When I first saw my ballet school's fall adult class schedule, I was excited to see that there was an advanced beginner class every weekday at noon, and each class had a different instructor. I had already been taking an advanced beginner class with one of these instructors for several months, and I started thinking about making it a Monday, Wednesday, Friday schedule. For various reasons, some of which I've touched on before, this hasn't happened.
Until now.
I've been kinda hoping for a repeat of the miracle of last month, but like winning the $2 billion lottery, that hasn't happened. Instead, there has been a slow progression.
I'd spent much of Saturday doing household chores. I'm allergic to house
dust (yes, medically confirmed), so the day started with Allegra as a
prophylactic and ended with Benadryl in hopes of being able to breathe
through my nose during the night. I was fully prepared to use this as an excuse explanation for being a bit off-balance during class.
Sunday I arrived in class a bit later than usual. Someone else had claimed what had become my regular spot, so I moved to the front row of portable barres. Having staked my claim, I did some warmup stretches. Then I tried a couple of pirouettes, just to see how they'd work when I was fresh: not fantastic, but stable. Okay, maybe I'd hold off on the explanation.
I'm not sure if it was related, but the instructor then commented that she'd noticed that I'd been taking advantage of my retirement by taking mid-day classes during the week. Have I mentioned recently that it's hard for me to hide in ballet classes? Of course, that could just be my outgoing personality; I'm not exactly the shy, quiet type, as anyone who has been in class with me can attest.
To my surprise, class went much better than I expected. Pirouettes seemed cleaner than usual. I've often had difficulty connecting phrases in petit allegro, but this time things flowed across phrases just fine. Recently some instructors have been giving phrases that cross musical boundaries, and maybe that experience has helped somehow? Overall, I'm pretty happy with Sunday's class.
Monday I woke up feeling draggy and fuzzy-headed. I decided to take the morning more slowly and skip Floor Barre at 10:30, and make my way to the Advanced Beginner class at noon at a more sedate pace. For a second day, things went better than usual. Even when I was a bit hurried going into a pirouette, the turn was controlled and relatively clean. This is new for me, and I'm hoping it continues.
