After feeling a bit out of my depth yesterday I felt I could use some reassurance, so I took Julie's Beginner 2 today. Julie is an excellent instructor, a retired professional principal dancer. She teaches what I consider a true Beginner 2 class: there are no grand pliés, no single-leg relevés, and the combinations are short and simple. The focus is on clean execution rather than fancy steps. But she can spot a bent supporting knee under sweatpants from across the room, and her corrections are gold.
For all its simplicity, this class is no cakewalk. By the end of barre I felt exhausted; worse than I did after barre yesterday, though that might be because yesterday's barre was pretty short to allow more time in centre. This might explain my trouble turning today. Yesterday I felt like my turns were rather good until near the end of class. Today I felt unstable and off balance. This was not the reassurance I was looking for!
Then came petit allegro. I've been having trouble with certain steps, and I've been trying to work on this. Today's combination was: glissade, jeté, coupé, chassé, pas de bourrée, glissade, assemblé, then repeat in the opposite direction. Today, this all worked for me.
The next combination was mostly the same as last week: two sissonne fermé, one sissonne ouverte, and a pas de bourrée to prepare to go the other direction. Again, something I could feel good about.
Now I don't feel like a total beginner.
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