Semaine 22

Not much to publish this week. I didn't go to Thursday class, I went to Zumba instead. And last week I wasn't motivated to go to Clark's class. When it's such a late class that ends at 8:45 PM and I work the next day, it's hard to want to go to class and be home at 9 PM, 1 hour before I have to be in bed.

No video this week. Monday's class was good and sweaty. I contemplated doing a video of the barrework, but since I wasn't going to be able to film until Thursday, I didn't think about it before class, taking note of the barre exercises. The best I could do is just remember our warm-up and a couple other exercises. Maybe I'll wait til I get a portable barre for those videos...

Corner exercise this week was just a souté arabesque one, super easy. At least I didn't feel like I was clomping around ungracefully. :)

Sorry, kind of disappointing.

The Winter/Spring Schedule @ BalletNova is posted:

Basically, the schedule is the exact same. Walsh's BBFNB class is 6:15-7:30 PM (with the accompanist, yay!) just like now, which I'll register for, with back-up classes still being Clark's class at 7:30-8:45 PM. The reason I have to use Thursday as my secondary class is because the policy at my hospital is for us to work 4 Mondays or Fridays per 6 week schedule. So, this means I have to work 4 Fridays since I have to have all Mondays off. With us adding night shift to our mix, I hope it doesn't interfere too much with my class schedule. Friday's 6:30-7:45 PM class with Burstein is also an option.

I won't be going to class next week since I work the 17th, 18th, and 19th and then we leave for Charleston SC for Christmas with my parents. Thursday night there is class; however, Jeff has Jordan XI's he wants to get so I'm going to be napping as much as I can before we go to the mall at midnight to get them. Next ballet class won't be until Dec 31st, but I think the studio is closed =/ Not sure. I might look into seeing when Del Rey ballet studio has classes and maybe I'll start going there... either that or metropolitan fine arts. Will have to follow-up and I'll keep you posted.

This is fantastic :) I have to start working on Mei-Mei's puggie pirouettes 

Semaine 21

I think I'm going to approach my blogging every week a little differently than I have been this whole time. It's hard to reliably get videos taken after class (I know some of you have taken notice that there haven't been ANY videos since Semaine 18 and it wasn't even me in it), and because it's a little awkward when girls start filtering into the studio, I'm going to use the inspiration I've gained from watching the Jenna Marbles YouTube videos (as my friend Darren says, minus the cursing and dogs in the videos) and try to re-create interesting/challenging ballet exercises and edit my own videos (!!!!!) on my MacBook Air.

Now, since we don't have an appropriately-sized unused section of the condo OR spacious areas of non-carpeted flooring, I'm going to take my trusty little laptop down to our indoor basketball courts during "off hours" to minimize awkwardness that this whole idea would create, should some guys come in to shoot some hoops. I'm so so excited, because as I am writing this post, I'm literally teaching myself how to use iMovie =)

So Monday night's class was good. My ballet class friend Mark wasn't there and neither was Kelly! It felt a little lonely...

Exercises earlier tonight at the barre focused on a lot of staying on relevé to passé in hold, to get us ready for all the pirouetting we were going to be doing in center.

Anyway, some combinations I shall demonstrate:

I swear, when I recorded this, my feet were recorded for exercise A... and then when I clipped it down for editing it chopped off my feet! Ahh! I'll have to give myself that cushion for space later. Jeff tells me this is an "aspect ratio" issue... I am not a computer person, haha... 

 The music was also a looooot quieter when I edited the video but it exported a lot louder. 

Oh well, not bad for first video, right? 

a) {in center, fifth position right foot front} arms a la seconde, tendu front, tendu side, tendu back, sweep to front, close fifth. plié, pirouette, close back. Repeat other foot.

b) {in center, preparacion right foot back} balancé right, balancé left, tombé-pas de bourré, chassé, plié, pirouette. I know my head isn't turned correctly. Then there's the whole issue with my arms...

c) {this was the corner exercise, preparacion right foot back} step right to waltz turn, 3-steps, waltz turn, repeat. Next week Constance says we'll add the pirouette after the sweep. Since I forgot to even DO this exercise altogether, here is a good beefed up version of it!

