I know, I know — I’m messing up the routine, everybody! But it’s okay. It’s summer break. The goal is to hit ballet class three days per week.

We missed Monday’s class: first, Denis was held hostage (well, not really, but it sounds more exciting that way!) by his dentist, who was fixing a tooth that Denis somehow broke in Chicago and we didn’t make it to the 6:15 class. Then we didn’t quite make it to the 7:15 class after picking up the truck from our awesome mechanic’s place. C’est la vie.

Today I did my first Wednesday class under the tutelage of Brienne, who runs a very athletically-demanding class. There is nothing like a good run of slow fondus to make the muscles wake up and sing.

I was a total mess for much of the class. My head wasn’t entirely in the game. The Wednesday class is in a different studio, which for some reason I wasn’t expecting, and I think it threw me for a loop. Somehow, at the Joffrey — where I expected a new studio full of new people — this wasn’t a problem. It’s all about the interplay between expectation and reality. No biggie: I need to learn to adapt more readily, and this sort of thing provides ample opportunity for practice.

This isn’t to say that I didn’t do anything right. I’m sure at least one or two counts of the grand battement were good, and while I didn’t execute our combinations at center all that brilliantly well, I did at least remember them.

I think the highlight of the class, though, was that slow-burning fondu exercise. It was demanding, it was even (at moments) painful — but it provided an exceptionally good opportunity to really focus on feeling which muscles were supposed to be working and making them work … even if I only managed to do it right for a few seconds at a time.

The rest of the time, I kinda looked like this.

I’ve learned that I really like having the opportunity to work with different teachers. I think I touched on this in my last post. Over the summer, it looks like I might routinely have classes with all three of the teachers I’ve met at LBS, which is pretty awesome. I’m collecting useful instructions and corrections — Margie’s commentary on using the first position port de bras as a gateway; Claire’s correction for my back; Lynne’s explanation about maintaining turnout through rond de jambe; Brienne’s very effective advice for finding and using the muscles that maintain turnout (and also for not slamming one’s heels together during dégagés).

Perhaps I should start posting a weekly list of useful instructions and corrections?

I’m looking forward to more classes with Brienne, Claire, and Margie (in alphabetical order), and to further re-creating myself as a dancer.

That’s it for now.

Leather side down 🙂

You may recall that, on Saturday, I received a really great correction about my tendency to sort of lean back when I think I’m pulled up straight.

As such, I went into today’s class feeling rather more confident about things: suddenly, I understood why some of the things that had proven difficult for me had done so, and had a notion as to how to fix them.

I say “had a notion,” because thought does not always translate directly to action. There were still times that I was a bit Pisa-esque, a little lean-y. However, when I was able to keep everything pulled together, my balance was much better, my turns were better, and I generally felt better.

Of course, that didn’t prevent me from developing an entirely new problem. No, as usual, in an effort to overcome a different (but related) existing problem — that of throwing my arms too far back, which also screws up your balance — I over-corrected, as always.

So, ummm, yeah. About that second position…

Fortunately, The Divine Ms. Margie caught it and corrected it before it could get, well, out of hand.

I also had some instances of the weird leg malfunction wherein, for whatever reason, my left leg goes instead of my right, or whatever, and then I do all kinds of crazy catch-up maneuvers. At least this only happened during petit allegro this time, and not at the bar (though I did, somehow, totally hose up one of the sequences at the bar anyway, for no good reason).

Something I’m trying to keep in mind: in ballet class, as in life, you shouldn’t focus on your msitakes. You should make note of them and correct them, of course, but if you find yourself thinking, “Oh, no, this is where I got the combo wrong before,” you’re almost certain to get it wrong again and in the same way.

Of course, when I figure out how to note my mistakes and correct them without focusing on them in that way, I’ll be sure to let you know.

I shall try to keep this brief.

We had a good class tonight even though Denis and I were held hostage by Steak-n-Shake and ran in as the barre segment was beginning. There were only four of us, so we all received close scrutiny. Many questions were asked and many corrections received, especially by me. I was particularly in need of corrections tonight, but they were all good and useful ones.

My core still wasn’t great. I think I’m going to have to put some dedicated time into that. The past couple of weeks I have been running around like a chicken with its head cut off collecting data and so forth, and consequently not putting much time in at home for strength training (which, in my case, generally involves calisthenics and fooling around on an exercise ball, because it’s fun), barre practice, or riding-of-the-bike.

Today we launched a raft of piqué turns. There were only four of us, so the rate of collision remained low … mostly.

Figure 1. Line graph of one ballet class’s progress across the floor. (“NO” is for “PiaNO.” As for “DANGER?” Seriously, Denis and I nearly collided in that one spot like three times.)

If I were making my usual bulleted lists of strengths and weaknesses, the pique turns would be on both. When I put my brain on hold and went with the flow, it was All Good(or well, kinda good, anyway). When I started thinking, I did crazy stuff with my arms, failed to keep my shoulders square, and sort of fumbled my way into and out of turns.

Denis and I also nearly collided in exactly the same spot every time we were heading to the right, which was actually kind of funny.

I actually have no idea if our other two classmates were traveling on nice, straightish lines like I’ve depicted. It’s possible that they were zigging and zagging like a championship football team, just like I did from time to time. Meanwhile, Denis’ brain kept wanting to chainé instead of to piqueé.

A good time was had by all. It was a happy class, for all the crash potential. There was a great deal of smiling. Nobody fell down. Not that anyone has done, at this juncture, but we did lots of turns today, and sometimes people like to fall over when doing turns.

Tomorrow I hand in my data for my independent project and re-hand in the exam for P-342 that Dr. R extended on Thursday. Then I’ll be working on tweaking my project and writing it up as well as writing up my awesome research proposal.

It has just occurred to me that, with any luck, I will graduate this year. Finally. I feel like maybe I should buy one of those obnoxious t-shirts that say SENIORS!!! and CLASS OF THIS VERY CURRENT YEAR OMG! and so forth all over them … except, another part of me feels that’s a little too much like getting your sweetheart’s name tattooed on your person, which never ends well.

Okay, that’s it for now. I think we’ve earned a nice relaxing evening, and I’m going to go read in bed.