It Burns! It Buurns!

I made it to class this evening. Oh how it burns! And hurts and aches. Everything from hips south, though primarily in my feet. Clearly going to two or three classes a month doesn't work for me; I need to go to class regularly or stop going altogether. And I don't think I'm ready for that.

Don't get me wrong; many things went well this evening. I'll feel better once the ibuprofen kicks in.

It's been SO long

It's been so long since I was in class regularly I think I over-stretched a muscle just getting dressed.

I was hoping to ease my way back into class by taking the easier of the Beginner 2 weekend classes. Of course this meant the regular instructor was on vacation and the Saturday instructor was subbing. I really like her, but she's not known for easy classes. She did tone it down for this group, despite their comments, as evidenced by the absence of single-legged relevés.

One of the barre exercises proved a bit too complex for me to execute, though I think I would have had it if we'd repeated it, but most seemed pretty easy once I figured out the timing. I know that I would have been struggling desperately a couple of years ago. In center things went well until the last exercise where she introduced a new step I've never heard of before -- something about fluttering legs. I was rather tired by then and skipped that, not having brain power left to absorb it. But most of my turns were strong and controlled, which I was pleased to note.

All in all, not bad after getting to only ONE class last month.

Out of class for another week

Well, wasn't that fun! It's not every day you have the opportunity to answer the question "What is the level of your pain on a scale of 1 to 10?" with TWELVE, damn it!

(Far too much TMI below. And bad Star Wars metaphors. You have been warned.)

Accumulating rust

After a couple weeks off, mostly due to snow but also work, I made it back to class. With my off-and-on attendance I opted for Sunday's Beginner 2 class. I got a late start and walked in the door a few minutes after scheduled class start. Of course class didn't actually start for several minutes more, but I really didn't have any time to warm up, and since it was only +12F (-11C) out, "not warmed up" was literal.

The cold seemed to have penetrated my head too, because I made a number of silly mistakes during barre. Mostly it was a matter of forgetting what came next or just skipping ahead. I got a couple of corrections for not keeping my knees straight, especially when extending to the rear. These were less a matter of not paying attention than feeling all sorts of stretch behind my knees when I attempted it.

Rust.

Yet all was not bad. At one point we were in coupé en demi-point and I found I could hold that fairly well without touching the barre. In center my balance wasn't spectacular but neither was it horrible. When we got to turns (a combination of waltz turns and pirouettes I ended up in the first group to go and did pretty well when turning turning to the right en dehors. To the left the first turn didn't really want to go but got better on subsequent turns. I even remembered to spot on occasion. En dedans, though, eeechh! Has it really been that long?

The more rewarding bit was in the petite allegro where we where challenged with a cross-timing combination of 3-3-2 (glissade, jeté, sauté; glissade, jeté, sauté; glissade, assemblé). I usually get stuck in such a combination at the end of a phrase but this time I was able to keep the movement going and stay with the music. It wasn't pretty, but it was an accomplishment.

Due to medical stuff the chances of me going to class tomorrow night are nil. I expect I'll be able to get to class this weekend, though. I'm looking forward to getting outside then, as we're supposed to go from the frigidly cold +12F this weekend and snow today to +60F (+15.5C) on Saturday!

Big Changes at The Washington Ballet

Septime Webre, the Artistic Director of The Washington Ballet for the last 17 years, is stepping down effective June 30th, 2016.

The announcement did not name a replacement. Instead it indicates that a search for a new Artistic Director "is proceeding immediately."

It'll be interesting to see how this plays out.