This is Larry Payne, who teaches ballet at Long Beach Community Center in CA demonstrating the on-line waltz (and in a basketball court too, ah!) the way it's supposed to look. Ha. Looks a lot better with the waltz en tourant (turning waltz) afterward.

Lots of pirouette work to be done I know, but the semester isn't over until Feb 3rd, so we'll just have to see how much better things come with time!

OK, well til Thursday or next week!! Happy Dancing!

Semaine 20

W.O.W. It's been four weeks since I last went to ballet class?!?! Yikes. A bit outta hand, but I had good excuses!!!! I swear!!!

week 1 (missed class 10/29): Hurricane Sandy hit the east coast and my ballet studio was closed for Monday and Tuesday of the week of October 28th. Obviously missing Monday's class was out of my control, but I couldn't attend a make-up class because on Thursday I had work and didn't clock out til 8 PM and class is at 7:30 pm.

week 2 (missed class 11/5): Jeff and I left for Charleston on 11/2 to visit my parents and go to the Annual Charleston Exchange Club Coastal Carolina Fair (we go every year) and didn't return until Election Day (Tues Nov 6th) at 5:30 PM. I caught a nasty cold that started with a sore throat on Nov 7th and I was bed-ridden through the 10th with a horrific bout of an upper and lower respiratory infection.

week 3 (missed class 11/12): I was still coughing like a madwoman, neti potting, guzzling Emergen-C, and blowing my nose going through Charmin toilet paper rolls as my kleenexes as if they were going outta style (they're way way softer than kleenexes, and we have about 40 rolls at home vs. no boxes of kleenexes. this seemed more reasonable). Seriously. You could ask any of my coworkers from my 11/11 and 11/14 shifts if I was toting around a roll of toilet paper. I looked like I had a bowel issue. =P haha. Anyway, it would've been rude and offensive (and not healthy, to say the least) to attend class just to cough incessantly and blow my nose throughout class. With toilet paper. No make-up class that Thursday because GET THIS (no joke), I was experiencing the WORST food poisoning of my life after gorging on an ignorant amount of sushi on Wednesday night. I was hugging a toilet and attempting to keep liquids down all day and even went to the ER on 11/15 to get IV fluids and anti-emetics and anti-GI-motility meds. My food poisoning JUST subsided Saturday evening at around midnight. Jeff got food poisoning too, but his immune system wasn't as compromised with a horrendous cold.

week 4 (missed class 11/19): Still experiencing my food poisoning. Seriously, who has food poisoning for four days?! Sigh... Well the good part is we got a $25 gift certificate to return back to the offending restaurant (we still love it dearly so I don't want to call them out). I might wait a while before going back, but hey at least we got some of our money back!

