Why do I do this to myself?

I went back to class this morning, after about 2.5 months off. It went as you might expect.

I have good excuses for missing many of the classes early in that period. I was out of town for some of them, and had conflicts for others. But once I'd missed quite a few, the idea of going back felt more and more scary, and it seemed there was always something else I needed to be doing.

Then I heard that the Tuesday night class I usually take has been suspended through the summer. The Thursday night class I sometimes take isn't happening because of the US 4th of July holiday. Somehow not having the option of going spurred me to actually go.

The Sunday morning class is about the easiest class I could take, short of the Beginner 1 class Wednesday night, and that wouldn't be challenging enough for me to be worth taking. So I dug out my dance bag, made sure it still held the essentials, got dressed for class, and drove down early enough to allow myself a bit of warm-up beforehand.

I fully expected to have spasms and incipient cramps in my feet and calf muscles, and I wasn't disappointed. As much as I wish I had been. What I wasn't expecting was the mistakes I made following simple barre exercise patterns. I don't remember it requiring quite this much concentration. I also got called for not fully extending my knee in tendu derrière. On the other hand, during frappés I got complimented by name. I guess I haven't forgotten everything.

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Speaking of forgetting things, I signed up for this summer's repertoire class. I'm the 10th person to sign up so it's likely to actually happen. It's scheduled for Saturdays 1-2pm, which gives dancers the opportunity to take a technique classes in the morning and then go into the repertoire class already warmed up and ready.

That means I have about 3 weeks to remember how ballet works, and get my legs ready again. Clearly I lack sanity.