Monday, February 15, 2016

Accumulating rust

After a couple weeks off, mostly due to snow but also work, I made it back to class. With my off-and-on attendance I opted for Sunday's Beginner 2 class. I got a late start and walked in the door a few minutes after scheduled class start. Of course class didn't actually start for several minutes more, but I really didn't have any time to warm up, and since it was only +12F (-11C) out, "not warmed up" was literal.

The cold seemed to have penetrated my head too, because I made a number of silly mistakes during barre. Mostly it was a matter of forgetting what came next or just skipping ahead. I got a couple of corrections for not keeping my knees straight, especially when extending to the rear. These were less a matter of not paying attention than feeling all sorts of stretch behind my knees when I attempted it.

Rust.

Yet all was not bad. At one point we were in coupé en demi-point and I found I could hold that fairly well without touching the barre. In center my balance wasn't spectacular but neither was it horrible. When we got to turns (a combination of waltz turns and pirouettes I ended up in the first group to go and did pretty well when turning turning to the right en dehors. To the left the first turn didn't really want to go but got better on subsequent turns. I even remembered to spot on occasion. En dedans, though, eeechh! Has it really been that long?

The more rewarding bit was in the petite allegro where we where challenged with a cross-timing combination of 3-3-2 (glissade, jeté, sauté; glissade, jeté, sauté; glissade, assemblé). I usually get stuck in such a combination at the end of a phrase but this time I was able to keep the movement going and stay with the music. It wasn't pretty, but it was an accomplishment.

Due to medical stuff the chances of me going to class tomorrow night are nil. I expect I'll be able to get to class this weekend, though. I'm looking forward to getting outside then, as we're supposed to go from the frigidly cold +12F this weekend and snow today to +60F (+15.5C) on Saturday!

No comments:

Post a Comment

Comments are encouraged! It doesn't matter whether you're a total newbie asking a question or a professional offering advice; I want to hear from you.

That said, Blogger sometimes quarantines comments for reasons I can't explain. If your comment doesn't show up immediately it may be waiting for approval. I'll approve almost anything relevant, but I have to notice it first! Spam will be trashed, of course.