Sunday, December 30, 2018

HOW many ballet schools?

This is being written on my phone. When I get to a real computer I'll translate initials in the first section to names and links.

I'm told the Berrend Dance Centre in Olney, Md., is moving to Derwood (the no-man's land between Rockville and Gaithersburg) early next year. That means there will be three schools with quality instructors in a fairly small radius (the others being MSD and MBT). Expand the radius a bit more and you pick up MYB and TSWB. Child, teen, or adult, there's no shortage of quality ballet instruction along I-270.

I wonder if I should post a map?




The holidays this year have screwed with my ballet class schedule. Both Christmas and New Year's fell on Tuesdays. Last weekend I went to class Sunday morning. This weekend I made the questionable choice of attending Saturday and Sunday morning classes. I'm wondering how hard it will be to get out of bed tomorrow.

I may have mentioned a month or two ago that a classmate had missed the last step on a flight of stairs and sprained her ankle badly. And by "badly" I mean unable to put any weight on it, needing crutches to get around at all, and even driving being impractical. This is bad for anyone, but for someone who dances ballet (and en pointe at that) it's worse. Not only does it affect simple things like being able to go grocery shopping, but the muscles, skills and balance you've spent years developing immediately start deteriorating.

Her physical therapists were telling her she might be able to get back to class in mid-January. She told me she expected to start back in the Beginner I classes for a bit to get her flexibility and strength back, which would be the safe, rational thing to do. So I was surprised to see her in the Beginner II class Saturday. So much for safe and rational, eh? But I know the frustration.

During class I really can't pay much attention to anything but what I'm doing and the space immediately around me, but from what I did see it looked like she was doing okay. Some of the exercises she took on demi-pointe, but a lot of the time she stood on that foot flat to keep the stress and strain down. Wisely she took her leave just before we got to jumps in centre. She's always been one of my favorites to watch during class and I hope she recovers well and completely.

1 comment:

  1. Yes, please post a map showing where Berrend's new location is :)

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