So I’m going to write a short one and just get it doon.
After last week, during which I lacked A) higher cognitive (and any executive) functions and B) the ability to actually execute a decent pirouette, I appear to be regaining my faculties.
The weekend was highly mediocre ballet-wise, with a really nice moments lightly sprinkled on a field of “meh,” “Wait, what’s the combination?” and just plain “WAT.” Highlights included half-awake me and pre-coffee BG attempting to follow each-other at the barre, with about the degree of success one might predict under the circumstances.
Last night I took class because, in short, I’m an addict. Even though I was late (and made friend L, who came with me, late) thanks to challenges resulting from last week’s brain fog(1), it wasn’t half bad. I managed some nice doubles and some intentional, if not awesome, triples.
Today’s technique tidbit: take a second before launching your turns (with all guns blazing, if you’re anything like me) to feel a few things. Where are your trochanters in their hip sockets? Is the pelvis rotated or tilted? If so, can you adjust it? (Unless you’re in a ridiculously huge 4th,the core muscles can usually correct the pelvis.)
Obviously, this is easiest to do when the music is slow, so use your discretion, but it can be really helpful. More than once, I’ve caught myself preparing turns with one hip cocked, which isn’t what one might call a Best Practice.
Still couldn’t stop second-guessing myself during petit allegro, though, which resulted in a petit allegro that looked as if I’d been told, “Using the medium of ballet, interpret the behavior of a ball in one of those showy random-number generators they used to use in televised lottery drawings.”
What’s the rule, again?
“There’s no THINKing in BALlet!”
—Not Tom Hanks in A League Of Their Own, but close enough.
…So that was Monday, also known as Logical Friday The Second, because my schedule is FUBAR.
Oh, and I think I acquitted myself decently in our lone grand allegro, which is good, because I kept running over myself in a high-momentum tombé-pdb during Sunday’s.
I just couldn’t turn today.
Or,well…that’s not entirely true. I nailed a few really nice singles and maybe one nice double, but it wasn’t a good turning day.
My spot was, for some reason, extra slow.
My working foot didn’t to go where it was supposed to (seriously, at one point I closed an en dehors turn with the toe to the front of the knee, then moved it to the back immediately … just, WAT?!).
I hopped out of more than one double.
I blame my left ear, which is being weird. At one point I had to lie down on the floor and give myself a bit of the ol’ Epley Manœuvre.
I also blame Roberto Bolle, who showed up last night in one of those dreams that just go on and on, no matter how many times you blink briefly awake. I don’t remember it terribly well, but I think we were doing Swan Lake, with Bolle both dancing and directing.
Mostly I remember him yelling at me about my arabesque: higher, straighter, point that working toe harder, what’s that supporting foot trying to do? Get that demi-point UP!
My arabesques were, in fact, very nice today, though. So, thanks for that, Mr. Bolle
.
“You’re welcome!” (via Wikimedia Commons)
Dr. Dancebelt also featured in this dream as a disembodied voice over the house PA system. I remember thinking that was odd: we never saw him, but we knew he was there.
Seems fairly relevant.
Ultimately, this is what I get for watching Paris Opera Ballet doing “Études,” Bolle in “Manon,” the remainder of Bourne’s Swan Lake (2012) all one evening. Weird dreams and bad turns.
I wasn’t awesome at the grand allegro: it ended with a change of direction via piqué soutenu, and I just couldn’t remember that.
On the upside, my extensions are back above 90 even à côté, I managed not to flail in tour lent en attitude, and I actually didn’t hose up the petit allegro.
So there you have it. Wednesday, now with 100% more advice from Dream Bolle.
Our performance last night rocked the house. We legitimately got an ovation of stunning enthusiasm, which melted my heart and went on after the curtain came down and made us hug each-other as we scurried off the stage.
That was great.
We were all together, the choreography worked, I hit the turns and the jumps, and the partnering bits were on point.
But the thing that made me proud of myself, be honest, is that I danced 3/4s of our piece in just one shoe and almost nobody noticed. One my friends who’s in theater noticed that I only had one shoe and thought it was intentional 😀
The shoe started peeling off almost immediately, and within the first minute was barely hanging on by the toe. It would definitely have come off in the next bit and potentially tripped someone, so I neatly flicked it into the wings on the upstage-right leg of a running figure eight and just went on without it.
Since it was the right shoe, this made The Apollo jump—which in this dance lifts off from and initially lands on the right foot—a bit alarming, because shiny tights are hella slippery. I did it anyway, a more cautiously than I wanted, but evidently it still looked good.
