Class on Wednesday was packed! We were already pretty full when three students walked in slightly late, all absolute beginners. I forget sometimes Wednesdays are billed as “beginner ballet.” We had to pull out a second barre, a rare occurrence. It was nice having the beginners in class, although Taylor didn’t change much and it was still a good level of challenge for the regulars. She just jumped in with the beginners and gave them some variations (hands on hips, etc). It was nice to see ballet class through fresh eyes—like wow okay what I am doing is actually pretty difficult and it really did take SO MANY YEARS to…
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Now it was time to stumble anew
I never wrote about the class I took before Thanksgiving break. I took a true break and neglected everything in my liiiiife including this blog. All I did was eat brownies for 5 days. (Now it was time to stumble anew) The last class before break was my regular Monday class. I still felt weak from my Mystery Diagnosis illness so it was nothing to write home about. The only thing of note was that Taylor, the other teacher, took class with us! It was slightly intimidating, but I’m sure she wasn’t checking on her students’ technique during class. Likewise, I tried to pay attention only to myself and not…
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One more dream
I was not feeling well all week. It was a strange malaise with a frustrating lack of any real symptoms. I began to wonder if what was wrong with me was that it was raining, every day, all day. Or that two of my pets had to go to the emergency vet within a few weeks of each other. But telling myself it was all in my head didn’t give me any extra energy or make me feel like a living human being any faster. So I tried to rest, and I tried to patiently wait until the very idea of going to a ballet class didn’t make me want…
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Modern Dance!
Special bonus dance class recap: MODERN DANCE!! My sister takes modern dance classes with her friend, a dancer and choreographer named Alyona Almato. I think I mentioned last time that one of Alyona’s sons went to my sister’s in-home preschool and that’s how they met—it was so fortuitous for them to meet and my sister to discover a love of dance!!! I said this on Instagram, but growing up, my sister took gymnastics, and I took ballet (only once a week, for a few years). My sister was a lot more serious about gymnastics than I was about ballet, but eventually quit and played volleyball, and was on the swim…
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Embarabesque
I was late to class for the first time. I was late leaving work, there was this whole thing with the shuttle I have to take to get on/off my work grounds, and then traffic was unusually terrible from home to class. I hate being late, but it wasn’t too bad. Taylor had waited a few minutes, since I wasn’t the only one stuck in traffic. I was still the last one in, but I only missed the first side of pliés. The other day, I filmed myself doing a few different exercises. It was a strange experience, mostly because some of the faults I noticed were a total surprise…
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Drosselmeyer for president
Happy election day! I hope you voted if you are in the U.S. Enough about politics, let’s talk about d a n c e Content warning: I talk about weight/body image a bit. No numbers. Daylight Saving Time ended Sunday night, so when going to class on Monday, it felt like it was really late. I kinda wasn’t feeling it. I felt like a mess. I work from home on Mondays, so I hadn’t bothered to wash my hair. I pull my hair back as best I can for class, and sometimes it forms itself into a nice sweaty mullet while I dance. So that happened. Then I was sort…
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Trois Classes
So my schedule being thrown off by sick cat + Halloween has led to… taking more ballet classes than usual? Ok (Our kitty is doing well by the way!) The main studio I go to has free class day on the first of every month. Last month it fell on a Wednesday, so I just didn’t have to use up a check on my class card. This month it was on a Thursday, so I decided to skip the hip hop class at the Y and do a free ballet class instead. The studio I go to has 3 locations around town, and there was a class that fit my…
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C’est n’est pas un chat
When I arrived at the studio on Monday, I whipped out my class card and was totally shocked to see that my card was full and I would be using my free class! The class cards are buy ten, get one free, but it was actually my 13th class since starting ballet again. There was a free class day and then I paid for a single class before purchasing the class card. Lucky number 13! I continue to love Monday classes in a different, yet complementary, way than Wednesday classes. They are actually very similar in structure and difficulty. Sometimes I forget which one is supposed to be the “intermediate”…
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For your jumps
I feel so great after yesterday’s class. Mistakes were made, combinations were flubbed, entire segments of class were disasters. But in between all that were moments when I felt stronger than ever. If I looked in the right places, I could see clearly where I’ve improved and where I’m growing quickly. And when I saw it, nothing else mattered. That’s what I excitedly wrote on Instagram after Wednesday’s class. The class, however, was off to a rocky start. Barre was pretty rough. Combinations weren’t sticking in my head—especially when we would do an exercise, reverse it, and then repeat the whole thing with arms. By the third and/or fourth time,…
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Girl are you ready? It’s gonna be a long (class)
I finally listened to the desperate pleas of my future self and didn’t eat or drink to excess on Sunday. I still had pizza and beer (it’s football season! It’s mandatory!), but I kept my portions reasonable. Was my reward feeling strong, rested, and light on Monday for ballet class? No; my reward was a bunch of stupid cramps. You know how they say one of thing things that can relieve cramping is exercise? I know every woman who ever reads that in some overly-cheerful article is like, uh no thanks, I’m good. But if you can somehow get to a standing position and get yourself to your exercise of…
