Back after a week off

I missed class all last week due to travel. The hotel I stayed in, a Hyatt House facility, was great. It's set up for longer-term stays, with a kitchenette, and a goodly expanse of wooden floor. If I'd moved the couch and desk a bit it might have made a nice practice floor. But like most of these trips, I came back after dinner and crawled into bed at shockingly early hours. I did a little stretching now and then, but all thought of practicing the new steps we've been learning evaporated.

So last night I went back to class. I did take about 15 minutes before leaving for class to do some basic stretches, but nothing extensive. Class itself went pretty well, and although I initially forgot that we'd even learned new steps in the petite allegro we've been working on before I left, I remembered them pretty quickly.

Early this morning, though, I woke up feeling tight in my left inner thigh. The cat was howling for more food, so I decided to get out of bed. Bad idea. Within seconds the tightness progressed to a full-fledged, nausea-inducing cramp. For the next 5 or so minutes I tried to figure out how to relieve the cramp, without making it worse instead. Eventually it subsided enough to hobble downstairs, feed the cat to shut it up (priorities, you know), extract a bottle of Gatorade from the 'fridge and swallow some mineral supplements I thought might help. Then I limped back upstairs and eased back into bed.

My usual standard for when I need to resort to Gatorade is that when it tastes good I need it, because the rest of the time the taste isn't very good. But the low-sugar G2 stuff I had is just vile regardless. Of course, that's why it's still in the 'fridge. But still, what's the point of something that tastes so bad you can't drink it?


When I woke up at a more normal hour I discovered that I'm sore in both inner thighs. There are still occasion twinges, but none have approached a cramp. I didn't think I was dehydrated, but I'm going to see how much water I can get into myself today. After all, I have class tomorrow night!

Don't Judge Me By My Tights

I came across an article entitled "Don't Judge Me By My Tights" this evening. It's a commentary on the challenges a male dancer faces in current American society. I thought it well worth passing along.

Washing dancewear?

Ok, I'll admit ignorance of the finer details of washing dancewear. What's the best way to clean stuff like microfiber tights really well, but not damage them? At around $30 each I don't want to be tossing them in the laundry when they say "hand wash".

What's your technique?

Ow. Just effin ow.

A couple weeks ago I checked with dance studio regarding the resumption of classes after the holidays, and was told they started Jan 10th. With my new barre assembled I figured I'd spend a bit of the five days remaining doing gentle stretches in preparation.

This morning I got an email asking who was showing up for class tonight. Huh? Apparently our instructor decided not to take this week off after all. Dummy me, too stupid to stick to the original plan, grabbed my dance gear and went to class.

Ow. Effin' Ow.

My balance was definitely off, but got better as class progressed. I've lost some stretch in my calves, making plies uncomfortable. I've lost a lot of stretch in my hamstrings. Ow. And in my hip flexors. Ow ow.

I'm not looking forward to getting out of bed tomorrow morning. But I'm back in class!

Received the new barre today

My barre arrived from Vita Vibe. The name of the company makes me think of something that would be sold only late night on some obscure TV channel, but the product appears to be well engineered. It was well packed, with everything nicely padded without a lot of waste. Once I had it unpacked, setup took all of 5 minutes.