Pointes all over

When I arrived for class this morning, Susan and one of my classmates were in the hallway limbering up in pointe shoes. Apparently this has become a regular thing with Susan before class.

When Susan switched to her regular slippers before class she was dismayed to discover that they were still wet after having been washed. I jokingly suggested she could just do class in her pointe shoes, and she replied that she'd have to get a pair that actually fit her. She ended up fetching an old but dry pair of slippers from her bag in the office.

The studio started off a bit cold, but with 22 students sweating through barre it didn't stay that way very long. Barre went pretty well, with none of the cramping in my calf muscles I sometimes get. I'm thinking that at least some part of my body likes having a class every 2-3 days. The combinations in centre sounded long and involved when explained but really didn't seem too bad when we did them. My balance was pretty good and my turns seemed to be benefiting from correcting my working foot position, but part way through centre I just seemed to run out of energy. I gave up on some of the turns because I was just falling out of them and stuck with the rest of the combination. With 30 seconds left in class Susan introduced a simple sequence that included a step I recognized from previous research as temps de flèche. Unfortunately we had little time and really didn't get to work on it.

After class I wanted to talk to Susan, but one of the other students had already started to ask her a question. As I politely waited my turn I was amused to hear that she was asking what exercises she should be doing to strengthen her ankles so she could maybe take parts of class en pointe. Gee... sounds like yet another student who would be interested in having an adult pointe class!

It seems JoM is a no-go unless the class runs 13 weeks, and since the fall semester has already begun I don't see that happening. MSD is a possibility, but on Thursday evening there isn't a studio available until 7:30pm, and Susan was looking to hold the class earlier so she could get home earlier.

I'm beginning to wonder whether it wouldn't be smarter to see if I can get MSD to hold the class rather than involving Susan. Not that she wouldn't be an excellent instructor, but I think she's justifiably reluctant to lose one of her few free nights a week. One possibility that crossed my mind is to suggest she teach a 5 or 6 week class at MSD, and if she decides she doesn't want to continue then get one of the MSD instructors to pick it up in her place.