OK now that that's out of the way...

~~~~~~~BACK TO CLASS~~~~~~~

Monday Night 11/26: Kelly is away in Mexico so she didn't come with me to class and actually, she missed the same 4 weeks of class that I did. I am not sure exactly why, but I know week 1 was for the same reason! So anyway, yay, finally made it back to the barre!

Walsh had a great class. I knew it was going to be tough after not having stretched or done the splits in over a month, and this morning I was feeling the effects of it. My pirouettes didn't suffer, I was able to do pretty decent doubles, and my passé up in pirouette was even better than before. However, Constance constantly (hah) pointed out how incorrect my arms are in second position. I probably hold out my arms way too robotically, versus "as if a drop of water was cascading down your shoulder to your thumb." Haha... hmmm.

Center routine were tendu en croix to pas de bourre x 3 to plie... then pirouette exercises, changement jumps, tombé-pas de bourré-glissade-assemblé, yadda yadda. The corner exercise was ALSO the tombé-pas de bourré-glissade-assemblé combination. I need to practice this one, because I was so used to smushing my tombé-pas de bourre all quick and all, while not doing the full tombé.





This is the closest video I could find since Kelly wasn't around to videotape this one (it would've looked horribly and technically blech anyway). In this video, she does a tombé, pas de bourré, glissade, then ends with a jeté instead of an assemblé.







Remember, this video on the right and below is how to do an assemblé.

Anywho, I don't work Thursday or Friday this week, so I'll consider going to class on Thursday night at 7:30 PM. Kelly won't be with me which will be sad, but I've missed so many classes that I may just need to go to work on my technique anyway.

Semaine 19

So this week only ended up being Monday night's class by Walsh. Not much to update from class itself, it was the usual. --Balancé-balancé-tombé-pas de bourré-souté-arabesque combo as the corner exercise, developpé exercises center, etc. It was a large class, with about 30 people in attendance.

I want to take advantage of the good running weather while I can, and lately the Clark classes haven't been so stimulating, with only 5 or so students each class. Plus, Hurricane Sandy is headed our way, so I may not have many running days this week if I don't go tonight! Next week I'll only be going to Monday's class as well, since I'm working Tues/Wed/Thurs and then rushing off to Charleston to visit my parents for the Coastal Carolina Fair. I feel like such a ballet slacker, but the way I am looking at it, I have plenty of weeks left before Advanced would start, so it's not so bad. Just two weeks with 1 class/week is OK, right?

But in some ballet-related news, Jeff and I are going to see The Washington Ballet: Dracula at The Kennedy Center on Saturday afternoon! My friend Saki hooked us up with free tickets to the show, so excited!!!!(Thanks, Saki!!!!!)

The part of Lucy Westenra will be played by Maki Onuki, one of the Principal dancers at The Washington Ballet whom Jeff and I watched perform the role of the Sugar Plum Queen in The Nutcracker last Christmas.

I'll let you know how it goes!

Semaine 18

Monday night's class was the most. fun. class. ever!! We had really fun and great barre exercises, a center pirouette exercise along with developpé-pas de bourre tournet exercises, and best of all, we had a ballet dance off at the end of class! It was like a dance off-relay-type thing. The whole class divided into four groups of 6-8 people (yes, class was huge tonight), and each group went to the each corner of the studio. At the start of the music, one person from each group would move in a huge circle doing souté arabesques around and around and around. When that person came back, we traded off with the next person in the group, sort of to see which group finished first. Lots of cheering and clapping, it was just a lot of fun! No video footage. Kelly wasn't at class, plus it's really inappropriate-slash-frowned upon to whip out the iPhone in the middle of class -- which is why all of my videos are post-class. The other centrework exercise we did was

I've been wearing my pointe shoes around the house to break them in, and I'm getting a lot more comfortable standing en pointe and tournet.

They're starting to look a little worn, so they are extra beautiful now :) I'll have to admit, most of the worn-look on my pointes has come from the photo shoot and walking outside in them, hehe... they are pretty nonetheless...

Thursday Night's class was pretty standard, there were only 5 people in attendance so it was a pretty intimate group of adults. I guess Constance Walsh takes the cake for the popularity contest in terms of ballet instruction for adults, since her class was PACKED with people this week.

