Tonight my work at the barre was largely pretty good (except the odd moment of OMGWTFBBQ during a frappé combination) and my work at center was … um. My adagio was awkward, my turns were mostly horrible (with a few good ones). The little jumps went well, though. The little jumps always go well. I could do little jumps until tomorrow morning*. I mostly even counted them correctly. Mostly.

My turns were horrible, though, for the right reason — not because I wasn’t working, but because I was: working, and thinking about stuff, and trying to get things coordinated. And sometimes thinking a little too much.

Basically, my heels don’t like to touch the ground when I’m preparing for a turn. I do this weird boingy thing off the supporting leg. I get through the turns, but they don’t look great, and if I would do it right, I should have basically no trouble doing doubles and stuff.

So then I start thinking about getting my heels on the floor, and everything else goes to hell in a handbasket.

Keep hands and feet inside the vehicle until the ride comes to a full and complete stop.

So that’s my goal for this week: stop turning like a half-baked gymnast.

I am getting better at being upright and not tipped over backwards, and at keeping my collarbones open and my sternum lifted and my shoulders down instead of scrunched up around my ears. My arms have decided that they get to dance, too, which is good. For a long time, I had to think about adding arms to barre and floor combinations; now I have to concentrate on not using them when Brienne doesn’t want them.

In other news, I came out of this class feeling strong (if hot: once again, I left class looking like I’d showered in my ballet kit). So there’s that. And, also, I ate a ton of vegetables today. So yay!

Notes
*The only disconcerting thing about little jumps is that sometimes one suddenly wonders mid-combination if one’s dance belt is adjusted correctly, and if one didn’t just feel it shift. Sometimes one panics just a wee bit.