Category Archives: class notes
Ballet Intensive, Day 4: In Which I Forget To Eat
(And then can’t stay asleep, either.)
Yesterday, I ate an early lunch, dithered around for a while (in the process remembering why I don’t bother with shopping malls even as places to take a walk when it’s abominably humid out), then transferred myself over to the hotel (which, alas, does not have a pool after all).
I then arranged my stuff, watched some videos of Albrecht’s variation, wrote a post about it and forgot to post it (hence the after-class posting), collected my dance junk, and finally rolled downtown just in time to be an hour early for class.
You’ll notice that I don’t mention food any time after lunch. You can guess why.
As such, technique class was … um. Interesting.
Things started out well, but by the time we got around to turns, I was feeling bonky. Not, mind you, bonk*ers* — I’m pretty sure that’s a normal state of affairs for me.
Rather, I was having issues with turns because my legs just didn’t want to passé — not at all a normal state of affairs; normally snapping right up to passé is one of the things I actually do well (my challenge in turns is a tendency to throw my head back).
Basically, my legs just didn’t want to go — and there was something remarkably familiar about the sensation.
That’s when it hit me: I was bonking like a Cat 5 climbing Alp D’Huez. Basically, I was out of gas. (In other news, balancés while bonking are hilarious, as is pas de bourée — “drunk step,” indeed.)
Between technique and variations I ate a granola bar with enough free sugar to get things ticking over again. Unfortunately, it was one of the caffeinated ones that Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time (what could possibly go wrong?). As such, I’ve been sleeping in dribs and drabs, alternately dreaming that I’m not asleep (which is incredibly annoying) and dreaming about Albrecht’s variation, whereupon I wake myself up trying to jump.
In my sleep.
Whilst lying face down.
You guys, that is no kind of way to cabriole (especially not avant).
Anyway, Variations involved a whole lot of marking coupled to a few impressive cabrioles. In sum, after running the duo three times, I blew my booster rockets on the first phrase of Albrecht’s variation.
Not my best day, though Mr. J remarked that I have the musicality down, and that first cabriole-assemblé-Sissone might actually have been worth it, because it was sufficiently high and light that it rather startled me.
The rest, however, was a bunch of flaily marking, though at least I was marking the right things at the right times.
Fortunately, I don’t have to go anywhere today until 11:30, when I’m wandering back to Louisville to collect Denis, so I can basically continue to attempt cabrioles in my sleep until 11 if push comes to shove.
Tonight will be our final full evening, and C and I promised that we would finally show the ladies our variations, so it should be fun. We’ll either knock their socks off or kill ourselves trying (or both — after all, dying at the end whilst surrounded by ghostly ladies is totally valid, and they are doing “Kingdom of the Shades,” which is at least kinda-sorta ghostly, though I think the Shades probably have a better deal than the Wilis).
Still going to try to hit at least one double cabriole, preferably in the second cabriole-assemblé-Sissone in that first phrase, because I think that makes more sense. The Wilis are like, “Dance!” and you’re like, “But it’s the middle of the night and I don’t see any champagne!” and then they’re like, “NO, SRSLY, DANCE!!!” And you’re like, “Dear G-d, my legs, what are they doing?”
Sorry, Albrecht — apparently, guilty get have way too much rhythm (but you’re still never gonna dance again, not if Mertha has her way).
Ballet Intensive, Day 3
Last night, conditioning class was tough —Ms. A2 opened with a gentle warm-up that lulled us all into complacency, then whipped out the most-demanding Pilates workout I’ve done to date.
I spent the brief break before technique class pacing the studio to keep my muscles warm; between that and the flexibility work we did in conditioning, I had increasingly awesome turnout throughout barre and good extensions. I’ve been remembering to stretch my piriformis, which has been helping with my splits.
Double turns were reliably on tap for turns and terre-a-terre (a lovely waltzy thing with sweeping ronds) and I had good entrechats during petit allegro, although I had to battle muscle memory to keep from doing a similar combination we do frequently at home.
I might overturn my ruling about triple turns tonight, because I’d like to tune them up for variations, if I can.
After the second break, we ran Albrecht a bunch of times, then revisited our duo, then returned to Albrecht. We’re now really polishing both. I substituted contretemps where I’d just been stepping over myself in one passage and added double turns where they fit, though if we perform the duo, I probably won’t do them unless C does. We are, after all, supposed to be mirroring of one-another, not show-boating!
