Saturday...

Can't sleep so I'm sitting here thinking about the day.  Life is good when you can do what you like but for me,  I need to be strong enough to do what I like in the face of adversity.  Someone at the gym yesterday said that you have to be mean to get what you want.  Yoga will teach you that it's all okay and to let it go.  I believe that, like John Lennon said, "I just had to let it go...", like in the Rambo film.  So, today, breezy, carefree Saturday, I will just let it go..

With this in mind, my performance in class this afternoon at Lou Conte Studio was much improved because I did not let every little thing get to me.  There was a quite prominent Chicago choreographer in my class this afternoon, as well as two dancers I knew from Ruth Page School.  I knew the teacher myself, having taken classes with her at Ruth Page, where she was a long-time student and professional dancer, being a soloist in the Nutcracker performances there.

Her classes are very lyrical and stretchy.  We started barre with demi-plies and plies, with traditional port de bras.  She demonstrated everything and I was happy to mark the movements with her, trying to imitate her expertise and experience.  We also did developpes in different directions and penches, and triple frappes -- it was hard to articulate them to the side!

Then in center we did some very pretty moves.  The first combination was comprised of tendus croise devant and derrierre, tendus seconde moving forward, pas de basque, swivel turns and then pirouettes en dehors, rotation to pirouettes en dedans.

Then we did a "travelling adagio."  It was developpe croise devant, releve, balance en tournant, developpe ecarte releve balance en tournant arabesque fondu promenade, releve, balance en tournant, chainnes to chasse pas de bourre, finish 5th position.  She reminded everyone to travel on a diagonal because it is good to know which direction you are moving in.

Then we jumped:  1st position sautes with releve balance, second position the same, echappes, to warm up.  Then we did quatres with royales and finally, a confusing series where we started with glissade jete, coupe ballonne pas de bourre, glissades and assembles.  Honestly, there were so many jumps, I can't really remember them precisely, which is precisely what is wrong with my petit allegro -- I have difficulty remembering the steps!  For instance, glissade jete, coupe ballonne pas de bourre, glissade assemble devant, glissade pas de chat pas de bourre, pas de chat pas de bourre, sissonnes, I think!  Well, the teacher said if we get lost to keep jumping, so I did and then she said, there, you were right on the beat.  If approached that way, at least you are trying and sometimes the steps will fall into place eventually...

Grand allegro was pique turns with coupe jetes across the floor and then class ended.  I remarked to the teacher that today my left back almost felt like it was opening up, describing it like a curled up paper plate edge, which she thought was a good picture.  So then I stretched across a massage table, did my theraband exercises, and headed for the gym, but the gym was already closed early...have to remember to get there early tomorrow for my swim.  I'm so glad I had a good class, after the one on Friday.  Now I feel happy.