I finally bit the bullet and returned to intermediate class today.

But first I failed to eat breakfast, so I bought some protein bars (mainly because they were fairly low in sugar).   I had plenty of time before class, so I wolfed one down.

Then I noticed a message on the side of the box: “Increase fiber intake gradually to avoid gastric distress.”

Huh.

I did not proceed to check out the fiber content (update: I did check it after I got home — 20% of your daily diet intake per Bar!   No wonder.   I mean, that’s great, but maybe better after class, here).  

I didn’t want to know.   Sometimes — particularly on the way into I(ntermediate) C(lass), Brienne’s IC especially — ignorance is bliss, or at least survival.

Barre went well.   As a body, Brienne’s students adore her because she works us like a bunch of cart-horses while providing great guidance and corrections.   We suffer under her tutelage and emerge better dancers.

Oh, and her barre is often a full hour long.  Spin class got nothin’ on Brienne’s barre.

It turns out that I haven’t lost my ability to learn long combinations and execute them, though I am somewhat out of shape physically.

I suffered like a bike racer through the final fondu adagio (we did, like, three separate slow fondu combos; mine got ugly towards the end) and then somewhat half-assed the frappés, even though that combination was fun (frappe x4, grand battement x2, all the way around and then avant with the inside leg).

At center, it turned out (no pun intended!) that all the work I’ve been doing on balances has greatly improved my turns.  They’re now solid in combinations, as long as I don’t psych myself out.

We did a little warm-up thing with tendus and pirouettes from fifth, then some really nice adagio that I freaking well did right (including a double from fourth, Bwahaha!) on the first try…

And then, like a voice from beyond, my stomach spoke.

It spoke inaudibly, but its message was clear: Danseur Ignoble, you are just about done for the day.  It was quite firm about that.

I made it through the second side of the adagio combination, but by the end of the first-side repeat my guts were in knots and I was starting to think I might vomit.   My leg was also quietly suggesting that it was close to done –and I still needed to haul groceries home on the bike.  For that matter, even my brain wasn’t so hot by then: it was busy trying to keep my guts in line, and I soon forgot the combination I’d just done so successfully a moment before.

My leg, my guts, my brain, and I limped through the rest of the adagio.   We skipped the allegro: the guts weren’t having it, and the leg felt sufficiently fatigued to suggest a good stopping point anyway.

Needless to say, I followed up my class with an unexpected pit stop.   Oy vey.

At any rate, all’s well that ends well.   I’m feeling much better now.

And I have learned a valuable lesson: when choosing a pre-class breakfast bar, fiber content is probably as important as sugar and protein content.

Today’s corrections:
1. An effective one for keeping the supporting leg really turned out while in a relevé balance (can’t remember how she said it, but it worked and I’ve got it in my body now).
2. A deeply useful one for hitting the accents and a good line in frappé. Somehow, I haven’t been thinking of where the “picture” is in frappé,perhaps because I keep thinking of it as a passing step, which is a silly thing to think anyway in ballet. In ballet, there’s always a “picture.”
3. An excellent one for being musical and expressive in adagio without squinching up too much in the “small” moments.  This one you really had to see.  Maybe I’ll make a video?

Even though graduating is, like, terrifying in its own way (I used to kvetch about never finishing anything; now I’m kvetching about how scary finishing is!), I can’t wait to be done with this semester so I can get back to doing Brienne’s class on a regular basis.   Also Brian’s Monday class.

Between the two of them and Margie’s and/or Claire’s Saturday classes, I think I’ll be in very good shape when it comes time to do the audition component for various DMT programs.   I’m gaining a confidence in my body that I really never expected to achieve (learning to loooooove yourself, it is the greaaaaaatest loooooove o-of all, amirite?).

So that’s it for today.  Stay on the ball, dancers!