Albrecht-wise, since I now have the opening pose-step-chassée-cabriole-assemblée-Sissone sequence down, I’ll see tonight if I can work double cabs in. I’m still not 100% sure I can even do them reliably, but it would be awesome to be able to pull them out on Saturday.
I should also figure out how I want to finish Albrecht’s variation — there are some options. Right now I’m doing a turn from fourth to second to the knee (which I think I should finish effacé but with my shoulders opened back to stage left, since that would leave me facing our imaginary Giselle, for whom I’m theoretically doing this entire dance?).
I plan to watch some versions of the variation on YouTube and collect some ideas.
Mr. J got my arms sorted on a part of Albrecht’s variation about which I’d somehow confused myself and improved my tour-to-the-knee (a definite in the duo and an option for Albrecht), which I’d been doing awkwardly — tour, land on two feet, rond de jambe to knee. He demonstrated it and I realized that it’s cleaner if you pick up the leg that will be in back before you land the tour.
I also want to see if I can swing a double tour before I go home — I had a respectable 1.5 last night, which is progress, although not incredibly useful.
Ballet Intensive Day 2: Albrechts, Pluriel
Yesterday, after a conditioning class in which I one again reflected on my gratitude for the grueling classes I take at Suspend and a technique class in which I had less-than-great balances but oh-my-G-d extensions and a fantastic time in terre-a-terre and grand allegro, our men’s class of two nailed down the rest of our first variation.
Mr. J then asked if we’d like to learn something else, and C requested something slower with beats — and so we found ourselves learning Albrecht’s variation (a little simplified, but not terribly so) from Gisele.
I had to mark my way through for the most part, as my right leg was feeling a little strain-y and I didn’t want to risk aggravating it, but I think I’m going to enjoy it immensely. Anything that opens with a lyrical croisée presentation and leaps immediately into cabriole avant is essentially right up my alley.
Also means we get to do a zillion tours en l’air, which I almost never get to do at home since we only very rarely do men’s technique.
So I’m quite excited about that, and it looks like we might perform Albrecht’s variation individually instead of the first one together.
Other exciting developments are taking place at home in my absence, which is lovely, though evidently my cat is extremely confused about my absence and keeps sort of despairingly loafing about, waiting for me to return. Poor kitty!
Anyway, I think I’ll come home from this week a better and more polished dancer than I arrived, which is the whole point.
Tonight I’ll probably keep my leg wrapped just in case, though I’ll see how it feels.
Ballet Intensive Dispatch: Day 1
This week involves four hours of class in the evening, so I suspect I’ll mostly report in the morning.
Yesterday, after a great class with Ms. T of Advanced Class, I took B out for a celebratory lunch, then dithered around buying the things I had meant to buy already but forgot, then hopped into my trusty Subaru and drove to Lexington.
After a near-miraculous parking space appeared (in which I parallel-parked like a boss), I snagged a tiny salad at a nearby Panera*, crammed it into my face, and wandered back to ArtsPlace, where the Ballet makes its home.
A quick aside: under most circumstances, I wouldn’t recommend “tiny salad” as the ideal energy source for four hours of conditioning and dancing. I was still feeling fairly stuffed after my enormous lunch calzone, which I nearly finished.
As a fueling strategy for this particular schedule, “Huge lunch; light supper” works brilliantly. I think, though, that I will also bring a light snack to eat before rep tonight.
We’re a group of fifteen or twentyish, and I am not The Onliest Boy this time — there are two of us, both fairly well matched in terms of technique and ability, though quite different in build (C is much more Hallbergian than I, and also a head taller).
Class began with an hour of Pilates-based conditioning led by Ms. A1. I spent the hour reflecting on how grateful I am for the conditioning we do at Suspend, without which I might very well have silently wept through most of the hour in question.
After a brief break (and a small wrestling match with my dance belt — I wore the oldest one, which is now slightly too big, which in turn frankly boggles my mind), we proceeded to technique class with Mr. J.
He explained that he’d be giving a fairly basic class so he and Ms. A could get a sense of where we were as dancers.
He kept his word, but it was still a very good class — I enjoyed his barre, centre, and adagio combinations, felt good about turns and terre-a-terre, and the tempo of the petit allegro (simply: glissade – assemblé, glissade – assemblé, glissade – changement – changement -changement) was such that, instead of being an ongoing train wreck, I got to show off some beats here and there.
It was also such that I didn’t crash and burn when I discovered the inevitable slippery spot on the floor.
I enjoyed the heck out of our medium allegro — the famous sauté arabesque/sauté passé that I love so ridiculously – and added cabrioles because everything needs more cabrioles.
Grand allegro was equally pleasant, and for once my saut de chat was fully functional, if a bit Third Reich-ish about the arms at times. Of course, there was also pas de chat, which is, at the moment, the joy of my existence.
After another brief break, we divided by gender for variations/repertory. Mr. J gave the two of us a lively, vigorous dance based on Petipa, with just enough bravura to make it shine but not so much that we won’t be able to master it by Saturday. I’m enjoying it immensely, even though it took me the entire class period to get my head around the fact that I’m supposed to do my first turn more or less backwards.
It should make one heck of an interesting foil to the ladies’ piece — the famous entrance scene from “The Kingdom of the Shades.”
We got to see their piece (which was totally unfair to them, as we didn’t show them ours!) and I was quite impressed with how well they had it down, this being only the first night, and theirs being a much larger group with a much greater range of skill. The moments that always give me chills succeeded in doing exactly that. I can’t wait to see the final performance!
I’m much less stressed-out about rep here than I was in Cinci. First, it’s ballet, which is my “mother tongue,” so it’s simply easier to memorize. Second, it’s a shorter piece than we did, and I don’t think there will be as much adding of a whole new scene on the day before the performance!
I feel like we’ll have our piece not only learned, but well-polished, on Saturday.
Funny little sidebar: in class, I noticed that C was wearing white shoes and I was wearing black ones.
Does that make me the bad guy? 😀
Monday Class #1: Ballet Sans Adderall
So, I have discovered that, sans Adderall (which I neglected to take this morning), l I am not quite as good at picking up combinations, and less likely to fix myself on the second side.
We had a lovely terre-a-terre that began with two sets of waltz turns, and I kept skipping the second set, which then threw everything else off.
I feel that I should probably take my Adderall before I drive halfway across the state, perhaps. It might be helpful.
Skipped all the jumps this morning in an effort to be tuned up but not tired this evening.
À bientôt!
Saturday Class: Did That Really Just Happen?
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.
Thursday! Class with Company B
A quick note on Company B’s nickname: it says nothing about his ability has a dancer. He’s good; very, very good, in fact. It just so happens that he dances for the company and his name begins with B, and I know too many people whose names begin with B, and it amuses me to think of him having his very own boogie-woogie bugle boy, so voilà — “Company B” he is, until I come up with something better.
Moving right along!
Tonight I decided to skip out on acro and sub in an extra ballet class in the interest of being well tuned-up for next week’s intensive.
Company B teaches a very basic class on Thursday evenings, and although he was worried that B and I would probably be bored out of our skulls, I am firmly of the opinion that as long as the instruction is good, no class is too simple.
In short, the basics are the foundations of technique, and everyone can always stand to improve them. That’s the great thing about ballet (okay, also the terrible thing) — since perfection is essentially impossible, you can work on everything forever.
As such, I was quite happy to work on pretty basic material, because it gave me time to really fastidiously apply all the updates I’ve been working on installing, so to speak — tight at the upper thighs in sous-sus; working the outer limits of my turnout consistently; really getting the knees back in frappé avant; doing stupid things with my arms as rarely as possible; using my épaulement; actually looking at the audience (or, in this case, the mirror). The idea was to use this time to refine my technique.
I’d like to say I acquitted myself quite nicely, in fact. Company B gave me a couple of notes on my épaulement that I applied with success. You guys, it is really nice to experience unequivocal success in ballet.
I also finally managed to de-tangle my waltz turns. I think maybe I’ve been doing them right for a while, but I didn’t understand the difference between the right version and the wrong version. Possibly I was putting the brush in the wrong spot, before?
Anyway, Company B was introducing the waltz turn tonight, so he explained them very thoroughly, à la Mr. Beastmode’s explanation of balancé. This got my legs sufficiently de-tangled that I could think about making my arms do nice things, which was great.
