Left out the most important part on Monday – did temps levée without blowing a tendon again (and it felt good!).
Huzzah!
Category Archives: balllet
Danseur Ignoble: Amazing Ballet Pictures by Marge Ely
I think I mentioned that we went to a pre-Burn party last weekend, and I may have mentioned that photographer and fellow Burner Marge Ely took some pictures of us (and others who volunteered) while we were there.
Marge sent us the pictures today. Two of them are delightful; one is really quite stunning (seriously, I’m like, “Wait, that’s me?!”).
So, without further ado, here they are:
Denis (R) and me, working the passé. …By the way, it’s hard to get into a really solid rélève in these shoes. Photo by Marge Ely, August, 2015.
Edit: I knew Denis was taller than I am, but not, “I’m on demi-pointe and he’s still taller!” taller.
This was actually the first of the two passé pictures, but I think I like the second better. Photo by Marge Ely, August, 2015.
This one’s my favorite, I think (yeah, I’m kind of a shameless narcissist sometimes). I’m still stunned, both that I am capable of looking this good, and also that I can arabesque that well on gravel in stiff-soled tennis shoes 😀 I’m not even making weird faces! Photo by Marge Ely, August, 2015.
So, there you have it. Amazing, beautiful pictures by an amazing, beautiful photographer. She’s hoping to mount a show of these, and I really hope she does, because I’d love to see the whole collection together in a gallery!
When I get a chance, I’ll post a link to Marge Ely’s facebook gallery from the party.
No class today because of packing, but I’ll be doing class tomorrow (Brian is teaching! YAAAAAY!).
Danseur Ignoble: We Got The Beats
Mostly good class this morning; the usual blend of hard work and good cheer.
I didn’t hose up any combinations too badly except the ones that everyone hosed up because the music was faster* than we expected o.O’ Also, got off a bunch of double turns, some of which were nice (and some of which were a bit wild).
My frappés were literally better than they have every been, but my grand battements were weird and wild. I realized at the last split-second that I needed to turn because I was in a corner where I was likely to battement the crap out of the barre behind me and got off my balance and off the music. We détourné-ed right into the next side, so my efforts to get fixed were a tad frantic (though the second side was better?).
Wheeee! First world ballet problems, I guess?
Did the first set of little jumps with reasonable facility, then the second set of little jumps with beats, though I started to feel it in my toe and sort of petered out at the end.
For fun, after class, a few of us did leaps; I threw in a couple tour jetés just for the halibut (insert lame joke here: fishes love tour jetés).
I read an article not long ago about how ballet dancers are not masochists. I’m not sure I agree at all: when your ballet teacher goes, “This is mean, and it’s going to hurt, and I’m sorry,” and the whole class sort of giggles maniacally, it suggests at least a little masochism on the part of the dancers.
Someday I will create a ballet about ballet class. It will be called “The Rented Mules,” or maybe “The Merry Mules.” It will not be as good as Paul Taylor’s ballet about ballet class, but maybe it will be funny.
To Remember:
1. Keep that back together in pique arabesque.
2. Practice adagio turns to développé. These look really cool, but right now mine are kind of a mess: I need to down-rate my force in order to arrive in plié in the right direction on one leg while already extending the working leg (through fondue).
Brienne points out that to do this, you think of it as “just a spot” (presumably instead of going ESCAPE VELOCITY GO!!!, which is how all my turns begin except when I remind myself to channel Baryshnikov and Find A Still Place first).
3. Go to the dance store and get fitted for shoes after Burning Man. All my shoes are officially pissing me off for various reasons except the little El Cheapo shoes from eBay, which are going to the desert, where they will, without a doubt, be summarily destroyed by the Alkaline Dust of Doom.
In other news, you should come to Summer Intensive with me next year in Lexington! 🙂
Addendum:
Progress in ballet, like progress in life, seems to take place stepwise.
Step 1: Thinking, “What the heck is — how do you even do that?”
Step 2: Giving it a try by broadly approximating whatever you’re trying to do.
