Friday, November 19, 2010

Beautiful Friday

What a lovely day.  The sunlight was beaming through the falling leaves as I got to the gym after cleaning my apartment.  I think I will take out my bike this weekend, too.  So here I am eating my green salad with chicken and watching the NFL Live sports channel.  There is no one in the pool!

...While swimming, I worked on extending my strokes, like in ballet, to feel the muscles underneath my shoulders.  Also, when I warmed up before laps by walking and doing developpes (!), I used the kick board to press down with my hands to feel these elusive muscles I must use in ballet class.  It makes sense, because this pressing the arms and extending the legs creates a balance and tension that helps free my often pinched waistline area and lets my torso breathe.  One of the many things I also love about swimming is being able to fully breathe, something that is hard for me when grounded on the earth.  In the water, I feel so free...now on to class to recreate this feeling...

...Going to the bus stop, my body felt so light from all this extending...bus ride was forever, Friday traffic to the city to the Joffrey Academy, where our guest teacher was the Joffrey ballet mistress.  I admired her technique as she showed the steps for class.  It was a nice, slow, technical class and she gave many good corrections, like using the arms:  you can move your arms anywhere if you hold your back, she said to the girls.  Also, she said to look up and forward and keep the shoulders down.

Then in center we started with pirouettes:  tendu front, turning a quarter; tendu back, turning another quarter; tendu side, side, then en face 4 times sideways to pique sou sou, passe balance, then two pirouettes, pas de bourre en tournant, pirouettes en dedans.

Next was adagio, my favorite.  It was waltz in line twice, chasse first arabesque, developpe efface, developpe ecarte.  Then we progressed to balance, balance, releve developpe facing back, chasse developpe to front, balances back, pique soutenu, chainnes to chasse pas de bourre pirouettes.

Lots of turns -- we did piques and chainnes, and then jumps:  1st, 5th, 1st, 5th, 4 changements, jetes entrelace, jazz slide (and I went the wrong way, but it was really a matter of keeping on changing the feet, I discovered, as I marked this to myself in a corner).

After this was contretemps pique arabesque, tour jetes, temps leve arabesque or cabriole, run around in half circle, small developpe, glissade, jetes, each getting bigger than the next.

The reverence was a Mr. Arpino favorite: temps lie back, cambre arms to open from 1st position, to both sides.  After class, I thanked the teacher and asked her how I might space myself better in center, because I always feel clumsy dancing with the others and keeping my spacing, and she reminded me that center is not like barre and it is more free and I need to move more.  Also, she said I hop in pirouettes and said to just think of doing a nice, calm turn.  Yes!!

Well, I don't know where I will dance tomorrow because I am showing my apartment and have to stay home.  I like being in the city but I will be much happier in a less expensive place with more space, although I don't quite know where that may be.  My parents were both farmers...

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