We had some nice combinations — simple, but musical, like:
From B+ with Working Leg Back –
Step through – Chasse
Pas de Bourree to Fifth
En Dehors Pirouette*
Fourth allongé
Repeat first phrase two more times
Pivot/detourne to Fourth
Soutenu turn
Soutenu turn straight into sous-sus
Sous-sus balance (with expressive arms, because seriously, it’s not that hard)
*The girl who went with in the front of the first group me had doubles as well, so we both tossed them in. I didn’t try for triples because that just seemed like show-boating, which is just obnoxious in a beginners’ class.
I kept wanting to put in an en dedans turn from fourth after the pivot, since that’s basically a defining trait of Louisville Ballet’s choreography and we do it allllla taimz in class, but I managed not to do that and not to wind up behind the music in my efforts to prevent it. I did wind up pointing to the wrong corner at one point, so I just sort of added a rond de jambe into the first soutenu and basically acted like nothing happened 😛
Company B seemed quite happy with my interpretation and musicality and particularly seemed pleased with my execution of the balance from a performance aspect. I was, in turn, quite happy about that, since he’s one of the instructors who’s aware of my goals concerning dance.
After class he said he was glad to have us in class, hoped we weren’t completely bored (we weren’t!), and mentioned that it was good for the rest of the students to have people in class who could show them how things were supposed to look 😀
That felt like a nice vote of confidence, especially coming from a danseur who I admire immensely. Seriously, the first time he came to Saturday class with us, my insides were all like:
Shamelessly stolen … erm, borrowed … from JazzWax.com.
Meanwhile, my outsides were all like:
The fact that this picture was just out there on the internets and also already a meme just makes me go, “LOLwut?” Nonetheless, seems apropos.
Since then, though, I have discovered that, in addition to being a really fabulously amazing dancer (seriously, this was the guy whose pas de deux I described as “a masterclass in partnering”) and disgustingly good-looking, Company B is also a really lovely, sweet, humble human being.
Doesn’t hurt, either, that he’s one of those dancers who love dancing and he really seems to enjoy helping other dancers learn how to dance better.
So that was tonight’s class. We closed with a little saute-arabesque/saute-passe combination, which I enjoyed immensely. I doubt I will ever, ever tire of that combination, even though it’s really simple.
So, there you have it. I will definitely hit up Company B’s class again any time my schedule allows for it.
G’night, everybody.
Wednesday Class: Lift from Beneath
Today during fondus at the barre, I had an illuminating experience.
I’m much better now at remembering to lift my legs into développé (or straight extension) from behind and beneath, but for some reason on the first développé (in this case, développé avant) my quads decided that they wanted a turn.
The result was a développé that required immense effort and stopped at 90 degrees.
Fortunately, there were multiple développés to each direction in this exercise, and I caught it and fixed it on the next pass.
What a revelation! The next développé was both easier and higher.
(Now, if I can just convince my feet to point reliably when my quads are relaxed 😛 Of late, they tend towards a kind of lazy point — and there is no excuse for that, I have good feet and should, in the grand tradition of ballet, show them off.)
I don’t know that I’ve ever managed this particular self-correction as consciously or effectively as I did today. It was exciting; a real “Eureka!” moment. I guess it made the difference between knowing rationally and really knowing.
Petit allegro, meanwhile, continued to be a disaster — this time because my legs didn’t want to temp de cuisse in the right directions. They kept trying to sproing the wrong way.
Ah, well — that’s ballet for you. It’s like bike touring: you get to the top of the hill only to see that beyond it is … another giant hill.
Anyway. Moar stuff to practice at home.
On the other hand, I got the Sissone combination with arms this time (thanks in no small part to the girl in front of me; thanks, random girl I’ve never met before — she carried her arms with such clarity that I sort of suddenly realized what I was doing wrong with mine :P).
Grand allegro was mostly good, except the part in which I subbed pas de chat for saut de chat on the first side. That’s just my brain for you. I was able to correct it on going left.
The former AD has been observing our class lately and today I felt that I acquitted myself acceptably well.
I’m used to seeing him now; the first couple of times I noticed that he’d appeared at our window I got flustered. At this point, though, he’s seen me dance basically as badly as I’m able to, so now things can only improve.
Also, I only knocked myself off my leg once in adagio today, and that’s because I had the counts wrong on the développé before the penché and thus was late rushed it. Lesson learned: don’t rush into penché.
So that’s it for now. Tomorrow I’m doing an extra class with Company B, so I shall attempt to report back on that.
Monday Class: Just Dance
Class went well today.
