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.