Anyway, tonight we had some pretty mild run-of-the-mill barre work, but a couple tricky barre exercises that included a developpé/reverse developpé, then degagé exercise that was a bit confusing, pretty fast but easy to catch on after the first round, and a fun temps lié-tendu-flexed foot exercise.

Centerwork consisted of 1/2 pirouette exercises and developpé/passé exercises that really made my thighs burn with long holds! The corner exercise was a super easy routine two-step then grand jeté jumps. It was pretty strange with only 5 of us, because there were very few distractions and quick turnaround for the next person in line! All around, a pretty good week for ballet. I kind of wish that last night's class was a little bit more of a challenge than it was though...

On a sad note, I think I'm catching a cold :(

New Terminology from Week 17 that I forgot:
Temps lié - where there is a transfer of weight from one leg to the next with a plié

Pointe and Shoot

I had a fun little photoshoot for my blog the other day with our wedding photographer (and friend) Sara Liu. She does fantastic work and these photos just captured such adorable doggie moments :) We were trying to incorporate the whole "From nursing clogs to pointe shoes" theme so that I could have a new fun banner for the page.

Thanks Sara!!!
(Visit Sara's photography page LeeLiu Photography to view her beautiful photos and even request her services!)

Adorable Mei-Linh (L) and Kona (R), my little pug supermodels :) 

You can find a barre just about anywhere!

I ADORE this one so much, but I wish Mei-Mei was in the picture too. She was left out of this one :( 

Sara said, "this picture has so much going on!" 

haha... pointe shoes, stethoscope, pug, me in the background in scrubs... <3 <3 <3 it!

awwwww... 

Pugs, nursing, and pointe. What's not to love?! 

Poor Mei looks like she's got seasonal allergies and is about to sneeze

I think this is the one I might end up using for the blog banner. What do you think? 

...or this one, but my pointe is just so bad, so I hesitate posting this one on the banner. 

Semaine 17

Sunday ~  From 11:30 AM-1 PM, I put on my big girl leotard and braved Advanced Beginning Ballet taught by Walsh. Yeah. Seriously. Thank goodness Kelly came with me, because I would've been in tears after this class if I was on my own, because I was stru-guh-ling! As you may recall, I felt this way after walk-in week with Beginning Ballet for Non-Beginners at BalletNova back in June, so I'm optimistic this will get easier after a few classes. Barre work was fun and challenging, but we did ridiculous center and corner work. In 1.5 hours, boy can you smush in a bunch of ballet!

After all of my confusion, I just HAD to record a girl I met in class named Rebecca, who was sweet enough to walk through the {corner} exercises with me after class was over. I'll include the videos only because it'll help me in the future, but ... a warning, these were done in the hallway since yoga was starting in the studio we were in, so she sometimes ran out of space.

1) Glissade-jete-hop... glissade (opposite)-jete-hop.... plie to the front, assemble, repeat.

2) Balance-balance-tombe-pas de bourre-glissade-saut de chat-glissade-saut de chat. (saut de chat was a new term for me, so I was all sorts of lost)

3) tombe-pas de bourre-pirouette (leg back) x 3, soutenu, plie front, pique turn.

Overall, the exercises themselves weren't hard, it was just the first time we'd been exposed to them, and we went really fast... If I recorded Rebecca with all of the centerwork ONTOP of these corner exercises, I'd end up with like, 10 videos from one class. Kelly and I will keep at it and hopefully keep improving!

PS. There was a mean girl in Advanced who Kelly {kindly} asked to scoot down a tad to provide more space for her (this girl was hogging two barres to herself), and this girl sassy-like said "um... NO." --- Did she say "sorry, I can't" or "No. I'm really sorry, I need...." Nope. This girl took up TWO BARRES for herself. Who does that? This was disappointing.

image courtesy of Vihao Pham Photography

Monday ~ 6:15 PM BBFNB class was good and fun! The Sunday Advanced class really helped warm me up for Monday's class, since the exercises in BBFNB were reminiscent of Sunday's class. I spoke with Walsh in between barre and centrework and thanked her for her patience with me in Sunday's Advanced class, to which she responded, "No, you were great!" :) She encouraged me to keep coming to Advanced, telling me that I'll get so much from the class from the repetition in the advanced level.