I arrived early, and Dr. K (who made my week last time we were in class together) and I chatted for a while. Apparently she did very much intend to compare me to Nureyev, so I am now even more flattered — evidently I remind her of Nureyev both in build and in the way I dance — my attack, jumps, expressivité, plastique, and movement style. Um. Wow?*
She added, “And you have that beautiful arabesque. His wasn’t as high as yours.”
o_______O’
I told her how helpful her comment had been. It has really helped change how I think about my limitations as a dancer — Nureyev had similar limitations, and he was one of the greatest dancers ever. The thing is to accept one’s limitations and work to ameliorate them while making the most of one’s strengths.
Anyway.
Barre today looked fairly good. There were a couple of moments that I reverted to a similar combination from Saturday’s class, but I caught myself (and laughed at myself, as Dorky Dancing reminds us to do, instead of getting mad).
Adagio was iffy on the first side because I was confused about the counts, but fine thereafter. My penché is improving again; in tour lent (AKA promenade; it’s promenade in partnered work) coming out of penché, I need to remember to carry my opposite shoulder more.
Basically, in order to hold the body together, the opposite shoulder spirals toward the working leg. This is exactly the same as it is in arabesque (and everything else), but it takes a little more actual doing. Of late, my body wants to spiral over as if in a modern-dance-y slow fouetté, so I need to really watch that.
Doing turns terre-a-terre, I managed a triple; should’ve aimed for more, but chickened out. Next time. The combination was:
Tombé
Pas de Bourré
Fourth
En Dehors
Repeat Twice
Detourné
Prepare Fourth
En Dedans
Pique Turn x4
It fit about 1.75 times across the floor — on the second set, the piques could either run down the side of the room or we could just leave them out. For some reason, we all kept forgetting to spot on the second set. Weird.
Petite allegro was half fine, half awful.
My little jumps were actually beautiful — light, fast, high, and quiet — though I couldn’t get my arms to cooperate.
The combination went, simply, from fifth:
First
Second
Third
Fourth
Fifth
Changement
Changement
Changement
Other side.
The arms went:
First
Second
Opposite Third!
Bring working-side arm up for Fourth
Fifth/Thirty-Fifth/En Haut
Open and return to en bas/préparé smoothly over the the changements.
I tried to get the arms on the first set, then just left them in first in the second (which is hard in its own way — there’s so much existing motor programming that not moving them not that much easier).
None of us could do it at speed without hosing up the arms, though we could all mark through slowly with success. I’ll be practicing this one.
Our next combination was simple:
Glissade, assemblé
Glissade, assemblé
Glissade, jeté, jeté, jeté —
Both sides, then reverse of both sides.
The tempo was wickedly fast, however, and my assemblé was simply too slow. I’ll be working on that this week as well.
Edit: forgot about the Sissones! I am to have regained the motor pattern for Sissones finally. I have no idea where it was for the past few months, but my brain must have defragged or something last night, because it’s back now. The challenge is simply to NOT FREAKING THINK. Thinking + Sissones = Disaster.
Grand allegro was lovely, even though it took me a little while to nail down my own little variation. We soloed this, because we were in the tiny studio and there were only three of us today, all fairly advanced students.
The combination went:
Tombé
Pas de Bourrée
Glissade
Temps levée retiré
Tombé
Pas de Bourrée
Glissade
Pas de Chat (yay!)
Pique Arabesque
Chassé
Tour jeté (land in balance)
Failli-tombé
Pas de Bourré
Glissade
Saut de chat
… And then we got several bars for our own variation.
I initially tried:
Pique arabesque (low)
Tombe
Pas de Bourré
Glissade
Bournonville Jeté
But it turned out that there wasn’t enough room for that, and I kept doing very half-baked Bournonvilles so I wouldn’t crash into either the wall or the piano. One turned into something else entirely (Edit: a Blooperville Jeté, perhaps?).
On the repeat, I subbed in:
Pique arabesque
Turn
Chassé
Tour Jeté to Arabesque Balance
Chassé
Tour Jeté
Glissade
Pas de Chat Italien
Land in Balance à la Second
This happened when I decided to stop thinking and just dance (hence the title of this post!). To be fair, tour jetés tend to happen whenever I just let myself dance, because I love them.
