Category Archives: cirque

Wednesday: Killer Class with All the Fondu;Trapeze 2, Day 1

Apr 13

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Not gonna lie — I’m cooked.

One of the company dancers who I hadn’t encountered in class before came today (we’ll call him Company B, because using initials fails when everyone in your life has names beginning with B or T), and that was excellent, since he’s one of the dancers I try to emulate (it turns out that he’s also really nice). The energy overall was really good; the greater the number of company dancers in class, the better the rest of us tend to dance.

Ms. B murdered tenderized us with fondu (which we did twice) and adagio (which we did twice) at the barre and then basted us with more adagio (which we did twice) at center.

When we were sufficiently tenderized and basted, Ms. B seasoned us brightly with a Balanchine-inspired combination full of cool balances and turns, then sautéed us (literally).

We also did a nice combination with ballonnés and entrechats quatres, though it seems I can’t remember all of it now.

Our grand-ish allegro was beautifully simple:
Temps levée arabesque
Temps levée passée
Temps levée arabesque
Temps levée passée
Tombe pas de bourré
Glissade
Assemblé
Launch into opposite side without stopping.

…So we did it beautifully, except maybe for the part when I kept temps-levée-ing instead of doing the tombe, etc., on the This happened because I was thinking about my arms, though also because I was totally into the feeling of flight.

I caught Company B’s eye just as I realized I’d, like, left out the whole ending, and we shared a laugh about it, which was cool.

After class, Brienne gave me two very specific notes on my turns, and an unexpected compliment: she really likes the energy with which I attack my turns, but I’m still taking too wide a fourth and compensating by pulling up and back. I have also developed a habit of snapping my toe to the back of my knee instead of the front, which I didn’t even realize. Derp!

Anyway, we had a couple of minutes before she had to run off, so I did a few turns, and they were really quite nice. I also wrote that correction down (about turning from a smaller fourth) because it’s one I’ve heard before. Oops. O:)

In trapeze 2, new material included:
single-knee hangs
Pullover to front balance through drop to catcher’s hang to angel through pull-up to “Barbie feet” to owl to crucifix
Mermaid roll-up to seahorse

So that (and all the warm-ups) was my first trapeze 2 class.

That’s all for tonight. I’m famished!

À bientôt, mes amis.

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Aerials: That Moment When You See The Lightbulb Come On

Apr 12

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The seeds of what will make you a unique master of your particular passion are already present. Trust yourself. Don’t give up.

— Emily Hursh

Today I went to noon Mixed Apparatus Class, which is quickly becoming one of my favorites (though we didn’t get to do trapeze .. bleh).

There were seven or eight of us today, up from the usual 3, which was kind of nice (though we missed having our little semi-private tiny group class :D). One of them is a really awesome lady who started training recently at the insistence of her son (who is in a bunch of my classes).

While we were working on silks, she said something like, “…You guys who have been doing this forever always look so great.”

I said, “Thanks!” and stepped up to take my next turn on the silks. Only later did I realize that she actually thought we’d seriously been training for, I don’t know, more than a year anyway.

At the next opportunity, I mentioned that we’d just started in January, and she’d probably be where we are in a couple of months.

You know how in cartoons, there’s that lightbulb-over-the-head thing that happens? I swear that was what happened today.

And that was really cool, because it is great to watch someone realize that the next goal is closer than they thought.

(For what it’s worth, I’m having a lot — a lot — of these lightbulb moments in ballet right now. Things Are Coming Together.)

Anyway, that was awesome. It’s nice to be the bearer of good news for once!

In that vein, then, let me direct you to this amazing post on Living Omily about The Gap (not the place where you can buy overpriced trousers):

Whether or not you cirque, if you’re doing creative work (Ballet Peeps, Assemblé!), you should read Emily’s post*. I am almost willing to guarantee that it will speak to you.

*You can also read Emily Post if, like me, you are fascinated by the ever-evolving rules of etiquette, though it might not be especially relevant to this particular topic.
I don’t know if I’ve said this here, but dance and aerials are making me a better person, and Emily’s post also does a really great job explaining why.

