Cutting Class

After getting to class Saturday and Tuesday evening, I was all set to go to class this evening. Enroute, though, my stomach started feeling unsettled, and by the time I got parked and to the door it was definitely upset. So instead I'm having a light dinner and will go home shortly.

It may be that Tuesday night's class was made easier to suit the skill level of the attending 7 students. Except for barre, which was not particularly strenuous but we bollixed up the combinations anyway, the class as a whole seemed easier to me.

Doubt and Reassurance

Thursday night's Advanced Beginner class left me questioning my motivations. Why do I go to classes that leave me feeling awkward and frustrated? The instructor has been giving me small compliments at the barre, and I can see tiny improvements here and there. I seem to be struggling less than some others. But in center I got put in a group with two other men who are semi-pro (I think). Just shy of 9pm, at the end of a long work day, I'm having trouble keeping the sequence straight and my assemblés are sloppy; they're springing high in the air and adding clean beats. So what's the point? I'm never going to be able to do anything with this.

Today (Saturday) I went to the Beginner II class. I haven't been to this class for a while, but the scheduling worked out better than catching a class tomorrow. This is the class I've called B2.75 because it's a lot harder than the Sunday B2 class, and not that much easier than the AB classes. Something weird happened at the end of center. The last combination seemed too complex for me to wrap my head around at first and I planned to sit it out. But as I watched the class mark it I realized that it wasn't really that hard. When it was time for my group to go the girls seemed very unsure and I kept running into them, so I moved to an open area and ignored them. I made a couple mistakes but on the whole it went quite well.

This still isn't going anywhere. But maybe that's not that bad.

Holiday break update

This weekend is the American Labor Day holiday, and the studio is closed. I also had to skip last Tuesday evening's Beginner II class due to the sunburn on my legs, but I did get to Thursday evening's Advanced Beginner class.

Even though the adult classes don't stop over the summer, Thursday's class felt a bit like the start of a new semester. I didn't really have trouble with any of the sequences until we got to the petit allégro portion. The sequence was easy but the pace was not; I just can't seem to move that quickly. Even when I don't get stuck between phrases I have trouble with changes of direction. This exercise involved sissonnes to the front, side, rear, side in rapid sequence. The four girls from the academy classes did it beautifully, some of the adults did it passibly, and I couldn't keep up with the music.

Is this sort of speed something you can gain with practice?