It’s crazy the amount of things that can happen in just 1 year, and how those things can completely change your life!

Since December 2010, I have lived on 3 different continents and flown more than 24,000 miles. I have lost contact with some old friends, and made many more new ones.

 

Just over a year ago I was living in South Africa and dancing with the Cape Town City Ballet. We were performing Cinderella; I was Daffodil, one of the Ugly Sisters. We had just come back from Durban on the east coast in order to perform at the ArtsCape Theatre back in Cape Town.

Daffodil (me), Cinderella and Violet arriving at King Shaka Airport in Durban for SABC TV

After our performances finished on Christmas Eve, I spent the holiday weekend with a friend from the company and his family. It was interesting to experience a South African Christmas. Even though I had spent the holidays in a warm climate before (I lived in Orlando 2005-09) it was nothing compared to celebrating during the middle of summer: 110F degree weather, swimming in the pool all day, drinking whiskey and diet coke, trying to speak Afrikaans to my friends drunk uncle, Going to the beach on Boxing Day. Needless to say, I was pretty sunburnt.

We were back in the theatre 2 days later staging our next production “Night and Day: A Tribute to Cole Porter” a jazz ballet based on the life, and set to the songs of the composer Cole Porter. We had opening night on New Year’s Eve, and after the performance a group of us had a Braai (barbeque) at one of the dancer’s house in Llandudno overlooking the ocean, Beautiful.

‘Night and Day’ had a pretty successful run, and very good reviews. And once we had finished at ArtsCape we had a month of weekend performances on an outdoor stage in the Wynberg suburb of Cape Town.

So In Love from 'Night and Day' with Celeste George

I absolutely loved performing outside. Having a summer breeze cool you down after dancing is an amazing feeling. There were quite a few hilarious moments when the girls would be screaming due to a large spider falling from the overhead trees onto somebody’s shoulder.

Sunday February 20^th came around, my final show with the company. It was pretty bittersweet, I would miss the amazing weather and a lot of my fellow dancers, but I had a calling to go back to the states, and Cape Town just didn’t feel like home. Later that night, glasses were raised, toasts were made and tears were shed. But by that point I was looking forward to the next chapter in my life: Audition season in New York!

Standing on top of Table Mountain with my old roomies Jon and Alex

1st Blog!

Hi everybody!

So I finally decided to start a blog, I honestly have no idea what it will be about, hopefully I’ll think of interesting things…

Enjoy!