Thinking I was late for class, I hurriedly wrapped up work and rushed out to my car. I made good time, despite a pedestrian clad in all matte black walking out into the intersection as I was making a turn (yeah, she had right-of-way, but dressing like a Ninja makes you damned hard to see). Walking into class the instructor said, "My! You're here early! I have a private lesson now, do you just want to hang around for the hour?" Huh? An hour?
Confused, I pulled out my phone to check my calendar. After a year and a half, I forgot that class began at 6:30, not 6:00. So instead of having just enough time to change and a few minutes of warm-up, I had over 45 minutes (this instructor perpetually runs 10+ minutes late, accounting for the difference).
After verifying that I could use the barre in the corner without disturbing her lesson, I changed and started warming up. My I-T bands are notoriously tight and my feet have been sore of late, so I alternated between plies/releves and barre stretches. Rather than pushing anything, I opted for slow and gentle, letting things relax over time. For the first time I really felt limber (for me).
We had two new students show up, so we pulled out the old, slightly wobbly barre to avoid crowding anyone. The plus side of this is that I had the short side of the old barre to myself. The minus side was discovering that at its lowest position the barre was still several inches higher than I normally could use. So instead of feeling unusually flexible during class stretches, I was again struggling just to get my hips square. Not what I'd hoped for.
Our center combinations keep growing in length. None of the steps is particularly difficult, but stringing them together creates complexity. On the other hand, I'm finding I'm having to spend less time thinking about the individual steps and have more time to think about how they tie together. Last class the instructor made some comment about things shifting to muscle memory; at the time I dismissed her comment but now I'm thinking she's right. I'll call that progress!
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