En manège:
Temps levée arabesque
Balancé turn
Temps levée arabesque
Balancé turn
Pique turn
Pique turn
Temps levée arabesque
Balancé turn
Temps levée arabesque
Balancé turn
Chaînes x4
Temps levée arabesque
Balancé turn
Temps levée arabesque
Balancé turn
Those coupé half-turns whose name escapes me
Temps levée arabesque
Run away so second group can go, but make sure you’re spaced so you can re-enter on the next pass

Petit Allegro:
Glissade (no change)
Jeté
Glissade (no change)
Jeté
Glissade (no change)
Jeté
Pas de bourré
Entrechat quatre
Other side

Other Petit Allegro:
Sissone simple avant
Sissone simple arrière
Tombe
Coupe
Glissade
Assemblé (battu if you like)
Other side

I didn’t do as well with choreography today as I expected to — I attribute this to Denis’ nightbear.
Yes, that’s -bear rather than -mare. He dreamed a giant bear was hovering inches from his face and woke with a loud shout. That cost me two hours of sleep, and I was slow getting started this morning and didn’t eat or drink enough before class. The end result was weak petit allegro (edit: because I ran out of steam; and I should say “weaker-than-usual;” my petit allegro has only recently started being reliable in Wednesday and Saturday class again).

On the other hand, Ms. B gave me a ton of really good direction at barre — she’s really working on making an expressive dancer out of me, and it’s working far better than I had expected.

Addendum: there was this really awesome moment during one of the exercises when she was correcting my port de bras and epaulement and said something like, “Open that chest — really show that you’re strong — proud!” and I responded by channeling the frack out of my inner Ballet Prince, to which she said, “Yes!”

In ballet class, “Yes!” can mean so, so much.

She also gave me a modification on our centre adagio – my knee wasn’t hurting, but I didn’t want to push it, so she suggested that I substitute a penché in place of a promenade on that side.

Because I was the only guy in class and standing in the center of the group, I think it looked rather cool; rather intentional.

The challenges are timing my penché so I arrived back at the vertex just as the ladies completed their promenade and keeping the penché fluid and lyrical (which is harder when you’re tired, evidently!). It was cool; I enjoyed having the opportunity to think about timing and musicality that way.

I think my penché was a tad stiff on the first run, but it came together beautifully on the second.

This week I’m working on keeping my core together while maintaining a fluid, expressive relaxation in my upper body. These are the details that I both enjoy immensely and find quite challenging.

Anyway, I’ve almost reached the grocery store, so I’d better close. We have something at Suspend tonight, but I didn’t recall precisely what.

À bientôt, mes amis!