So, yeah. There’s that. The funny thing is, I saw Emily’s post (linked by one of my instructors, the Fabulous Ms. A, on the facebarge) after I started writing this. So, yeah, serendipity in action.

And now I have to go do some work and then maybe try to take a nap, though I am actually terrible at napping because it takes me so long to fall asleep that usually I have to get up before I nod off.

Tomorrow it’s Ms. B’s Killer Class, Trap 2 (YASSSS!), and conditioning … woof. Better get some sleep tonight!

À bîentot, mes amis!

Posted in aerials, balllet, life

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Good Things

Apr 7

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I’m still wrestling my freight train, but at the same time, a couple of really good things have happened this week.

First, I’ve been promoted to Trapeze 2,which surprised the heck out of me, since my formal trapeze training has encompassed about two, maybe three months (it took us a while to pick up Trap 1 after we finished Intro). I do feel confident with the Trap 1 material, though, and I can execute most of the skills with quite a bit of polish and finesse. I’ve also gained a lot of strength, which is nice.

Second, we handed in our application for the Spring Showcase tonight. We want to do a tandem dance trapeze act, if the rigging allows — the defining différence being that dance trapeze uses a single point with a pivot, while truly static trapeze is rigged to two points — dance trapeze can freely spin; static can’t. We want to use the spin in our choreography.

The music will be the Spanish Dance from Swan Lake. I’ve got the opening and the end worked out in my head, as well as some of the skills and transitions in the midst.

B. and I also did some good work on the opening to Simon Crane, which is shaping up nicely.

Also, the opening développés are no longer hard. I really will have to try to video some of the choreography — though the opening is written for ten dancers, minimum, so it would have to be an abbreviated version.

Okay, so that’s it for now. Video of the Dueling Trapezes will be forthcoming!

Posted in aerials, balllet, choreography

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Iron Cross is SRS BZNS!

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I never promised you a rose garden … but  I did promise you Iron Cross, so here it is 😉

I’m having WP issues this week. I wrote a dance-related post on Monday, but the editor kept locking up, and I got frustrated and never finished it — so I’m behind on that.

As you can see, I’m something like back in action, though not completely. I did make it all the way through Modern T’s class, which was a little less athletic than the previous two classes (probably because Modern T is also recovering from the Great Plague of 2016).

Today I made it most of the way through Ms. B’s Killer Class, though I had to bow out of medium and grand allegro, because I was too wheezy by the time I finished (or, well, sort of finished) petit allegro. C’est la vie, n’est-ce pas?

This made me sad, because our grand allegro combination was flat-out awesome — so Ms. B let me video it so we can do it at our next class after Spring Break. Yaaaay! (I don’t have permissions from my classmates to share that video, so apologies for that. Also, the camera work sucks :D)

I opted only to do trapeze tonight, and I think that was the right call.

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Aerials: Iron Cross is My Jam

Mar 15

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I got Iron Cross on the silks this weekend, so now I’m all about doing it all the darn time, because, quite frankly, I didn’t expect to be able to pwn iron cross this early in the game.

I’m case you’re wondering, Iron Cross is this:

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The smaller image gives you a sense of the lines from the side.

I didn’t want to just steal someone’s actual photo and couldn’t find any public domain ones, so I hope this quick sketch gives you the basic idea.

It looks fabulous on silks or trapeze — I think it’s harder to “get” on trapeze, but once you know how to do it (and have sufficient strength), it feels very doable on either.

Today I tried it on trap again and was able to do it well. I’ll have to see if I can get a picture tonight.

Anyway, that’s what I’m obsessed with right now 🙂

Posted in aerials, balllet

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Again!

It’s almost 11PM. Hello again, Choreographic Muse.