So, Kelly and I decided (we think) to enroll in the Advanced Beginning Ballet class in the Spring and take BBFNB as our supplement class (or maybe a second Advanced class). If you've been following my blog, you'll remember that I wasn't even planning on the Advanced class until the Summer session!

Good week for ballet!

New Terminology: 
Saut de chat

Beautiful Bloch Serenades

HOORAY HOORAY HOORAY!

My beautimous pointe shoes have arrived!

After watching a few how-to video tutorials on sewing ribbons and elastics onto pointe shoes, I started my sewing of the ribbons at about 9:45 PM and finally finished all my sewing at about 10:20 PM (Megan, I know this does NOT count my sewing of my elastics during your wedding gown appointment...) Here are some photos:

Required supplies for pointe shoe sewing: 

light thread, sparkly happy scissors, a lighter (to singe the ribbon ends), elastics, and ribbons!

Ta-da!!!!! 
All done!

(these are Bloch Serenades with Bloch invisible elastic and Bloch Elastorib ribbons)

I stood up in susu, did a soutenu, and did some tendus and ronde de jambes in them. Obviously they're not the most comfortable of shoes, but in pointe shoe world, my limited perspective leads me to believe these aren't bad! My toes don't feel scrunched, and I felt pretty well-balanced on the platform! 

...now to get a portable barre for home-practice :) 

Semaine 16

I have sadly realized that I can't come up with a quote for each week because I'm not thinking about my blog during my class-- I need to work on that.

Monday night was the usual 6:15 PM Walsh class, and as usual, it was fantastic! We did a LOT of work in that 1 hour and 15 minutes! We practiced combinations with plié-pas de cheval (that horse kicking type of move that begins with a coupe) closing to Fifth en croix - front side back side then without a plié, and also while on relevé all en croix, and battément, dégagé, and frappé combos as usual. Other fun exercises were our pirouette exercises, complete with tendus and correct arms but only 1/4 turns at a time. Corner work was a balance-tombé-pas de bourré-chassé-souté arabesque exercise that we did about 6 times. Kelly wasn't at class today so I couldn't record the corner exercise, not that it's a new one, but I think it's starting to look better. Pirouettes are starting to get better, too. I can do a full pirouette while spotting and not topple over! Yaaaay...

Walsh, at least, came up to me and pushed in my butt/pushed my pelvis front and ribs in... I'm not used to doing that. Butt in? I'm used to my butt hanging out everywhere, so keeping it squished-in requires a conscious effort. =P

My ribbons, elastic, and pointe pillows came in the mail two days ago and I'm excited :) I'm not going to be wreckless with these pointe shoes when they come in (relax!). I'll slowly learn how to break in a shoe and get used to the feel of the pointe shoe itself by practicing tendus, rolling through a demi pointe, watching my turnout in them (since it's bound to be worse) and standing in susu (closed Fifth en pointe) while staring into a mirror practicing to keep my big old butt tucked in! The ONLY thing I'll probably do EN POINTE is stand susu and stand with one leg in attitude/coupé/passé getting used to balancing (while holding onto a ledge). I'm NOT going to try and pirouette my way to unconsciousness on the floor. Demi pointe shoes are $30/pair anyway, so I may as well get used to a real shank. Besides, I'm almost just as excited to practice sewing ribbons and elastic onto my beauty-full gorgeous shoes.

weeeee!!!!!

Tuesday night I went to Kintz-Mejia Ballet School's Adult Beginner ballet class with Vihao. The studio is actually in the same shopping plaza as my (old) LA Boxing gym. It was led by Linda Kintz (pic below). She runs a tight ship, like a ballet bootcamp! It was no-nonsense, no jibber jabber, smiling, laughing, or joking. It wasn't hard per se, just pure isolated exercises with corrections in technique throughout. It was really nice to actually be in such a strict atmosphere. It's not the confusing exercise you get lost in (like at BalletNova), instead, you just focus on your arms, chest, butt, going through your demi pointe and plié when landing jumps, and turnout.

I felt comfortable with class after the first 15 or so minutes not feeling exceedingly behind in technique, and the hour flew by. This sure as hell didn't feel like a Beginning ballet class! I sweated gallons and gallons which was great! My towel was soaked and it felt like I'd jumped into a pool, by the end of class.

The best part of it? After class, Linda introduced herself to me, asked my name and said, "You could get really good!" Wow, so reassuring and SUCH a confidence booster! :) She said she knew I'd done some dance before but wondered what it was and where I was currently taking ballet. It was good to know I didn't look like a complete goof!

