Class was decent tonight.   Or, rather, class was great, and I was decent.  My balances and développés are coming along.

Sometimes my core fell apart at the barre (usually when I was really concentrating on using my feet).   Sometimes my arms got confused doing pirouettes.  Sometimes I did nice pirouettes.   This is becoming a pattern.

My petit allegro is getting better, provided I count correctly (see below).   Tawnee likes to give us combinations that end with assemblé, assemblé, assemblé, assemblé.  Those can get interesting.   I have to look at pictures in my mind what that should look like before we do it again.

I rather fell apart doing little jumps.  I blame math class.   Clearly, I used up all my numerical faculties this morning in precalc.  I could do the jumps, obviously, but apparently I couldn’t count to four at the same time.   This was worse than usual.  Counting is hard for squids, you guys.

That said, going across the floor, I thought my big jumps looked pretty good.   They get rather better when we’re instructed to travel – then I remember to use my plié and my working leg automagically kicks itself higher.  Amazing.

I’m still all about saying “Damn the torpedoes!” and going in the first group. Sometimes I don’t have the combination down perfectly (“Oh!   There’s another sauté arabesque!  Who knew?!”), but I strap on my imaginary super-cape and go like I have it down cold. 

In the process, I’ve found that if you don’t stop to look sheepish when you forget a step, you will generally remember the next step and you can just roll on.   I should have already figured this out by now (it’s, like, the first rule of all performing arts: if you make a mistake, just keep going like nothing happened).

I guess the goal is to improve incrementally every day, and I think I might actually be succeeding.  Taking class three days per week really helps.  I am very much looking forward to next semester, when I hope to up the ante to five days per week (I’m guessing one will have to be a conditioning class or plays or something, since there are no ballet classes Tuesday, Thursday, or Sunday*).

So that’s all for tonight’s class.   I have an ocean of homework and housework and finances for the next two days, so radio silence will likely follow until Saturday, when we will be doing class and then going to see Giselle.  I’ve heard our new AD is pretty creative, so I’m looking forward to that.

Notes
*Except company class?