(In other news, amazing day today. In ballet, Ms. T spent basically the whole class working on me, which is both great and a little disconcerting — like, I don’t want other people to feel neglected. I also nailed the longest attitude balance en rèlevé. It just went on forever. At one point I realized I totally pwning the balance, started to wobbly, and corrected myself. WTF, you guys, when did I learn to balance like — oh, yeah, on Monday in Modern T’s amazing class.

At Suspend, awesome Silks class — I did Iron Cross and it was awesome and then I used it at the end of a combo even though it was the harder option — followed by a great conditioning class and an awesome workshop. So there you go.)

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A Long Day’s Journey Into Trapeze

Mar 9

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Wednesday Class this morning was, as ever, a challenge: a greater challenge, in fact, than is entirely usual.

In short, I was extra tired this morning, possibly due to the extra aerial technique class yesterday. Oh, well — to this I say (addressing myself, of course), “Suck it up, Buttercup.” My brain and legs were apparently not on speaking terms. Even when my body had a given combination right, my brain would occasionally butt in to say, “Wait, are you sure that’s right? Because it could have been—“ and finish with some different version that, no, it couldn’t have been. Ugh.

I was comforted by the fact that various company dancers and one of the former pre-pro girls, back on spring break and freshly accepted to IU’s excellent dance program, were also struggling at times. This is why we all love Mme.B’s class: she stretches us, and then when we think we’ve been stretched to the breaking point, she shows us that, no, we’ve got a little more.

I was, nonetheless, sufficiently awake by the end of barre to deport myself quite respectably during adagio, which was a beautiful combination carried over from last week. My tours lent, in particular, we’re accomplished without flailing in both directions.

Turns, too, were acceptable, as was the terre à terre or whatever the correct name is for that bit.

But not petit allegro. We did last week’s combination again, there, and while it went well last time, neither my legs nor my brain were having any of it today.

As for grand allegro … Eh. It began with temps de flèche, which I kept screwing up by starting on the wrong foot. But the last two thirds (from a direction change to entrelacé through another direction change and a bunch of other stuff), I had. There was a really cool part with a giant pas de chat that became part of a directional change. I’ll have to try to describe it better when I’m, like, awake.

I asked M. B. for guidance on temps de flèche after class, and I think I’m on top of it now.

The day ended with an excellent conditioning class followed by an awesome trapeze class. I heart trapeze so much at the end of a day of fumbling through Killer Ballet class (“Hard Mode” just doesn’t always catch it). We did, among other things, pike beats, which I looooove.

That’s it for now. Chores, Web work, bells, and acro tomorrow.

À bientôt, mes amis.

Posted in aerials, balllet, modern

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My First Official Teaching* Experience!

Mar 6

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*Teaching dance, that is.

Today we did acro balancing, during which we built three-high tabletop stacks, played around on the silks in Open Fly – I finally got my dancer’s foot-lock down! — and then buckled down for Dance for Aerials, which is a very cool class, it turns out.

 

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Weird. I had captioned this, but WP ate my caption. Anyway, I’m not in this stack, because the pictures of the stacks I was in have readily-identifiable pictures of younger kids, and I don’t feel right posting them here without parental permission. But you get the idea!

 

I’m apprentice-teaching this one, and that was awesome. I get to poke people and fix their placement and so forth, and the class as a whole is very receptive and engaged. Eventually I’ll be putting together some combinations for the choreographic bits of the class.

I was really impressed with the students’ natural placement of the torso — for the most part, everyone hit the shoulders-over-hips sweet spot without coaching (unlike me!). Likewise, I didn’t see a single dancer forcing turnout.

The challenge for everyone will be carrying the arms from the back and learning to place the shoulders, arms, elbows, wrists, and hands to maintain a graceful line, but that’s the same challenge everyone works on forever and ever in ballet and Western dance in general.

Fortunately, I’ve had plenty of time to think about that, excellent instruction, and great models, so explaining that part to new dancers is very doable. I got good results, and Ms. A said I did a good job.

I have a bunch of books to read that I’m really looking forward to getting into, and I’m really excited about next week’s class.

