What am I doing in THIS class?

Today I intended to take an Advanced Beginner ballet class with Tamás Krizsa. I've really been looking forward to seeing what his teaching style is like.

I always like to get changed and ready at least 15 minutes before class to have the time to do some solo stretching. Shortly after arriving I overheard one of the other students comment that Tamás was not teaching today; Brittany Bailey would be substituting instead. This annoyed me. I'm on the monthly plan at MYB (I can take as many classes as I want during the month for a fixed price), where as I pay per-class at TWSB. I could have taken a class this morning at MYB and saved myself $20. But I was already there and it was too late to cancel my registration. Maybe I might like Brittany's class?

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.

Turning like a rusty nut

After a break for the US Labor Day holidays, I was able to schedule a session with Jacob to work on my turns. 

In the interim I'd recovered a bit of confidence in several variations of pirouette, but it as if I'd developed a complete mental block on pirouettes en dedans to the right. The first one I attempted during my session with Jacob felt as if I'd never done one before After a bit of work I managed one or two weak turns, but nothing like I'd been doing only a few weeks before. 

Near the end of the session, he asked if there was anything else I wanted to work on, and I suggested pique turns. I had no real trouble turning to the left, but could barely do one to the right. As if a light bulb suddenly turned on, it occurred to me that a pique turn is very similar to a pirouette en dedans, with the working foot in a different position. Jacob suggested working through the motion without the rotation, which isolated the problem: I'm having trouble rising to demi-pointe on my right leg. We spent the rest of the session working on this.

I'm still wobbly on my right leg, but I have something to work on.

Are you talking to me?

A couple of weeks ago, I learned that one of my favorite instructor's Wednesday mid-day Advanced Beginner class was being moved to Monday. I've been taking this class for some months and feel fairly comfortable in it. I'm not the best in the class, but neither am I the worst.

Another of my favorite instructors will be taking over the Wednesday mid-day slot in September, also teaching an Advanced Beginner class, and I mentioned to her that I was looking forward to taking her class Wednesdays. To my surprise she told me I wasn't ready for Advanced Beginner, and she'd "let me know" when I was ready. I was really taken aback by this.

[Edit: The instructor and I may have miscommunicated here. See this post for clarification.]

The En Dedans Blues

Yup, my en dedans pirouettes to the right are definitely broken. I tried one before class today and sort-of wobbled through it, but later it didn't work right at all. *sigh* On the other hand, my en dehors are still clean, so it's not a catastrophe.

One of the things I like about this instructor is she now includes piqué turns practice. The first time I tried this a week or two, I found myself way off balance. I had them on my list of things to fix the next time I get a private lesson, but I tried fixing them myself today.

One of my instructors had suggested to another student that she bring her shoulders forward by "reducing the space between your ribs" (more properly, sternum) and your pubic bone. Thinking to myself that I always found myself falling backward when I attempted a tour en l'air (literally, a "turn in the air" — a jump straight up combined with a full turn), and that my fix for pirouettes had involved a similar shift forward, I decided to apply this to my piqué turns. 

This seems to have worked! I don't think I've ever done a long series of piqué turns as cleanly, and certainly not as fast (this class is nominally "Advanced Beginner"). I also had more luck with my spotting, and felt less dizzy afterward.

---

One of the rather fun aspects of taking classes at a school with a robust pre-professional track is when one of these "kids" drops into the adult classes. Today, one of this year's graduates joined our class. While I was feeling rather proud of a fairly clean single pirouette en dehor, this young woman standing next to me was doing gorgeous triples. This summer she was hired into a ballet company and soon will be starting her professional dance career in Atlanta. My best wishes to her!