Step 3: Feeling fairly confident about your broad approximation even though you still have to kind of remind yourself what frappé or soutenu or pas de basque is.
Step 4: No longer having to remind yourself as often, but realizing that your broad approximation leaves a great deal of room for improvement.
Step 5: Beginning to improve by making the large, visible adjustments.
Step 5: No longer having to remind yourself almost ever.
Step 6: Continuing to improve via medium adjustments.
Step 6: Transitioning from “improving” to “refining,” because you no longer have to remind yourself what a step is or about the improvements you’ve made thus far and you’re now making quite small adjustments.
Step 7: Getting the steps “into your body,” so they begin to feel instinctual and to link instinctually to other steps (this is so cool; sometimes you can predict a significant part of a combo before it’s given to you).
Steps 8 — ???: Further iterations of the refinement-and development-of instinct process.
Step approximately 1,000,000: Mastery (not perfection, which may not exist even in Ballet Paradise, since dancers like to have something to work on).
For what it’s worth, the development of a kind of “ballet sense,” a (still highly-limited) ability to predict what will make up part of a combination based on the music and the preceding steps, has greatly aided my ability to remember combinations.
Notes
*When in doubt, mark it out! … Even at barre.
Danseur Ignoble: Night School
I set my alarm wrong, so did night class today.
It went brilliantly, except for two parts — first, the part where I misunderstimated my travel during petit allegro and nearly ran the dude next to me into the piano twice … TWICE!!!; second, the part where I hosed up the final combo because I didn’t quite grasp what was supposed to come between the flying pas de basque (not to be confused with saut de basque) and the saute arabesque/cabriole.
I’mma have to practice that flying pas de basque thing. It’s fun, but my legs go a little Baby Giraffe Mode getting from that to other steps.
Brian taught tonight. His teaching style is playful and energetic, so his classes are fun.
Seriously; while this is probably not something that he would really do, there’s something in his personality that makes me think he’s going to come around and tickle us: that makes you stand up REALLY FREAKING TALL, by the way. Some atavistic part of my brain that is stuck in pre-school pre-ballet is like PULL UP TALL SO THE TICKLE MONSTER CAN’T SEE YOU!!!
Pro Tip: If you pull up tall, the Tickle Monster can’t see you.
The best general bit of advice (not really a correction, because we hadn’t broken out the passés yet) tonight? In passé and retiré, imagine a meat hook grabbing and lifting the muscle at the top inside of your thigh. Yeah, kind of a gristly image, but it works brilliantly for me. It makes me stop thinking ROTATE ROTATE ROTATE and, predictably, going CLENCH CLENCH CLENCH.
Clenching makes balances, like, 1,000,000% harder, you guys.
Oh, and I did all three bazillion little jumps and only screwed up the petit allegro a little**. Yasssssss! Getting that back has been surprisingly difficult, so it’s good that it finally felt like dancing.
**This was the point at which I realized I was going to run the guy beside me into the piano and completely panicked o.O’ Sorry, Guy Beside Me.
Also, the little jumps looked good. So there’s that.
Now! Other business!
I heard back from Lexington Ballet, and their adult SI was a resounding success this year, so they areplanning on doing it again, and they would very much welcome out of town dancers. I’ll keep an ear to the wind for updates on that.
I’m going to see if I can get a group of LBS students together to go (Field Trip! … Er, Week-Long Field Trip!). If not, I’ll still go by myself; it doesn’t conflict with any of the Sun King weeks that sound interesting.)
Our Tutu Tuesday costumes are complete (mine is packed, even!) and look fabulous. I am not allowed to post pix until our camp-mates have seen them, though, so the whole internet is just going to have to sit on its hands until then (because I know nobody has anything more important to do that wait for pictures of our tutus).
I am totally miffed about this, really, because I now have the most adorable picture ever of Mr. Merkah playing in Denis’ tutu*** and I can’t post it until we get back.
***…Which is precisely what The Momma predicted the Merkah would do, by the way.
That’s it for now. I really need to think about finding something to eat and then going to bed. Between mowing the lawn, riding the bike, and dancing, I have Burned All The Calories today and am Way, Way Tired.
