We had a guest instructor, E, today; a dancer who is one of my longstanding favorites. He gave us a challenging class, and as a group I think we really rose to the occasion quite well*.

*Okay, except maybe for the part where I kept doing glissade-assemblé instead of glissade changée – glissade changée at the beginning of one combination (fixed it on the repeat).

And the other part where I did a single tour at the end of our medium allegro and forgot to change my feet because I don’t even know why; I did it right on the first side. No idea what was going on, there. #ThanksObama, I guess?)

His policy, it turns out, is to teach to the most advanced student in class and let everyone else catch up. I really like that approach; it forces me to work outside my comfort zone. The most advanced student in class today was one of the new guys from the company, and he was freaking beautiful, so the barre was pretty high indeed.

The end result of this was this amazing moment at the end of class in which B said to me, in the midst of a conversation, “…And your double attitude turn!”

And I replied, “Oh! I’m so glad that really happened. I was afraid I imagined it.”

Seriously, I really did wonder about it, because since when** do I have a double attitude turn?

**Apparently, since today (#ThanksObama for reals? :D)?

Our adagio involved attitude turns (which I lurve; attitude is my best balance, for whatever reason, followed by various arabesques, passé/retiré, and finally coupé), and I remember thinking, “Huh, that felt like a double,” and just going on because otherwise I would’ve been late and it was too pretty an enchaînement to mess up by being late.

Guessing I pretty much looked like this for the rest of the combination, though.

So apparently it felt like a double because it was a double***, and I suspect that happened because E had us all seriously tuned up and on our legs. He also demonstrated the arms really clearly when giving each combination, which helped immensely.

***Dangit, why couldn’t someone have been video-ing this?!

In other news, I was not a squid today even for a moment, which is still a bleeding miracle if you ask me, because our combinations were very, very dance-y. In short, they looked like something you’d see on stage with fancy tutus and stuff … so, in short, there were lots of arms. And heads. And épaulement all over the place. And “make sure the audience can see both your shoulders and both your hips!”

What does this guy think we are? Dancers?

Oh, right.

On the downside, my petit allegro is STILL FREAKING SLOW. Which I guess it will be for a while; it’s improving slowly. Which, I suppose, is how such things improve.

On the other hand, I seem to have regained my petit battement, possibly through sheer intimidation.