Dr. K commented that she was really impressed with my ability to stick a landing and go straight into a balance 😀
The funny part is that I find it easiest to hold a balance if I jump into it — my dynamic balance is really exceptionally good, while my static balance is only pretty good (read: quite a bit better than average compared to people without formal dance training, but probably only average for those with serious dance training).
Ms. E kept calling out, “BIIIIIG tour jeté! … Yesss!” on my runs. Apparently people have noticed that this white boy can in fact jump, so now they routinely ask me for big, lofty jumps.
As for me, I’m simply glad to have my big jumps back. It took a while to regain the power and coordination to get the kind of elevation and ballon I had as a kid, which I got partially through luck (genetics ftw) and partially through setting up and jumping ever-higher backyard hurdles (at one point, 42″) which I jumped in a style that in no way resembled proper track-and-field hurdling technique. It was more like Russian Pas de Chat over fences.
Anyway, it’s time to eat food (I have been bad about that lately — last night I turned into an absolutely horrible creature because hypoglycemia for the fail). Tonight we have fitness & flexibility, silks, and then I’m going to work on choreography with a friend of mine.
Edit: Oh, and in a bit I shall add my here are my ridiculous pictures from this week’s submission to Suspend’s Splits Challenge, just for the halibut.
As you can see, we were feeling goofy, even giddy, perhaps.
Oh, Adagio.
Remember how the other day I was all like:
I R SO AWSUM AT ADODGIOH. I PWN ADODGIOH ALLA TAIMZ.
Well, apparently, there are limits.
I should begin by making all the appropriate excuses:
- I managed to get to sleep at a reasonable hour (1:30 AM; 7 hours of sleep isn’t great, but it’ll do) only to wake up at 5:00 in the morning.
Why? Who knows.
Either way, not great for balance, coordination, the ability to learn rapidly, or … well, basically anything else you need in ballet (though my body was ON today, at least, in terms of sending proprioceptive signals about where its parts were).
- Company B was in class. This is normally a good thing. I admire him (okay, so he is totally my current Ballet Crush), and I learn a great deal by watching him. For some reason (probably Excuse #1 above, sleep-dep does not improve my ADHD), though I found this a little distracting today.
- Um, did I mention that whole thing where I woke up at 5:30?
- Oh, and also Ms. B (who made a guest-appearance as teacher in today’s Advanced Class) said the word “GOOD!” to me not once, but like three or four times, and as many of us who dance know, that is basically a recipe for disaster.
That said, class started out well.
I haz a turnouts, etc. Plies were fine. Tendus were fine. Degage/jetes and piques and frappes were (at least mostly) fine. Even ronds-de-jambe were fine.
Then we fondu-ed, only I basically fondidn’t. I mean, I was more or less doing the movements? And my legs were fondu-ing? Only the rest of me was … ugh. Just, ugh. My eyes were like, “Oh, look, the floor,” and my arms were like, “We’re supposed to stay behind your shoulders, right?” and my clavicles. Oy. Let’s not even talk about my clavicles.
I discovered on the right that I couldn’t seem to hold my core together. I opted for the non-releve approach on the left, which helped a bit, but frankly I was still a mess.
After anxiously faking my way through the battement combination that I kept doing wrong (because See Excuses 1 and 2), we took a quick break and then did adagio.
And mine was turrible.
Basically, the part where I couldn’t balance or keep my core engaged really came home to roost. So I knocked myself over in simple developpes, then again in a tour lent (when my tour lent/promenade is good, it’s good; when it’s bad, it’s baaaad). Then I forgot the end of the combination and did that thing where you’re watching the guy in front of you so you can follow him and that throws your balance off. Side-eye is not the way to ballet, y’all.
I should probably add that I was less horrible on the repeat. But, still.
Let this be a lesson to all of us. In short:
Don’t get cocky there, kid.
Because the Ballet Gods in their hallowed halls (which, I hear, have really excellent floors) will notice and will put you firmly back in your place (apparently by waking you up at 5:30 when you really need, like, three more hours of sleep).
I feel that I kinda-sorta redeemed myself in turns and terre-a-terre, and my petit allegro was less bad than it could have been. Some of it was even good, only once again I totally failed at remembering the combinations, so whatevs.
Anyway, I’m planning to skip out on my usual Thursday activities to take Company B’s class this coming week. The following week, I’ll be in Lexington doing their ballet intensive.
Perhaps before then I’ll manage to assemble my waterfowls in a linear array and actually get some sleep.
danseur ignoble 