Danseur Ignoble: 11th Hour Costume Fitting — Literally
Tonight we went to pick up our Subaru from Denis’ brother’s house in Elizabethtown and then to my Mother-in-Law’s house for our second fitting for Burning Man costumery things for TuTu Tuesday. We got there at 11 PM, no joke. We are usually in bed by 10:30 or so, so that’s saying something.
Fit on my bodice is now spot-on (it was huge before), so it’s ready for lining (in the pix, it’s wrong-side out). The shrug/bolero thingy is coming along nicely as well, but I didn’t get pictures of mine. Denis has pix of the green lining fabric of his; the outside isn’t constructed yet. My tutu isn’t ready yet, so I didn’t get to try that on, but Denis’ looks respectable.
We opted not to go full pancake, because it is already going to be a grade-A beast getting these things to the Playa and managing them there. Besides, there is a part of me that really feels like I’m not a good enough dancer to deserve a pancake tutu (even in drag :P). I’m in that weird spot where I dance well enough that I feel weird rocking the ironic look, but not well enough that I feel like I can go Full Pancake and really own it.
In short, I am not ready for the Trocks to call just yet 😀
Anyway, here’s tonight’s photodump!
The bodice, wrong-side out. We opted to do three pieces: bolero jacket, bodice, and tutu. We’ll probably both wear them over unitards.
If anyone isn’t sure why I love this man, here you go.
The final version of the bolero jackety thing will be lime green on the inside. It will also look incredibly cool.
I just included this one because I like it. Doesn’t really add much to the equation, but my shoulders look awesome.
Also, I’m wearing my glasses in this shot. Amazing! (I usually wear contacts, because peripheral vision is awesome.)
Denis and our costume department: Aunt Beverly at left and Phyllis — aka “The Momma” — at right.
They told us to say that if anyone asks, they’re retired.
Oh, and I got my hair cut yesterday. I had it cut extra, extra short so I won’t have to get it trimmed before we head for the desert.
Tomorrow we’re driving to Nashville on Porchlight Express business, so I’ll be doing double class on Saturday again. Saturday night, we’re going to a partay! w00t!
I will, of course, post pictures of the whole shebang when it’s ready. I am, as you’ve probably figured out, not what one would call camera-shy, though I am pretty sure that these pictures are about as close to naked as I’ve ever been on the internet. So there’s that.
Oh, yeah — and this is because I just can’t resist meming my husband.
Danseur Ignoble: Insert Joke About Having A Lot Of Class
I got my hair cut, hung out in the world (mostly riding around on the bike), then did tonight’s open house class with Ms. E.
It was, in a word, awesome. Barre was solid, adagio was solid, we did cool waltzy things across the floor (fairly nailed the first; didn’t quite catch the combo on the second so I basically faked it: nothing like faking it in the first group :P).
I like Ms. E’s teaching style — she’s fun, but still precise, and really encourages us to dance.
We did two fun little petit allegro combos, the second of which I really enjoyed (glissade, assemblé, glissade assemblé, glissade, jete [to coupe], relève, relève).
I feel like I’m gaining a better sense for where my body is in space now: I can feel it when my arabesques are on sideways, when my feet are really working, and so forth without everything else falling apart.
Likewise, a year ago I would never have guessed that I’d be picking up combinations as quickly as I am now. It’s still not perfect, but I’m much, much quicker than I was. I figured that would be the hardest part for me. It might still be, but I feel pretty confident about it now.
Part of it is not really having to think about the individual steps; part is, I think, just practice making … well, not perfect, but better.
My toe is a little sore, but not too bad, so tonight it will get a much-deserved rest. Tomorrow, since Denis graciously gave me a whole day for ballet, I will Do All The Chores.
I expect to sleep like a baby tonight. I’m quite tired — though not exhausted like I was on Saturday.
I would, however, commit vile acts of inhuman depravity for a really good slice of pizza right now 😉
That’s it for today. Ballet feels very exciting right now. I’m looking forward to coming months.
