I must be doing something right

'Cuz I'm sore. Still sore is more accurate. My calf muscles are being the most vocal, but my hamstrings and quads are singing harmony. Stretching the calves with bent knee is just a normal stretch, but doing it with straight knees really burns.

I suspect it's all the relevé work, especially the one where we grande plié in second, relevé, rise from the plié on demi-pointe, and finally lower back to second slowly over a two-beat count. I'm sure there's a better way to describe this, but it's the best I can do at the moment. The result is to work the muscles that are used to hold demi-pointe, which I'm sure will be important later. But right now it just makes it uncomfortable to walk.

Recently I picked up a copy of Classical Ballet Technique by Gretchen Ward Warren. I still haven't had time to study it, other than to look up specific movements we're doing in class, but I hope to make time for that soon. The first chapter does a great job covering the stuff every class I've taken skipped right over, like proper body position in each of the five classic positions, proper weight distribution, arm positions, and common mistakes in each. I'm deliberately skipping most of chapter 2, which discusses the ideal body structure for a classical ballet dancer. As Popeye would say, "I yam what I yam", and I'm not going to stop going to class even if I'd be an ideal model for many of the "not recommended" photos.