Back in class!

 It took a bit longer than I expected, but tonight I attended my first in-person ballet class in 16 months. That's the longest I've been out of class since I started taking classes again ten years ago. Even heart surgery only kept me out of class for 10 weeks.

This started with notice that my regular ballet teacher, Susan, would be ending her weekend virtual classes, and instead would begin teaching hybrid classes Tuesday and Thursday nights. Originally I'd planned to go last Tuesday evening, to be part of the first in-person class, but on very short notice an old friend invited me to go along on a week trip to a cottage on Penobscot Bay in Maine. So instead of sweating in a ballet studio, I was enjoying sunsets like this one:

It was weird going back to class. It's something I'd done hundreds of times over the last 10 years, but at the same time it was something I hadn't done in well over a year. I had to find my dance bag, which had gotten shoved in a corner when I'd stopped taking virtual classes about this time last year. My knit leg warmers were somewhere else and had to be tracked down. I'd bought four pairs of soft canvas slippers online a year ago (two pairs of So Danca and two pairs of Capezio Romeos), but I hadn't even opened the boxes. All this went into my dance bag along with a few things I didn't need before: sanitizing wipes and several cloth face masks.

I'm used to having to thread my way through crowds of dancers and parents of dancers on my way to the dressing room to change. Not so tonight. This was the only class going, and you're required to arrive already dressed for class with a cover-up over that. I expected more students, as this class regularly had 30 or more students attending. Instead there were six in person, plus another eight or ten via Zoom. On the other hand, I recognized the majority of students so it felt very familiar.

The exercises were simpler than the typical pre-pandemic Susan class, which suited me just fine. I'd actually considered taking the basic beginner class for a couple of weeks, as I had after surgery, but things started coming back pretty quickly. What didn't return was flexibility, strength, or endurance. Coupés triggered incipient cramps in my calf muscles, and relevés left them sore and throbbing. My balance has suffered somewhat. When I could muster up the muscle strength to get high on demi-pointe I could do a passable single pirouette, but that was maybe one out of five attempts. 

Another thing that isn't working well is my right shoulder. A few months ago I woke up with a sharp pain in my shoulder any time I tried to raise my arm or reach behind my back. These are classic symptoms of a rotator cuff injury, though I don't remember doing anything that would have caused such an injury. Since then I've regained some of my range of motion though therapy and massage, but it's still quite limited. Second position causes sharp twinges of pain, and I can't even get close to a proper fifth. Fortunately, X-ray imaging shows no structural damage and no signs of arthritis. I expect it will be weeks or months before I regain full range of motion in that shoulder.

By the 70 minute mark of this 90-minute class I was exhausted and aching. I participated enough to help me remember the steps next week, but my heart wasn't in it. My plan is to skip the Thursday classes, but make the Tuesday evening class a regular thing. Maybe when I can walk out of class comfortably I'll add Thursday evenings to my schedule.

Still, it's nice to be back!