Anyway, all the girls were amazing, and I can’t wait to dance with them again.
I also can’t wait see the video. I’ve seen a 20-second pirate clip that looked pretty great!
That’s it for now. I had class and a 2 hour rehearsal today, so I’m ready for some R&R.
Tomorrow is a day off, and maybe even Tuesday 😉 We’ll see how it goes.
Coda: Apparently the faculty was very much impressed by how well we mastered quite a complicated dance in very little time.
I’m just exploding with joy it, still.
It’s 9:34 on a Saturday, which means that usually I’d be in the midst of being slowly fondu-ed to death in the interest Of Art.
Instead, I’m loafing in bed, reading the Internet, and generally being as lazy as is humanly possible.
A bunch of us who are who normally take the 9 AM advanced class on Saturday but who are dancing tonight decided to opt for 12:30 class instead. That way we’ll likely be on form, but not cooked, and there won’t be 10 hours between class and our performance.
I still woke up at 8 AM, and as such in disappointed in myself for failing to take full advantage the situation and sleep in properly, but what can you do? The cat and my bladder conspired against me, but I got a decent night’s sleep regardless.
There’s this terrible paradox about days like this one; to short-run performances. We’re performing exactly once, and I’m terribly excited about it, so I simultaneously want it to time to go and also want to savor every second of this day.
I suppose this is a good time for a of literal Zen: à le “Present moment, only moment.”
The moment of the performance will come either way.
Right now I can enjoy reading, resting, my husband, and our cat (who is being maddened by the sounds of birds visiting our roofline).
All things in moderation, then: including laziness.
This is us with our fabulous impresario:
… BG told me to be a good boy and arrange my knees croisé 😀
… And this is me goofing off my dressing room tonight:
…I hold this exact pose for like 30 seconds at one point during the dance. Okay, so it’s prolly not *really* that long, but it feels like forevar. Also, try not to cross your legs this much in arabesque a terre, because it’s sketchy as heck. I see my supporting arch rollin’. I’m hatin’.
Tomorrow, WE DANCE!
I just got notification that we’re in for PlayThink’s performance showcase this year!
It’s official!
I have a couple of months to teach D our choreography and work any kinks, which should be plenty of time.
My inspiration! 😀
For this act, I’m putting together an acro/ballet/physical theater piece to Charles Trenet’s classic, “La Mer.” I think it’s going to be a lot of fun. The piece is built around a couple of bumbling tourists at the seashore. Since its 100% mine, I’ll post rehearsal clips once we start working on it.
You guys, I’m so excited! This will be our second year teaching, but our first year performing at PlayThink.
I can’t wait!
OMG OMG OMG
This is how they assign you your Ballet Spirit Animal.
OMG OMG OMG
I am, in fact, about as tired as I look in this shot. Heckin dark circles doin me a concern.
OMG
This is actually the girls’ changing room, where we all hung out after we got changed because mine is tiny.
That is all.
I’ve never seen video of myself doing petit allegro with beats until just now. BG posted a slo-mo video from the morning’s Killer Class on the facebag.
I was really surprised at how nice it all looks … or, well, right to the point where I forgot which way we were supposed to glissade next, heh.
But still! I thought I was way off form this morning, it wasn’t half bad!
Tonight we ran the dance in the big studio downtown. It’s literally twice as big (at least) as the smallest studio at the school, where we rehearsed on Monday.
As such, we totally lost our spacing and the timing went crazy. The Apollo jump didn’t come off because there was a Siren directly in my flight path (in a moment of glittering wit, I think I literally said, “Oh! You’re there!”) and spazzed into some mutant pas de chat Italien.
I at least made it to the right spot at the end, though. So there’s that.
The second run was a lot better. We’d adjusted to the space; we knew roughly how fast we had to run and far traveling steps could travel (tl;dr: FAR).
I hit the turn in second and the Apollo jump dead on, though doing so made me realize something about my brain operates when I’m performing: I click into a mode in which my mind is roughly one step ahead my body.
This works brilliantly for the choreography that I have down pat, but it’s a bit problematic with new stuff, especially details.
Like, the arms on the turn and the Apollo jump are hella specific and pretty important, and I have literally no idea what I did with them. I mean, I know I got them up, but whether I kept up and opened after is a major blank spot my proprioceptive “video.”
On the other hand, I’ll have time to work on that and adjust tomorrow and Friday if necessary. It’s the single newest piece of the dance, so a little repetition will help.