Good night, and keep the leather side down.
Danseur Ignoble: That Moment When You Get It
Today’s class was good.
Not “I did absolutely everything right” good (because, come on, it’s ballet; the very instant you get something really right, they give you something harder to do), but “things are starting to crystallize” good.
I once described this feeling as “leveling up.” This time, it’s not so much leveling up as refining the level I’m on: like going back to collect all the hidden coins in a video game, or whatever.
Brienne gave me a zillion corrections today, which felt awesome (given my history with ballet, horsemanship, and academics, it shouldn’t sound weird to say, “Yay, criticism!” but it rather does, actually). She also said it’s fun to pick on me 🙂 That, too, is high praise coming from one’s ballet teacher.
Barre was quite good, with the exception of a super-weird moment in a grand rond de jambe from soutenu derrière (Brienne described it as “the worst thing in classical ballet, but we have to do it”), which was … well, it could have been worse, but it wasn’t good.
The highlight, meanwhile, occurred during barre adagio: Brienne gave me a handful of corrections as I did a different grand rond de jambe from derrière (this one did not begin with soutenu), and my working leg did this magical thing wherein suddenly it was fully pointed, straight, awesomely turned out, and weightlessly* hovering at what seemed like a ridiculously high extension. It startled3 me so much that I said, “Oh! Hey!”
*Note to self: I have been trying too hard again.
And then my working leg basically owned the rest of that rond de jambe with essentially no effort from me. If only all of class could be like that, all the time!
Now, if I can ever do that again, particularly when someone is ready with a camera, I can probably die happy. I won’t even ever have to perform if someone just gets video me executing of a single perfect grand rond de jambe with that kind of ridiculous extension.
At center, adagio was … meh, could’ve been worse, but would’ve been better if I’d understood the first combination right the first time and then didn’t spend the remaining repetitions freaking out about getting it wrong.
On the upside? Double turns! On demand! WTF, when did I stop sucking at turns (again)?
Brienne gave us a useful talk about identifying one’s own natural spotting speed so one can modulate one’s turning speed according to the music. I think I am actually kind of a slow-turner, but I’m not entirely certain.
I also sucked it up and did the little jumps, since my toe felt okay, and was surprised how much faster they’re getting. It used to be that I could either jump really slowly with beautiful point and straight legs or schlub my way through quick jumps. Now I’m starting to hit really nice quick jumps about half the time.
Brienne has been making me focus on really working through my feet, and holy cow, is it ever helping!
We ran out of time before we got to do grand allegro, alas.
I’m thinking I will do class tonight. A) it’s giant ballet party open house night, and B) Ms. E is teaching, and I don’t think I’ve done class with her yet. Perhaps we’ll allegro!
Anyway. That’s it for now. There is nothing like the feeling of making progress!
Danseur Ignoble: Weaksauce?
On Saturday, I dragged Robert to ballet with me, and he made a respectable effort in Margie’s class. I, too, made a respectable effort, then proceeded on to Brienne’s class.
In Brienne’s class, I … um. Well.
Let me state for the record that it’s been a while since I’ve done two classes back-to-back, and apparently I’m still quite out of shape. Jeez.
Or, well — I may have been coming down with something, as I had a fever and some pretty unpleasant gastric distress stuff on Sunday and Monday. (Today, I’m feeling mostly better, so it’s back to Brienne’s class tomorrow.)
Either way, I had some strength-related issues at barre (sometimes, you fondue; sometimes, you fondon’t), though there were definitely some highlights as well. My balances are improving again.
At center, we did a rather nice bit of slow adagio (which I would have done better if I’d kept my extensions lower; I didn’t have the strength left to really sustain them above about 60 degrees).
Across the floor, Brienne tuned up our balancés — in my case, that was really a good thing, as my balancés have really needed some tuning. It was nice to get them ironed out and flowing.
I’m not sure what was done for allegros petit et grand; I bowed out at that point, as I was simply feeling exhausted by that point and didn’t want to roll the “exhaustion leads to injury” dice.
