A hurting puppy

Here I am in San Jose again, recovering from another beginner-level class at Ballet San Jose. Kudos to the instructor for remembering me from the two classes I took from her two months ago!

I managed to get to class a half hour early, giving myself time to stretch beforehand. Unexpectedly we scored a live pianist for the evening, which was nice.

Barre was a faster pace than I'm used to, but I didn't find any of the patterns terribly difficult. Releves, though... I just can't do as many as the instructor expects. I made it through two of the three sets in parallel, then had to stop. I was counting myself lucky until she started again in first. I'm just going to have to learn to quit earlier and not try to keep up with this crazy woman.

Center started with a lot of balancing on one leg. Developpe en croix followed by a rond-de-jambe en l'air, all while standing on one foot. Mostly stable with occasional falling over. I think I'm clenching my standing foot, because it started hurting about half way through.

The turns across the floor were pretty simple: two regular pique turns, a step-over pique turn closing to fifth, and tendu to prepare for the next set. I acquitted myself pretty well, though the floor was seriously sticky. The music was a bit slower than I'd have preferred, but a bit too fast for me to feel comfortable attempting to do it double-speed as a few of the better students did.

Jumps were nothing exciting, though by then I was tired and ready to be done.

As I was leaving, the instructor told me she thought I'd done quite well. It's good to hear that on occasion. I told her I'd try to make it to Friday night's class.

I don't know if I'm going to keep that promise, though. Not quote re-hydrated from the 5+ hour flight out here, I had a bout of nasty cramps in my quads early this morning. I've been drinking water like mad ever since, hoping to avoid a repeat, but my calf muscles are still badly knotted from all the releves. Tomorrow I may go in search of some Gatorade. If I do make it to class tomorrow, I'm definitely going to skip some of those releves. Otherwise they'll have to wheel me onto the airplane Saturday.