Re-Turning

Returning to ballet classes after a year off has had a lot of ups and downs. And I don't mean relevés, though there have been lots of those too.

My pirouettes en dehors have gotten much better. I feel more upright. I can turn more slowly with more control and less energy. And they're more consistent across my energy levels.

On the other hand, my pirouettes en dedans have gotten worse. I'm off-balance and often fall out of the turn before completing the rotation. WTF? I used to be able to do these.

I've also been trying to work on my glissade and petit jeté. These are other things I seem to have forgotten how to do. I've even talked to my instructors about this. Part of the problem is that this comes late in the class sequence, by which I'm often feeling too tired to concentrate. These are improving slowly.

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Today I took the easier of the two so-called "Beginner II" classes I take, due to a scheduling conflict with yesterday's class. Despite these being "drop-in" classes, instructors often build from one class to the next. When we got to grande allegro, I thought I was in trouble because the regulars in this class had been working on it for several weeks. Then I realized that this was the easier of the two classes, and the combination was actually relatively easy.

I got called out twice for corrections today. In my book this is a good thing. The whole reason for taking classes with experienced instructors is to get the benefit of their feedback. This instructor knows calling me by name isn't going to upset me. If she wants to use me as an example for other students that's just fine by me; I'm getting the feedback I need.