Thursday, March 17, 2011

Spring is Coming...

I love the spring.  I took two ballet classes today and took Yasir to the beach on this warm day.  He is really coming along, and aside from occasional barking and biting bouts, he is really being a surprisingly angelic dog...

So this morning I went to advanced class because I have to use up my class card and I asked the teacher if this class would be okay for me and he said, "Probably," but told me to stay out of the way of the other professional, stronger dancers.  A sort of compliment...

Everyone in class looked so fit and moved so well.  We really moved a lot, which is why I like advanced classes, because there is more dancing.  But, you have to work.  The barre was a good warmup for what was to come, which were a lot of structured movements that flowed together.  The teacher peppered the class with comments and corrections, such as using the back, the supporting side, and spotting for the rhythm and momentum of the turns.

Then I went to another class in the evening, except my favorite classical teacher wasn't there and we had a sub, but it was a really worthwhile class that made me realize that a good working dancer really works;  that is, the teacher told us to stretch out the steps and really enjoy the movements.  He came up to me and corrected my torso, saying there is so much more space there to use.  Of course, he is right, there is no good in slumping.  Paradoxically, stretching and elongating would seem to be counter to using the muscles, but, as another teacher said, you need to breathe.  So when you are balanced and in the most vulnerable positions, you can actually still be strong.  And, it looks so much better.

Now I feel like a teenager, with a young body that will bend and move, after a lot of hard work!  But, this is what is required of a dancer, and anything less is just too mediocre.

You probably wonder where is the description to these classes.  Well, I am so sore this week from taking too many classes, but I like it.  Look out...I took another advanced class at Lou Conte Dance Studio this morning and the others wanted me to stand in front and lead them!  It was during tendu croise, plie, devant and derrierre, then tendus ecarte, step attitude promenade extend fondu arabesque pas de bourre en tournant, chass forward pirouette en dedans ending in arabesque plie, to chasse front, pirouettes en dehors, pirouettes a la seconde, pull in to more pirouettes.  Legs, legs, legs, I thought...

For jumps we did changements, jump to second, fourth, fifth, changements to warm up.  Then jete dehors coupe jete dedans, assemble, assemble, glissade assemble.  Then the reverse of this.  The teacher said to keep the knee over the toes when we turn, which is the same as hips forward...everything has to go into the movements.  No chickens here!  I told the teacher I was still sore from last night's class, which included temps leve, jump developpe ecarte, pas de bourre, grand jetes.  Also, tendus with renverse pas de bourre to attitude turns, arabesque turns, chainnes, step over pirouettes.  The teacher told me, there is so much space in the torso.  Extend everything...  As I feared, though, while we were doing pique attitude turn step attitude turn chasse pas de bourre more turns, I got too close to a male dancer, which is why I have to be careful in these high energy classes.

Afterwards when I discussed this with the teacher, I said it was a good thing in general to be conscious of the others around you.  Whew, at least he didn't seem angry, like some other teachers I have had would.  I think all my teacher see I am really trying to improve, so they put up with these unprofessional actions sometimes; also sometimes I still feel slighted because I am older than everyone but the "kids" today at Lou Conte were really welcoming, and I think really good dancers will support their fellow dancers.

I am feeling a little under the weather so I did not go swimming; however, I did go to yoga yesterday and today and now feel very serene, especially after the class tonight, where the teacher grabbed my arm and really extended it behind me so I looked like something out of the exorcist, but now I feel great, except I am ready to sleep...zzz.

No comments:

Post a Comment