Exams Are Coming

Now that March is here, the time spent in all of my classes is now fully devoted to preparation for our coming exams. The exams are spread throughout April and May, the exact dates depending on the class and level. In general (and speaking primarily about the sixth through ninth classes), the exams for the students in the highest level (ninth class) take place earliest and those for each level below that happen successively later, though there is still overlap between them; I am in the eighth class and will have my first exam a couple weeks before my friend from the sixth class, and when I finish my last exam, she will still have two more to go. For each level, usually the modern exam is the first to take place, followed by the classical ballet exam, then the exams for duet, character, and acting.

My class has less than a month until our modern exam and exactly five weeks before our ballet exam, so we are busy with preparations for each one. We have just two modern classes each week, so every minute of time in class has to be wisely spent. My ballet teacher scheduled практика (pronounced "practica," essentially extra class time that can be used for rehearsal, pointe class, etc.) almost every day this week so that we would have more time to work on our exam combinations. That, combined with the increasing frequency of our rehearsals for the international students' concert in May (which will take place less than a week after my last exam), has left me rather exhausted, but I like our exam combinations and the pieces that I am rehearsing for the concert, so it's a good sort of tired to be!