Warm and Sticky

That's the weather outside --  96F and high humidity --  but it also applies to my dance gear. Apparently when I came home from class Tuesday I neglected to separate my soaking-wet T-shirt from my slippers. I had clean everything else, but both pairs of slippers were damp. Yuck.

The up-side to this was that I discovered that it's true that dampening the suede pads will increase your traction on a slippery floor. I guess my previous attempts at dampening them was too superficial, because I definitely did NOT slip this evening.

Finding new places to be sore

If I complained that the new studio's beginner class was too easy, I withdraw the complaint. It has evolved into quite a challenge. We don't do anything at the barre that I haven't done before, but there's much greater focus on form and position. At certain points the instructor will walk around the room to get a close look at each student, and is not shy about helping us find the proper position by gently twisting a leg or nudging a hip. She showed me that I could get a bit more turnout in dégagé al la seconde, though I haven't figured out which muscles to engage to do it on my own. She also wanted my hip lower when I had my leg up on the barre, but while I agree it's a little bit cocked that's a no-go at this point.

The real challenge came after we put the barres away. We did a slow series of tendus, and then a slow series of tendus and dégagés, all while standing with our hands on our hips. All I can say is that I'm not the only one who found this difficult. On the other hand, while I sometimes teetered badly I didn't fall over or have to swing my arms wildly. Oddly, when she made it "more difficult" by adding arm movements to second, first, and then fifth, I found my balance to be much better. Maybe I'm using my arms for balance more than I thought? Just in case anyone thought they were doing well, we finished with a relevé on one foot with the other in passé, which everyone had trouble with.

Other than being hot and sweaty afterward, I thought it was a really good class. By the next evening, though, I was sore in some completely new places. Most notable was the very top of my calf muscles, just behind and below the knees. I honestly didn't realize you could be sore there. I'm also sore at the joint of my thighs and buttocks, which I recognize as "turnout muscles", as well as lesser and more familiar aches in the lower calf muscles.

Tonight I have class at my old studio. With any luck I'll actually be awake for it.

Sticky floors, sticky shoes

As I mentioned earlier, I ended up wearing my regular tights and T-shirt combo. I was going to wear the bike leggings instead, but I when I was getting dressed before leaving home I couldn't find them. Once at the studio I started out wearing my black slippers, and noticed once again how sticky the Marley floor felt. Since I'd brought my white slippers, I decided to see if they felt less sticky.

When I'd first started classes a year ago, I didn't realize that finding men's ballet slippers would be difficult. I'd only gotten the white pair because someone who had ordered them hadn't picked them up for several weeks, and the salesman declared them available for purchase. They ended up being a half size small, so they'd been replaced with the black slippers (bought online) fairly rapidly. Thus they have very little wear on them, and I haven't scuffed up the suede to increase my traction on slick wood floors like I have the black pair.

I've never been good with fashion rules, and I've been known to cajole female friends into going with me when I'm forced to buy clothing to avoid fashion faux pas.  When I bought the white pair, a saleswoman had commented (with a tone of distain, I might note) that they really didn't go with black tights. My response at the time was, "I'll worry about that after I decide to continue with classes". But when looking for a class I'd noticed that some schools had a dress code for males that includes black tights and white slippers worn with white socks. I'd tried this combination on at home, so I knew that it'd be a bit snug but not overly tight -- tolerable for an experiment.

The experiment proved my hypothesis: the white slippers felt much less sticky on the Marley floor than the black slippers. I may have to get another pair of slippers -- of the right size -- to wear at the new studio.

Jet-lagged... without the jet

I'm teaching a class in Europe this week. Only problem is that while the class is in Europe, I'm still in the US. See, it's an on-line class. Which means I have to wake up at 2am, when it's pitch black, to be ready to teach at 9am their time. We break for lunch about the time my cat normally demands to be fed. When class is over for the day it's about noon, which makes it hard to get back to sleep. Toss in a ballet class in the evening, and you have time-zone confusion.

I did make it to class last night, and I'm glad I did. We've moved on from trivially simple things to doing harder work. Things that require real balance, like doing tendus with hands on your hips. And being off-balance from the weird sleep schedule didn't help.

Nor did the temperature in the studio. I ended up wearing a T-shirt and tights this time, and I ended up dripping. Don't believe me? Here's photo of my T-shirt taken after class.

It should be a nice, uniform grey color. The collar is wet enough to wring out, and the back and the front are nearly so. And that was only an hour class. I know I'm out of shape, but I gotta find some lighter-weight dance gear.

Ballet in Japan

Last December I found myself in Japan. While wandering the streets of Kyoto, wishing I could read the signs, I saw a few that I could recognize.

 

Yes, they have ballet classes in Japan! This is the Mori Keiju Ballet Studio･BAP. There's a website and a Facebook page. Have I mentioned yet that I can't read Japanese? [Edit: It seems the website has been taken over by a squatter, so I've removed the link.]

It seems Japanese girls put on their pointe shoes one foot at a time, just like everyone else. I can't swear to it, though.

The thought crossed my mind to go in, but images from the movie "Lost in Translation", where the Japanese director of a commercial goes on and on in Japanese while Bill Murray's character sits there uncomprehending, also crossed my mind.  After about 10 seconds contemplating I moved on without even checking their schedule. Anyone who drops in on a ballet class where he or she doesn't speak the local language gets a tip of my hat.