I hope to acquit myself better in tomorrow’s class.
Saturday’s problem — making it through class — shouldn’t really be too hard to overcome, as I’ll only be doing one class, or possibly two separated by many hours instead of back to back.
Wednesday’s problem — remembering all the combos and not screwing up my ballotés and, heaven help me, sissons (you know, the second easiest jump in the whole world; and as such one that I should pretty much never find difficult?) — well. We’ll see how that goes. Successive approximations, etc.
Those were very much in the Domain of the Baby Giraffe (Wait! Which leg goes where?) last week, so I’ve spent a great deal of time thinking about them, because we all know how much thinking helps in ballet! Mostly, I found myself thinking about how to solve the problem of the bizarre disconnect that sometimes happens between brain and legs.
Like, I know how to sisson, and I knew which way(s) to sisson in last week’s second allegro combo, and yet somehow when it came time to sisson, my legs were all like, “HOLY FRACK HOW DO I EVEN DO THIS?!”
I imagine that it was probably quite funny from the sidelines.
Anyway, tomorrow will almost certainly be better.
So that’s it for now. May your fondues refrain from becoming fondon’ts, and the sissons rise up to meet you, or something like that 🙂
Danseur Ignoble: A Not-Really-So-Good Bad Day
This morning, we got up and headed out the door on time to make the bus, but when I got out to the garage, I discovered that the side door was wide open and Robert’s bike was missing.
I told him about it (and that I’d be happy to send my mountain bike, which I don’t ride very much, home with him so he can get around), and he took it fairly well: he laughed and said, “Huh. So whoever it was apparently decided to steal the cheapest bike in the garage.”
When I told Denis about it this evening, he mentioned that the neighbors have been having some issues with kids trying to break into their garage, so that it might be the same thing. Denis thinks he probably left our side door unlocked the last time he was working out there, which makes sense — there’s no sign that anyone picked the lock or anything like that. Still, for the time being, I think I’m going to lock up the Tricross in the garage at night.
Anyway, we wound up missing the bus while I was double-checking to make sure nothing else (or, well, nothing else that was obvious; our garage is a bit chaotic right now) was missing, so we didn’t make it to class. I’m going to do both classes tomorrow to make up for it, though of course three classes on three different days is really a better practice strategy than three classes on two different days.
Other than that, though, today was pretty decent.
I took Robert out to a couple of shops to try to find some more comfortable summer going-outdoors clothes. We found him a couple of inexpensive wicking t-shirts as well as a nice, light short-sleeved Henley that was on clearance for $5. All of them should be much more comfortable for him when he’s out and about in the summer.
We had also intended to find him an athletic supporter, since finding a dance belt in his size on short notice is pretty unlikely. However, either Louisville’s entire stock of athletic supporters has been purchased in a the usual back-to-school shopping frenzy (public schools in Kentucky start early), or nobody sells them in regular stores anymore. We didn’t have time to trek out to a sporting goods place, though — I’d be surprised if a place like the Sports Authority lacked athletic supporters.
We figured a pair of compression shorts might work, but back-burnered them for the time being because Robert didn’t particularly like the only ones we found in his size. We’ll figure something out if he wants to try Margie’s class tomorrow.
It’s been nice having Robert around (though, of course, we haven’t managed to accomplish all of our goals yet: we still don’t have our Cooking with ADHD video done). He’s going home on Sunday, so I’ll be back to my usual routine next week.
Conveniently, so will ballet school — the fall semester begins Monday, and with it a new weekly session of Margie’s class and apparently a barre cardio class.
We have Open House days on Wednesday the 12th and Saturday the 15th. So free classes, yeay! If you’re in Louisville, get your hindquarters to Louisville Ballet School on Wednesday evening (I probably won’t be there; I do class in the AM on Wednesdays) or a week from tomorrow (I probably will be there).
Okay. That’s it for now. Tonight, we’re showing Robert Big Hero 6. Yay!
danseur ignoble 