Posted in aerials, balllet, life, work

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Leap Day (and the Rest of the Week)

Mar 4

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Ha. Forgot to post this the other day. Derp. So, here it is, a few (okay, four) days late.

A fine class today: except for a touch of wheeziness, barre was good; at center, I threw off a beautiful turn from 2nd, then got cocky and kept putting too much power into the rest of the turns in that combination. I backed it off when traveling across the floor in the next combination and things improved vastly.

I have discovered that I get excited about things like renversé and sometimes kind of lose my head. I worked on keeping it together, though my failure to take my Adderall this morning made that a bit more challenging than it might have been.

Our final combination, however, was not challenging, just:

Sissone
Pas de Bourée

…Eight times. The cool part is that you’re constantly switching the direction of your hips and shoulders through each pas de bourré. It’s easy to do, but looks really cool,especially if you can get high Sissones and clear épaulement.

I managed both, and felt quite good about myself, thank you very much.

After class, I took a few minutes to practice entrelacés/tour-jetés, because it would be a travesty not to leap on Leap Day.

Thanks to a second-hand note via Yorksranter (thanks, Yorksranter!), Mr. B, who was chatting with someone but still utilizing the Ballet Master’s All-Seeing Eye called out, “Good! Again!” then gave me another note that resulted in a series of, “Good! Again!” séquences.

So that was Monday’s class. Wednesday’s class was also quite good, though I was still not back at “full power,” so to speak. Nonetheless, there were some good moments, and I didn’t hose up absolutely everything.

I made it all the way through, as well, even though it was a billion degrees in the studio and I was already somewhat dehydrated at the start.

My promenades are improving again. For what it’s worth, I love promenades (and turns) in attitude. They just look cool. My turns are also coming back together.

Also, a quick shout-out to the amazing Kathryn Morgan, whose excellent video on Renverse has greatly improved mine. A few weeks ago, we had class with J.P., and he mentioned the part about renverse beginning as RDJ (grand/en l’air, of course); Ms. Morgan takes it a step further, pointing out that you want to make it all the way to arabesque before you think about getting to attitude.

Otherwise you just do crazy, dumb things with your legs and lose your turnout and stuff. Um, but she puts it much more eloquently than that.

Anyway, go watch her video; it will help you immensely with your renverse (or, if you’re already a master of the renverse, it will help you explain it to other people).

Also, pelvic placement (the Theme of The Month, apparently) really helps, but indirectly: forget your heart — if your pelvis is in the right place, you’ll have an easier time with turnout and extensions, both of which are necessary to RDJ, which is necessary to renverse.

Aerials this week have been a mixed bag. I didn’t expect to be awesomely strong after sitting on my tuchas for a week and a half, and as such was not terribly disappointed in myself, though at times I was frustrated.

That said, Trapeze on Wednesday rocked. I kind of feel like trap is my “thing,” aerials-wise — I love being up there and I find it fairly easy to do things well. It probably helps that I find heights thrilling, rather than frightening, since a lot of trapeze work involves either standing on your toes on a skinny little bar or dangling from ropes above one or your knees below one.

It also helps to have freakishly strong legs and abs, which apparently I do? I haz the knee beats, y’all. CL is teaching now and has a fantastic gift for conveying subtle technical details.

Thursday I had some weird and alarming stuff going on that led us to go see my doc today. She doesn’t think I’m going to keel over dead or anything, but did order some bloodwork to check on various things, including my thyroid function.

On the upside, my vital stats are still stellar, with blood pressure of 107/63 and a heart-rate (including the uptick for Adderall and caffeine) of 71. w00t.

Anyway, that’s it. Advanced class tomorrow, then various Suspend-y things.

Posted in aerials, balllet, class notes

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A Few From Open Fly

Feb 28

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This gallery contains 9 photos.

One of the nice things about Suspend is Open Fly. Most of us don’t have aerial apparatus (or qualified instructors) hanging around our homes, so being able to head down to the gym and play is a great way to keep skills sharp (or, at any rate, less dull). In case you’re wondering, the open […]

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Posted in aerials, balllet.

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