Wednesday, January 23, 2019

Selective amnesia

I've always wondered why women are willing to give birth to multiple children. It seems that after all the complaining and swearing that they'll never do it again there would only be families with single children. Apparently some sort of amnesia sets in.

Yet, after swearing I'd never do anything like the Adult Weekend Workshop again, I find myself signed up for the Adult Repertoire class starting February 1st. (link) Here's the class description:
Use your years of ballet training to experience the joys (and discipline) of learning a group dance from one of the world’s finest choreographers. Emphasis will be placed on presentation and working as a corps de ballet. A single dance will be taught over the 5 class session, building weekly, and includes a quick warm-up. Level – Intermediate. No performance. Lead by Jeffrey Luke.
I'm actually a bit intimidated by this class. The original announcement specified "Advanced Beginner" level and up. When I spoke with Jeff he suggested that I could watch one of the classes and decide whether I wanted to sign up for the next session, but I never got around to doing that. One of the participants says he thinks I'll be okay, but then again he's the same person who roped me into the Adult Weekend Workshop. Now it says "Intermediate" level; I've never taken above Advanced Beginner, and I haven't been in one of those classes in a couple of years.



In other news...

The knot in my right thigh is all but gone, and the spot is only slightly tender when palpated. However, the bruise has developed colorfully:


My back is pretty well recovered, so with an abundance of caution I went to class Sunday, that being the easier of the two weekend classes. Neither my back nor leg caused any real difficulty. In fact, I was pretty happy with the state of my turns and got some positive words from the instructor.

Tuesday rolled around again, as it does every week, and I braved the unusually cold weather to go to class yet again. The instructor commented that she had been feeling a bit lethargic in the late afternoon, so she'd treated herself to an extra glass of green tea. By the time class started she was wired on the extra caffeine. This always makes for an amusing class.

I am definitely noticing that I'm feeling more confident with my dancing. Our first centre exercise involved pirouettes en dedans, which I've always found challenging. For the first time I found myself wondering if I could manage a double, though I didn't try it. The pirouettes en dehor I think I could have done doubles, at least early in the class before I got tired. Again I didn't try, but that's because I need to focus on proper form (working foot position, for example) and consistency before I try for anything showy. I see a few other classmates doing sloppy doubles while struggling with other basic steps. I think a well-executed single is a better goal than a sloppy double.


Wednesday, January 16, 2019

Ow! Ow! Ow!

If you want to read about muscle cramps, feel free to read on. Otherwise go read something else. It's my blog and I'll whine if I want to!