Unmasked

Recognizing that I really need to get back to class more regularly but won't be able to make it Tuesday evening, i decided to attend class this morning. This class is officially the same level as the Tuesday night class, but in actuality is easier both in movement and in mental challenge.

Despite this, however, my legs gave the same "WTF?!" reactions, though perhaps a little less stridently. That aside, my balance seems okay and I didn't have any real difficulty with barre aside from not being as flexible as I'd like.

At the break one of the new (to me) faces approached me and asked if I was the author of this blog. For a half moment I wondered if I should deny it, but then my ego took over and admitted to it. Apparently I have a local fan! She doesn't normally go to weekend or evening classes and I don't go to weekday classes due to my work schedule, so this is the first time we've run into each other. I guess I'll have to keep the embellishments of my ballet prowess to a minimum from now on. I'll leave it to her to admit her guilt if she chooses. :-)

Center work proceeded fairly reasonably until about the 75 minute mark, when I started feeling like I'd run out of steam. Fortuitously this happened just before jumps, which I didn't want to do anyway given the state of my legs and feet, so I took a breather and watched from the sidelines instead. I did feel much better when we started turns (two step-over piques followed by a chassé, pas de bourrée, pirouette sequence) so I joined back in. The last bit was quite simple - échappé, pas de bourrée, glissade, assemblé - which went well other than finding my legs wanted to glissade right even when everything else was moving left. I guess that will go away with practice.

After class I was sore and stiff for the first few hours, but that seems to have mostly dissipated. I'm hoping that continues i to tomorrow, as the day after the previous class I walked only with great stiffness.