My turner is half broken

I was off work for most of two weeks over the holidays, and I had great plans for all the classes I was going to take. Of course the school was closed for the holidays themselves, but I figured I could get to several weekday classes I normally can't attend.

It was not to be.

When I got home from work the Friday evening before xmas I felt a little off. As I wrote previously, I skipped my usual Saturday class in hopes of recovering quickly enough to make it to class Sunday or Monday. I did make it to the school's performance of The Nutcracker, but otherwise did not leave home again until the following Friday. I thought briefly about going to class that Saturday morning but decided against it, and had commitments for Sunday and Monday. Tuesday and Wednesday the school was closed.

Yesterday I woke up and started getting ready for class, then I thought better of it. It had been the better part of three weeks since my last class (sorta sounds like confession, eh?) and I decided to wait another day and take the Beginner II class this morning instead.

The Sunday Beginner II class is properly titled, unlike the Saturday class which is almost Advanced Beginner. I find its pace slow and the routines simple, but that's what I was looking for: a chance to ease back into the routine rather jumping into the deep end. I like this class for a couple of reasons. The primary reason is the pace is slow enough that there is time pay attention to form. Another, secondary reason is because it's good for my ego. I don't feel like a doofus struggling just to remember what comes next.

Of course there are moments. Like when I said "sashay" instead of "chassé". The instructor found this amusing but understood what I meant to say and gave me a proper answer (after laughing, of course).

I even scored an unexpected compliment. We were supposed to do a simple pirouette combination (start in tendu derriere, a little hop, tombé, pas du bourrée, chassé to tendu derriere, fourth, pirouette en dehor landing in fourth, tendu derriere, and repeat). Having been away from class for a while I wanted to move the sequence from conscious thought to muscle memory, so did one or two for practice. The instructor, who was still explaining to finer details so some folk, surprised me by saying, "And Reece has got it right." Knock me over with a feather. See? Good for my ego.

I had no real problem with the combination until two things happened. First, if I thought about it instead of just doing it, little things would go astray. Like what was supposed to happen next. And then we switched sides, so the turns went to the left (counterclockwise) instead of to the right. I'd noticed during barre that my right leg didn't feel quite as stable as my left, but this became a problem during a pirouette. I was off balance during the turn, sometimes falling out of it instead of cleanly landing it.

As the title suggests, my turner seems to be half broken.

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Update from Monday:  I'm having trouble walking because my calf muscles are so stiff. This happens every time I take a break from classes and go back, even though I deliberately opted for the easier of the weekend classes. I'm actually hoping for enough snow tomorrow night that I won't have to decide whether to go to class or not.

Update from Tuesday: How many times as children did we wish for snow so we didn't have to go to class? IT'S SNOWING AND CLASSES ARE CANCELED!! Not that I'd be going anyway -- I can barely walk up stairs and down is worse. And that's after I got some ibuprofen into me. Oddly, it doesn't hurt to rise to demi-pointe, but anything resembling a plié is just not happening. My calf muscles are not happy about stretching and they're making sure I know it.