Intermediate class at the Joffrey tonight: really nice barre, lovely adagio (which went surprisingly well), then increasingly complex traveling combinations.

I felt like I generally had my waterfowls in a linear array during barre, with the exception of an occasional hiccup or two — like the one where our instructor, Ms. S, called out the direction of a turn and I froze because suddenly I was thinking about whether or not I was turning the right way. That said, I succeeded in doing turns at a double barre without cracking my knee on the lower barre, which is a first.

I’m not sure how to describe how this class compares with our Intermediate class at home, overall: the barre was very comparable, if not as long and just plain physically hard as Brienne’s. The adagio was also comparable; it felt eminently doable, but I think that’s just because I suck way, way less at adagio than I used to.

The traveling stuff, meanwhile, started out comparable, then ramped up a bit, then a bit more.

I didn’t feel like the final combination, which I bombed magnificently (and failed to finish in the left side because I thought we were done) was comparable to anything we’ve done in our classes at home — it was quite long, quite complex, and involved grands assemblés en tournants.

Which I can actually do, but apparently not while remembering, like, any other step in a combination.

To be fair, I could neither see or hear Ms. S when she was giving the combination (this class was delightfully huuuuuuuge), and knew I didn’t have it when we marked it, and yet, for some reason, I didn’t speak up. Still not sure what that was about.

So, anyway. In short, as always, if you’re in Chicago, just go do class at the Joffrey. You might get pushed a bit past the edges of your comfort zone, but it will be worth it.