Selective amnesia

I've always wondered why women are willing to give birth to multiple children. It seems that after all the complaining and swearing that they'll never do it again there would only be families with single children. Apparently some sort of amnesia sets in.

Yet, after swearing I'd never do anything like the Adult Weekend Workshop again, I find myself signed up for the Adult Repertoire class starting February 1st. (link) Here's the class description:

Use your years of ballet training to experience the joys (and discipline) of learning a group dance from one of the world’s finest choreographers. Emphasis will be placed on presentation and working as a corps de ballet. A single dance will be taught over the 5 class session, building weekly, and includes a quick warm-up. Level – Intermediate. No performance. Lead by Jeffrey Luke.

I'm actually a bit intimidated by this class. The original announcement specified "Advanced Beginner" level and up. When I spoke with Jeff he suggested that I could watch one of the classes and decide whether I wanted to sign up for the next session, but I never got around to doing that. One of the participants says he thinks I'll be okay, but then again he's the same person who roped me into the Adult Weekend Workshop. Now it says "Intermediate" level; I've never taken above Advanced Beginner, and I haven't been in one of those classes in a couple of years.

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In other news...

The knot in my right thigh is all but gone, and the spot is only slightly tender when palpated. However, the bruise has developed colorfully:

My back is pretty well recovered, so with an abundance of caution I went to class Sunday, that being the easier of the two weekend classes. Neither my back nor leg caused any real difficulty. In fact, I was pretty happy with the state of my turns and got some positive words from the instructor.

Tuesday rolled around again, as it does every week, and I braved the unusually cold weather to go to class yet again. The instructor commented that she had been feeling a bit lethargic in the late afternoon, so she'd treated herself to an extra glass of green tea. By the time class started she was wired on the extra caffeine. This always makes for an amusing class.

I am definitely noticing that I'm feeling more confident with my dancing. Our first centre exercise involved pirouettes en dedans, which I've always found challenging. For the first time I found myself wondering if I could manage a double, though I didn't try it. The pirouettes en dehor I think I could have done doubles, at least early in the class before I got tired. Again I didn't try, but that's because I need to focus on proper form (working foot position, for example) and consistency before I try for anything showy. I see a few other classmates doing sloppy doubles while struggling with other basic steps. I think a well-executed single is a better goal than a sloppy double.

Ow! Ow! Ow!

If you want to read about muscle cramps, feel free to read on. Otherwise go read something else. It's my blog and I'll whine if I want to!

HOW many ballet schools?

This is being written on my phone. When I get to a real computer I'll translate initials in the first section to names and links.

I'm told the Berrend Dance Centre in Olney, Md., is moving to Derwood (the no-man's land between Rockville and Gaithersburg) early next year. That means there will be three schools with quality instructors in a fairly small radius (the others being MSD and MBT). Expand the radius a bit more and you pick up MYB and TSWB. Child, teen, or adult, there's no shortage of quality ballet instruction along I-270.

I wonder if I should post a map?

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The holidays this year have screwed with my ballet class schedule. Both Christmas and New Year's fell on Tuesdays. Last weekend I went to class Sunday morning. This weekend I made the questionable choice of attending Saturday and Sunday morning classes. I'm wondering how hard it will be to get out of bed tomorrow.

I may have mentioned a month or two ago that a classmate had missed the last step on a flight of stairs and sprained her ankle badly. And by "badly" I mean unable to put any weight on it, needing crutches to get around at all, and even driving being impractical. This is bad for anyone, but for someone who dances ballet (and en pointe at that) it's worse. Not only does it affect simple things like being able to go grocery shopping, but the muscles, skills and balance you've spent years developing immediately start deteriorating.

Her physical therapists were telling her she might be able to get back to class in mid-January. She told me she expected to start back in the Beginner I classes for a bit to get her flexibility and strength back, which would be the safe, rational thing to do. So I was surprised to see her in the Beginner II class Saturday. So much for safe and rational, eh? But I know the frustration.

During class I really can't pay much attention to anything but what I'm doing and the space immediately around me, but from what I did see it looked like she was doing okay. Some of the exercises she took on demi-pointe, but a lot of the time she stood on that foot flat to keep the stress and strain down. Wisely she took her leave just before we got to jumps in centre. She's always been one of my favorites to watch during class and I hope she recovers well and completely.

After three weeks...

I promised myself I'd work my way back up to three classes a week. Then I caught a nasty bug which kept me out of work for over a week, and out of class for three. Tuesday I finally got back to class.

I've learned that I really need to devote warm-up time to my hip flexors. Doing so dramatically increases my stability in turns, probably because I can stand more erect with more effort when I'm not fighting tight hip flexors. I managed to get to class about 15 minutes early, and after stretching I managed one decent double pirouette and several 1.5 turn pirouettes before class started.

Barre was fine and I didn't have any real trouble following even the tricksey little patterns our instructor had us do. On the other hand, I was more stiff than usual and my calf muscles felt really tight, and I felt more winded than usual. Centre was going fine until I started getting muscle spasms in my back, probably more from lack of exercise than anything else. I ended up bailing on the rest of the class.

Thursday morning my calf muscles felt really stiff so I didn't even pack my dance bag.

This morning I convinced myself that I really needed to go to class, but left so late that as I ran past the studio on my way to the dressing room they were already starting barre. So much for my pre-class warm-up! I'd dressed in my dance gear at home with jeans over my shorts for warmth and appearance, so all I needed to do in the dressing room was take off my coat, shoes, and jeans. Which is fortunate, as yet another father decided that the men's dressing room was the right place for his young daughter to change.

Remember my rant last month about this very problem? And how the desk unicorn... err... staffer had jumped up to make a sign? Here's a picture of the men's dressing room door. Note the prominent labeling "MEN'S DRESSING ROOM". As in, a place where men may be changing clothes. Note also the newer sign explicitly stating "do NOT change your daughters in the men's dressing room". Do people really not read?

Maybe there are just too many words for them to absorb. Maybe they should just mount this sign on the door?

There are a whole bunch of signs like this on Amazon and other sites. Apparently they're intended for "Man Caves". Wouldn't a men's dressing room be considered a "Man Cave"?

Anyway... I managed to scurry into class (remember... class?) about half-way through the first barre exercise. This instructor always gives the same first barre exercise, so it wasn't a problem to jump in. Overall class went pretty well. Some of my turns were pretty well executed (and some not, but I see improvement) and I felt like I remembered the sequences pretty well.

The staff are not idots. But the patrons are.

Thursday I was all set to go to class in the evening, but life intervened. I'm really trying to get back to a regular schedule for the winter, so I told myself I'd definitely go this weekend.

This morning I was kind of ambivalent about going to class. Eventually I convinced myself to get ready and made it to the studio with enough time for a brief warmup. Barre was good, though it seemed a bit more challenging than usual. One of our regular classmates who takes barre on pointe came in just before we started, and I honestly think this instructor tailors her class based on who shows up; for example. a student on pointe pretty well guarantees more releves.

I didn't get as much sleep last night as I would have liked, and I burned a lot of energy during barre. Normally I recover during the break before centre, but today I was still feeling very tired when class started again. I walked through the explanation of the first combination with everyone else, and while it absorbed the sequence pretty well I just didn't feel up to continuing. I grabbed my bag, nodded to the instructor, and took an early exit.

Normally I'd consider this a partial waste of time, but not today. It was an unusually long barre and I felt like I got a good workout. I just felt like I'd run out of energy, and if I'd forced myself to continue I doubt I would have been very stable.

Maybe I'll go again tomorrow morning.

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We now interrupt our regularly scheduled blog entry for a rant...