The girls keep commenting on how I never get a break the dance—how I’m forever dashing from one end of the stage to the other. Before tonight, I didn’t think I actually dashed around any more than they did, but dancing the in a much bigger space me realize that I do, in fact, travel a lot.
In fact, in the big studio, I really had to drop the hammer to make it from one sequence to another.
Anyway, overall, I think we did all right, under the circumstances.
Tomorrow and Friday we’re in the theater. Evidently the stage is a little smaller than the studio, so we should be to adjust.
Honestly, the hardest part for me is judging exactly when to run out of the wings. I need to make it roughly a third the way the stage before my sauté arabesque.
Anyway, I’m excited about our dance in the theater tomorrow. For now, though, I’m going to roll my legs again, eat something, go to bed.
You can find my initial review here.
I purchased my WearMoi belt on 5 August, 2016, and it quickly became one of my two favorites.
In terms of keeping everything contained, thus far it has been surpassed only by the BodyWrappers’ M007 in my experience (though I haven’t tried every single dance belt in the history of ever: I have a Dance Jox one on order, and I’ve never tried M. Stevens, for example).
In terms of comfort over the course of a ridiculously long day, it outclasses everything else, though this is definitely an area in which your mileage will vary.
In terms of durability, it’s been pretty freaking good, though I think it’s starting to feel the effects of being worn almost every single day (and washed just as frequently) since I lost my BW M007(1).
It’s still perfectly sound for dance purposes, including grand allegro, but I don’t think it’s optimal for use on the lyra at this point. Definitely better than nothing, but not perfect.
I think that’s a function of the trade-off between the power of the elastic in the waistband and the gentleness of the waistband in question: BodyWrappers’ waistbands, for example, are stronger, and as such will probably retain maximum grip longer. WM’s is softer, which makes it hella comfy right out of the box, but potentially not as durable(2).
The thing that really sets this particular dance belt apart during a long day of dancing, sitting on your butt while not dancing, and then dancing again is that the thong never starts to feel invasive. It somehow manages to be flat, soft, and strong in exactly the right proportions.
BodyWrappers’ M007 is comparable, but doesn’t quite equal it. On the other hand, BodyWrappers’ M007 is essentially maximum-security lockdown for your naughty bits and also slightly more reliably guards one’s tender modesty, if you feel what I’m saying, both of which are advantages.
The rundown:
WearMoi’s dance belts are really very nice for dance and trapeze work and good on the lyra when new, but less so over the course of a several months of constant wear. Interestingly, I would count acro with lyra, in part because there’s a possibility of someone displacing the waistband of your dance belt while tumbling you around on their feet. Just saying. M007 for acro, y’allz.
In terms of comfort, WM’s belt is absolutely perfect, and I intend to keep at least one of them around for the foreseeable future.
Seriously, if I think I’m going to be nervous because ZOMG Auditions or OMG Hard Class With A New Teacher! or ZOMG The AD is Coming to Look At Us!! or ZOMGWTFBBQ I Have A Crush On My Teacher!!!(3) I generally opt to wear the WM belt because at least that’s, like, one part of me that won’t be uncomfortable.
That said, I’m rather hard on my dance belts, and I have yet to discover an option that works better on the lyra than BodyWrappers’ M007.
Update: I forgot to cover sizing.
I’m hard-ish to fit because I have a small waist and stupidly huge glutei medii. On size charts(4) that include both waist and hip measurements, my waist is usually small or medium, and my hip is medium or large. Couple that with the irreducibly complex dark magic by which dancewear manufacturers generate their size charts, and you have a recipe for WTF.
Anyway, here’s what I mean:
Top: Capezio, L. Centre: WearMoi, L. Bottom: BW M006, L.
The waistband of my M007, by the way, was actually closer to the size of the WM dance belt than it was to that of my M006.
According to Capezio’s size chart, I should be a small; per BodyWrappers’ I’m a large. WearMoi splits the difference.
When I’m really on form, the WearMoi dance belt fits with a wee gap at the top and a perfect fit through the bottom half of the waistband. I could probably rectify that by ordering one with a narrower waistband, but it hasn’t caused any problems.
In short:
I don’t do tap, so I can’t really speak to that. I’m guessing the percussive nature of tap might be an important consideration, so I don’t want to make any guesses, here.
I don’t do hip-hop, either, but I think the demands it places on the body (explosive movement, rapid tempo changes, possibly floorwork?) are close enough to those placed by Modern that this dance belt should be fine.
YouTube: BOSU Balance Series
danseur ignoble 