Sunday, November 24, 2013

Suddenly winter

Earlier this week it was in the 60s. This morning the thermometer outside my window read 23F (-5C). The low tonight is supposed to hit 19F (-7C), and with the wind chill it'll feel like 8F (-13C). The thermostats in the studios read 73F, but nearer the windows it was chilly and the hallways felt downright cold. Especially if you're only wearing shorts and a thin shirt. One of the women wore three layers of socks, two layers of leg warmers, two pullovers, and knit mittens through barre. Brrrr.

It's been a while since I've been in one of the Tuesday evening or Saturday morning classes due to other commitments. This morning one of the students who takes those classes and the Sunday AM B2 class came up to me to tell me that my absence has been noticed and commented upon. My plan has been go back to the Tuesday PM class after the holiday, but I don't think I can afford to spend a big chunk of both Saturday and Sunday in dance classes. At least not until I hit the lottery.

Today's instructor made a point of separating learning the "vocabulary" of ballet from executing the combinations. I feel like more of the steps are becoming familiar enough that I can execute them without conscious thought, leaving me more brainwidth to think about linking steps and combinations. In this morning's B2 class I realized that one of my problems is I'd come to think of a combination as a set of phrases, and I'd always stumble at the transition from one phrase to the next. Thinking about it as a continuous sentence let me get through the entire thing without the hiccup.

This helped a little bit in this afternoon's AB class, but I'm still struggling to keep up with the music. It's less desperate flailing and more a flow now, but it's still a struggle. I managed to do one combination reasonably decently, only to screw up the next. But it'll come with time.

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