Adult Ballerina Project Ballerina Writer Program

Up until now, I haven’t really had a formal contributors program, I’ve just had people submit ideas via email when they think of them. We’ve gotten a lot of great pieces this way and I’ve had quite a few regular contributors write for the blog over the past couple of years.

However, I’m looking develop even more of a base of regular writers.

Like all of the other writing for Adult Ballerina Project, I still, unfortunately cannot pay for submissions from contributors (I don’t make any money myself on this project).

How The Program Will Work

About once a month, writers will receive an email from me asking for pitches on future posts for Adult Ballerina Project. As long as the idea fits with the blog and hasn’t been done before, I’ll ask you to write a post about it.

I don’t expect everyone to pitch or write every month, but my hope is that these writers can make a very loose commitment to writing about every three months (I’ll of course, be very happy if you can write more than that!).

However, you won’t get kicked from the writers group if you don’t submit something once every three months.

Who Can Join?

Anyone! Writers who haven’t yet been interviewed for an ABP profile will be asked to do so. You’ll also get a bio and description on the contributors page. Fill out this form to sign-up.

Not interested in the program, but still have an idea you want to write about? Send me an email at adultballerinaproject@gmail.com.

We’ll also potentially have a formal internship in the summer for ten weeks (details still to come). However, if you’re interested in doing an internship in the spring or summer, send me an email at adultballerinaproject@gmail.com.

Things Have Been A Little Crazy Around Here…

…but I’ve still been going to ballet, more than I used to. I just haven’t had time to write about it. But it’s been going really well. I’ve finally been able to go to class consistently, which has made me feel a lot stronger than I have been. I also finally feel like I’m starting to get some of my flexibility back.

My feet still seem really weak — although my calves seem really strong — so I really need to keep working on therabanding and other foot strengthening exercises.

I haven’t really been running as much, besides a race and a fun run in late September and early October. Here’s a photo from the fun run on a new boardwalk on the river here:FullSizeRender (2)

I plan on starting to run more now that things are slowing down a bit and recent things have given me a bit more of inspiration to start running some more, including the boardwalk opening and reading What I Think About When I Think About Running by Haruki Murakami. I plan on starting super slow again, to be extra careful.

Other things we’ve been up to:

A trip to the Baltimore aquarium where my friend got engaged:FullSizeRender

Working a fair for college students with work:FullSizeRender (1)

Art Museum trip with my friends (channeling Rocky here):

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#AdultBallerinas Can Dance!

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One of only three photos I’ve ever shared of me dancing.

We put in hours upon hours of dance a week and many of us take 3, 4 or 5 classes a week–yet we rarely share photos or videos of us actually doing it–myself included. That’s part of the reason I request photos of dancers when I interview them, so that readers can put a face to the dancer.

Kudos to those who already share photos AND videos of yourselves dancing, I deeply admire you. But I want to see more. We can encourage others to dance by sharing more and more photos and videos of us dancing, and I’d love to share them all on Adult Ballerina Project to show just how strong the adult ballerina community is!

Here’s how:

Starting Friday, November 29th (the day after Thanksgiving) post your photos and videos of you dancing (ballet or any other form of dance) on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Vine using the hashtag #adultballerinas. Then each Friday until January 3rd, I’ll post a weekly recap of your photos and videos posted throughout the week.

Don’t have a social media account or prefer to e-mail photos? You’ll be able to e-mail photos to adultballerinaproject@gmail.com to participate too!

Not enough incentive yet? Over the next few weeks I’ll be looking for rewards to giveaway to those who participate, but for now I’m still on the hunt for prize ideas–if you have an idea of what would make a great prize or know someone who’d like to donate something for the contest, let me know!

Thank you to http://politefrivolity.blogspot.com/ for sparking the idea!

 

Poll: What Dance do you do?

Adult Ballerina Project is curious, what kind of dance do you do? What type of dance do you watch? What type of dance are you interested in?

Homemade Protein Bars and Fuel

Last week, I mentioned some of my favorite dance and running fuel. Unfortunately, some of those can get quite expensive (paying 2-3 dollars per bar or gels can add up in a hurry). Another issue arises: many of us have allergies and intolerances (I may or may not–I’m not sure–have a slight soy intolerance). While I’ve been able to find many bars and supplements that meet my needs, they often come with a high price tag. So over the next few weeks, I’m looking to try some new recipes to make my own homemade bars. Here are some of the recipes I’m looking at:

homemade protein bars via Healthy Green Kitchen

I love the sounds of these, and that they use coconut oil and Greek yogurt!

Homemade Peanut Butter Protein Bars via Chocolate Covered Katie

These looked really, really simple. They also seem to have the same consistency as real food barre and other similar bars–and while I’m not the hugest fan of it, it does make the bars easy to eat. I also love that they don’t have huge chunks of nuts, because sometimes I want something that is nut-free.

Quick ‘n Easy No-Bake Protein Bars by oh she glows

These look absolutely delicious, and I love that they include rice crisp cereal and chocolate, which will be perfect when I want something desert-like but also want to get in some protein as well!

If you have any suggestions or any recipes (or dietary guidelines) that you’d like me to test out, let me know! I’d love to know what recipes you’ve found work really well (or not so well). I’m also on the hunt for a yummy baked oatmeal recipe after my last one horribly failed.

Do you buy or make your own protein bars? Why?