At the tail end of class this evening we did what I thought was going to be the combination I wrote about recently. It wasn't. Instead, it went this way: piqué arabesque, glissade, jeté, coupé, piqué arabesque, glissade, assemblé. As part of the assemblé there is a quarter turn, so you're now oriented properly to repeat the combination in the other direction. This is a bouncy sequence, with lots of travel and the chance to grab some serious altitude as part of the assemblé.
After stumbling through the other combination we'd done, this one seemed like something I could figure out quickly. The sticky parts turned out to be moving from the coupé or assemblé to the piqué arabesque, which I got the instructor to help me with after class, but if we ignore my missteps at those points I felt like I had a good grasp of the sequence. And after watching some of my classmates do really nice double pirouettes earlier, getting high on the assemblé was really fun. Even better is that since this was the last thing we did before reverance, I walked out feeling really good.
I may also have figured out why my legs have been hurting so much recently. If I'm right it has little to do with ballet, so there's no need for me to take a break from classes. I'll know for sure in a couple of weeks. With the worry that I might be suffering some sort of cumulative injury somewhat alleviated, I might drop in on the class tomorrow evening to work on form at the slower Beginner I pace.
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
3 comments:
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Hi there! I'm happy you walked out of class feeling good. I think some times that's the hardest thing about ballet - being ok with how good or bad you did in class. Dance is supposed to be fun not stressful. :)
ReplyDeleteI wanted to let you know that I have nominated you for a Liebster blog award. It's just a way to recognize blogs and say you're valued! There aren't many male dance blogs so I'm glad you're sharing your story!
I was pretty tickled about how that class worked out. I perform my best when I'm challenged, and this new class is definitely a challenge. When I can finish a class feeling like I've come close to mastering something, it's a good feeling.
DeleteThanks for the nomination! I'm flattered. I use this blog as more of a journal than any attempt to be witty or entertaining, and I have no idea how many followers I have. Google's statistics are mostly useless, made worse by a couple of vampire blood-suckers who periodically bombard my blogs with bogus views hoping I'll follow their links to their porn.
Hi Reece! You're absolutely welcome! I actually sent over your blog to one of my dance friends who is looking for more male ballet inspiration :). I'm looking forward to keeping updated on your blog. If you want to find out more about the Liebster award - I wrote a blog post about it - if you haven't checked it out already!
ReplyDeleteI absolutely HATE spam. I find it an insult. I get all excited that people have commented on my blog - only to find out that it's SPAM. ugh. It's ridiculous.
Do you mind me asking where you take classes?