Another Late Night
I realized this morning that the Acro 2/Killer Class turnaround is going to be tough.
I was definitely pretty stiff this morning at the start of barre — the kind of stiff you feel when you’ve spent the previous day helping a friend rearrange some furniture or something.
My Achilles’ tendons took longer to loosen up than my hip flexors — my calves in general felt like bricks through almost the whole barre. They did finally loosen up for fondu, heh.
My analysis? Moar stretching after Acro 2! And moar warm-up time before Killer Class. I ran way late this morning; squeaked in under the wire — 3 minutes left before the start of class. Definitely did not get a chance to get get the blood flowing! (FWIW, my usual routine, currently, it’s it’s just passé-par-terre followed by attitude swings and, if time allows, a light stretch for the calves.If I’m really, really early, I tend to pace around the studio, looking like I’m ready to go for a jog in mid-December.
Anyway, things were mixed today: you know that thing where you scare the crap out of of yourself by actually doing good turns, and then panic on the second side? That was me all all the way.
I’ll take that, though, because adagio was good and our choose-your-own-adventure grand allegro started out a little rough but then magically clicked on the second run.
Every now and then, I forget to panic when doing saut-de-chat, and then I actually do them well. That happened today: first run, I did:
Zig: tombé, pas de bourré, glissade, pas de chat;
Zag: tombé, pas de bourré, glissade, pas de chat Italien
… And the landing on the Gatto was a bit abrupt.
The second time, I didn’t even think about it; I was just focused on getting more travel in my glissade — and for some reason I finished with a saut de chat that felt light, quick, and free.
Looking back, I think it was at this same time last year that I despaired of ever achieving lightness (except in my pas de chat, which, oddly, has always been light) and quickness. Now they happen sometimes as of by magic in completely unexpected places.
All of the trip prep is now done. If we’ve missed anything, we’ll either have to live without it or pick up a replacement in Nevada.
In five hours we’ll be off and running.
Posted on 2016/08/18, in balllet and tagged grand allegro, lightness, my legs are full of cement, well at least they're not full of ground glass this time. Bookmark the permalink. 2 Comments.
danseur ignoble 
Pas de chats were literally the last thing Miss Ballet hit us with. After assemblé-soutenus (mmm, I like, by the way).
Also, I had a chat to Mark the Inappropriate Pianist about his choices. We did our achingly slow chassé/arabesque adage to something that sounded a lot like Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos). This is after barre with Leonard Cohen (Dance me to the end of love) and a turns variation with “Who’s Got the Last Laugh Now”. I’ve known the song since forever, I think originally Ewan McColl’s version. So yes, feel the desperate sadness and vicious rage and…
***Miss Ballet says: AAAND REACHING FORWARD!***…
I 1st arabesque like a bastard. I’m feeling it. Push up to demi pointe. And rip into the 4th with a dev devant. And the ironically light balancés. And crank right out for the 3rd A.
But it turns out Mark doesn’t know the song. So I and another dancer get him to play it, and sing the first verse (the Skytrain caught fire over Los Gatos county..) and the chorus (all they will call you will be…deportees). It fits; it’s the tune after all. Huh, he says, I know it as an English folk song, and that’s it.
So I looked it up. Turns out Woody Guthrie meant it as a poem, and a folkie schoolteacher from New York set it to music. This makes sense; he presumably plagiarised, er, borrowed, er, adapted a traditional air to the words. Did a good job though.
Only one problem in this story: I’m also thinking of Ultra Naté. You want it? You want it? Reach for it! Also, so many fellow students claim they didn’t notice Mark; a couple said they only notice the music in modern :sickbrn: