And then a miracle occurs

Last Saturday I was feeling kinda depressed about the glacial rate of my progress, so I started re-reading the early entries in this blog. That's actually why I started the blog: to allow me an honest look back at where I've been.

That cheered me up a bit. It was like a trip back in time, and I got lost there long enough that I was almost late to The Washington Ballet performance that night. Contrary to what one might expect, watching the pros do the same sort of things I do in class (albeit much better) is inspiring for me.

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Sunday morning, feeling a bit more upbeat, I went off to my Beginner II class. Barre was going pretty well, and one of the exercises ended with rising to passé relevé with the working leg and demi-pointe on the other and holding it. Basically the position for a pirouette without the rotation. Many of the portable barres are too low for me to easily reach while in this position, so I'll just let go and bring both arms to first. At the end this exercise of the second side (left leg working and right standing) I found a really nice balance point. I concentrated on getting as high and stable as I could, and held it for a bit even after the music stopped. As I came down to fifth I heard our instructor exclaim "That's a really nice balance, Reece!" This is not the sort of thing I'm used to hearing from this instructor.

Don't get me wrong; she often politely compliments students when they do well. But this had more of a "wow, I'm impressed" tone with a touch of pleasure thrown in. It's just not like her to draw that much attention to a single student, especially when the whole class is waiting for her to explain the next exercise. Even when she gives corrections to a student by name they're usually phrased "Reece and friends" or similar to spread the focus. I wasn't really sure how to react, so I just kinda politely nodded.

I think her exclamation caught her off guard too. Maybe she thought she'd embarrassed me (maybe a little, but I'll gladly suffer that for such a compliment). I think she decided to take the edge off it by joking, "Miracles do occur!" Then, perhaps thinking that was too harsh, she added, "But it takes a lot of hard work."

Now she really had everyone's attention, probably in confusion. After a moment she felt compelled to explain, "It's like my beginner pointe students: They're scared to balance on pointe, then one day a miracle occurs and they do it. But it takes a lot of work before the miracle occurs."

I don't know whether she felt she'd struck the right balance, or just decided to stop digging the hole deeper, but she then went on with the next exercise. 

I'm still working to translate those moments of solid balance to my pirouettes, but they're slowly improving. During the rapid-fire pirouette exercise in this class I still find myself off-balance, but less so with practice. 

In Monday's Advanced Beginner the pirouette exercise is slower, giving me time to everything aligned before starting the turn, and the turns are much cleaner. I've even been tempted on occasion to attempt a double on occasion, but decided to concentrate on walking with confidence before attempting to run.

Scratch Monday. Let's do Tuesday and Thursday

Monday I didn't feel like getting out of bed. I logged in to register anyway, only to discover that Floor Barre had been canceled. I took that as a sign that I should stay home. And it was: some idiots decided to hold a protest blocking a major highway causing major traffic snarls.

One of the problems -- or benefits -- of buying the monthly class pass is that it only makes economic sense if I actually go to about three classes or more a week. Having blown off two classes Monday, I resolved to go Tuesday and Thursday evening.

Why is my easiest class the hardest?

I arrived for my Beginner II class early Sunday morning. I did some warm-up, then practiced a few pirouettes: left and right, en dedans and en dehor, from fouth. All working fairly well. I was feeling pretty good.

Class started with barre, of course. There were hints that we'd be working on pirouettes in centre, giving me that spooky feeling again. Barre went on and on, with lots of time spent rising to passé relevé and balancing. I told myself to conserve energy by doing some of the exercises flat-footed instead of demi-pointe, but I didn't. Finally, after 50 minutes, barre was done. I was feeling tired and a bit sore already.

We got to the pirouettes section of centre. Starting in fifth we rose to passé relevé and returned to the same fifth. Then an en dehor turn closing in the opposite fifth. Tendu to fourth and a pirouette en dehor landing in the same fourth. Stepped to the opposite fourth and a pirouette en dedans landing in fifth. Repeat in the other direction.

I told myself, go slowly; don't over-do the turn. But I was already tired and wobbly. We did it again, with some general corrections. I didn't fall over, but I wasn't happy: an hour before I was doing pretty decent turns.

This class is the slowest class I take, aside from Floor Barre, yet it's exhausting. It's because it's slow that it's hard.

Flic or Flac

There are things that everyone dreads hearing:

• Your boss says you need to work late.
• Your dentist says you're overdue for a cleaning.
• Your ballet instructor says she just drank a caffeinated beverage.

Thursday, our instructor casually mentioned that she'd really been dragging, and had gotten a cup of coffee before class to perk her up. This sparked an animated discussion with another student regarding the relative caffeine content of coffee versus green tea. I got straight to the point and commented, "We're screwed."

Years ago I came across this thing called a "flic flac" in magazine or web articles. These articles commonly opened with scary statements like, "Flic flac confuses even the most advanced dancers."  I was just getting back into ballet and was very much a beginner so I didn't bother reading any further. I figured it'd be a long time before I encountered it in class, if ever.

I'm still a relative beginner some 10 years in. So it was something of a surprise when "ever" came Thursday evening. My first reaction was, "Are you serious??" Then she demonstrated it without the turn and that part seemed really easy, like an abbreviated pas de cheval. She said that those who knew how to do a flic flac could do it with the turn, while the rest of us could skip it.

Now that it's been introduced, I'm sure we're going to see this again. I went hunting for a decent explanation of this step and came up with this video on YouTube. I think I'm going to spend some time studying this step.

Righty Loosey

The old saying about screws is "Righty Tighty; Lefty Loosey". This does not apply when it comes to my legs, though.

Sunday, I was thinking I should thank the instructor for giving me a key correction for fixing my turns, but I decided to wait until after class to see how well I did. This is the slowest class I take, and I have time during barre to really focus on getting all the details right (or as right as I can manage). The problem is that this sometimes leaves me rather tired, and this affects me in centre. Compounding this, I ate leftovers from dinner as breakfast, rather than something that has simple carbohydrates. The turns segment in centre was a mix of passé relevés and pirouettes, and I didn't do all that well. I was just too tired by that point. Oh well, there's always next week.

I'm trying to get to class more often, so I bought the 1-month pass rather than my usual 10-class card. This is fractionally cheaper if I take 12 classes a month — roughly three classes a week — and gets better if I take more. Now that my schedule allows me to take daytime classes too, I've been taking Floor Barre® class Monday mornings, followed by the Advanced Beginner class that used to be mid-day Wednesday. Adding in a weekend (Sunday) class brings me to three a week, plus I've been dropping into the occasional Thursday night Beginner 2.75 class.

Taking Floor Barre not only helps practice proper positions without fighting gravity and balance, it gives me a chance to warm up slowly before the Advanced Beginner class. However, I still need to conserve energy during the AB barre. Today we had an interesting centre exercise that included several pirouette turns. I found that those standing on my left leg were pretty good, but turning on my right leg was wobbly. Toward the end of the exercise I made specific effort to get that leg fully straight and that did a lot toward making them more stable.

We also did a piqué turn exercise. Again, one side is better than the other. But I can work on that.

Little, incremental changes.