Like a frosted doughnut

While the folk farther north are getting snow, we got something I consider worse: ice. Overnight we got a thick coating of freezing rain that has left trees, building, sidewalks and roads covered with the slippery stuff.

To make it to the stretch class without hurrying, I'd want to leave home at noon. Although temps are forecast to rise as high as 60F (15C) tomorrow, at 10:30 this morning it was still below freezing, giving me cause to doubt whether it would make sense to drive to the ballet school 40 minutes away. As noon approached it was clear that it would be foolish to try. Now, at 1:15pm, the air temp is still only 32F (0C) and my street is still a sheet of ice.

On the other hand I'm healthy and warm, have plenty to do at home, and have the fixings for far more food than I'll eat in several days. So life is good.

Ouchy-hurty

When I finished the stretch class yesterday I felt trashed. The muscles that are tightest (hamstrings, quads, and glutes) were twitching and I really hoped I hadn't overdone it. Yet after lunch I felt pretty good. Good enough, in fact, to make plans to go to the Beginner II ballet class this morning.

It was not to be. After falling asleep shortly before midnight (a common time for me) I found myself wide awake shortly after 2am for no apparent reason. Try as I might I didn't get back to sleep until almost 6am, which is very unusual for me. When my alarm went off at 8am I had already been up for 10 minutes, feeling very sore in several areas. The soreness and lack of sleep scuttled many of my plans for the day. Eventually I was able to get back to sleep for another couple of hours.

The worst of the aches are my hamstrings and psoas, to no great surprise, as that's where I'm tightest. My shoulders are also sore, which attests to both my present inflexibility and the thoroughness of the class. Even after taking some ibuprofen it still hurts to move around. Not so much as to be incapacitating, though, and I'm hoping it'll end up being a step in the right direction.

Let's do it again next weekend!

Stretch class

It's amazing what excuses one can come up with to avoid going to class.

Suzanne Farrell Ballet

I'm just leaving the Suzanne Farrell Ballet's presentation of a Balanchine three-fer: Danses Concertantes, Gounod Symphony, and Stars and Stripes. I really thought I was going to arrive late due to traffic, but I managed to get seated minutes before the lights dimmed. Whew!

I usually prefer story ballets, as I can get bored with nothing but patterns of dancers regardless of technical challenge. Danses Concertantes is an exception. I really enjoyed watching the trios do their thing. There was one duo; oddly I thought the male dancer of this duo was a bit uneven, doing some harder steps well then being shaky on simpler steps. But overall I really liked it a lot more than I expected to.

I expected to like Gounod Symphony more, as it's a classical ballet with lots of dancers. Technically they were very good, but I found myself thinking some of the principal parts were slowly paced. Maybe my preferences are shifting?

Stars and Stripes was fun. Despite the women's corp looking a bit like the June Taylor Dancers -- on pointe --  at the beginning, it got better and better. All in all a fun afternoon.


I do have one question, though. Why can't women jump? A man doing a tour jete has three movements: up, rotate, land. A woman doing the same step appears to do it as one motion, with the landing happening almost at the same time the other foot leaves the ground. Is this stylistic or a physical limitation?

World Ballet Day

Tuesday was World Ballet Day. In honor of this I dragged myself down to the studio and took a class.

Ballet simply is not one of those things you can do once in a while. I started getting cramps in my calf muscles within minutes of the start of barre, and thanks to the big mouth of one of the other students we finished barre with a bunch of one-legged relevés. Apparently this is what our instructor calls a "restorative" class. I bailed out after barre, feeling less than restored.

Yesterday I was limping. Last night I had to get up and stretch several times. Even now, two days later, I'm still a bit sore.

On the other hand, I think my balance is still improving. I didn't try any turns but I was able to hold various demi-pointe positions balanced on one foot for longer than I remember being able to before.

I think I just need to get back into the habit of going to class on a regular basis.