I think that after this positive experience, I'm definitely open to returning for class on open days where BalletNova doesn't offer class for me.  Plus, I sweat a lot more at Kintz-Mejia. But, at $25 per drop-in... {{sigh}} my bank account will say *ouch*

Left: Linda Kintz, and Right: Mark Mejia and Linda Kintz

Owners of Kintz-Mejia Ballet School

Semaine 15 (Part Deux)

OK, so Jeff and I made it back from Ohio at 4:40 PM, so I had time to relax with the doggies and then get to ballet class! Vihao came, yay!

So, Thursday night's was @ 7:30 PM usually with Clark, but we had a substitute. It was the most awkward class I've ever been to ever. Ever. While I'm sure the instructor is nice outside the classroom, she didn't come off very friendly. She didn't really smile. Also, her exercises were "meh" alright, not difficult. She had the exercises listed on a piece of paper and there was just an extremely awkward length of time where she spent reading the paper then figuring out how it worked with the music. I dunno, it was just really awkward.  I hate to say it, but it didn't quite feel like it was worth the $16 on my 10-class punch card. While we did do a fun barre exercise where we basically walked down the bar starting in Fifth, tendu front, then lunged (I'm 99% sure there's an official ballet term for this but I couldn't tell ya), then up to passé with the back leg, close front, then again x 4. Then we took the inside (barre side) leg tendu back, then turned the other way and did 4 of the same exercise again. I didn't feel like we did very CHALLENGING barre work, overall. Centrework was better but still not without awkward silence. We had jetes across the floor from the corner, but it was also awkward because she seemed very indecisive of what she wanted us to do... I missed Clark. Looking forward to Monday's class with Walsh (or hey, I'd take Shu-Chen if she were around, she was awesome!)!!

I forced Vihao to take a picture with me since I haven't given my blog readers anything of substance to watch/look at like photos or videos (sorry, corner exercises haven't been very exciting, so I haven't wanted to record), hahaha. Vihao didn't want to record our jetes but that's ok, I was kinda just ready to go home after the class. Anyway, to the right, a fun picture pretending we're pas de deux partners. But in the hallway... oops.

So I met Vihao two years ago through my husband Jeff, since they work together at Microstrategy, Inc. in Tyson's Corner. We've spent some time in Amsterdam on a trip for Microstrategy, at lunches, weddings, and other events, but we never really got to talking about ballet.

Jeff just recently formed an informal P90X workout group at Microstrategy in their gym and Vihao joined Jeff probably about a month ago. So, I found out that Vihao has been taking ballet for 2-3 years at the Kintz-Mejia in Vienna, VA. He got into ballet classes after being hired for a lot of ballet photography sessions at the studio, and has since then been hired out for two-hour sessions with ABT (American Ballet Theater), for Dance Spirit magazine, and personal shoots. He continues classes twice a week at Kintz-Mejia. Now hopefully I've found another ballet buddy :) I think I scared him away from BalletNova though, because the class was so awkward a big adjustment from the comforts of his studio. I hope he comes and tries a Monday class with Walsh, because I love her classes and the live pianist really makes it a lot more exciting.

If you want to see some absolutely gorgeous photos of ballet dancers, check out his Facebook page or his personal website, Vihao Pham Photography.

Some of my favorite photos from Vihao's collections:

I love photos of pointe shoes and the colors here are so vibrant

Dance in the City photoshoot in NYC

I love this picture, dancers in real life settings

just plain pretty!

Beautiful work!

New Terminology from 9/27:

soutenu

tour de reins

PS: Have you noticed the new blog banner? Jeff was working on making on an improvement without my knowing and I love it :) I have such a supportive husband! Thanks, Jeffrey!

Semaine 15

This week's schedule is probably only going to be the Monday class, since Jeff and I have to go back to Ohio on Thursday to collect our repaired car from the 8/27 accident. If he and I make it back into town before it's too late, I'm going to try to make it to class. Jeff's coworker Vihao, who has been taking ballet at a studio closeby, wants to join me in class to see how my studio is, so hopefully we make it back into town so he and I can go together! In his words, we will try to do a "student exchange" program, where I'll take a class at his studio (Kintz-Meijia Ballet Academy), too. It's always good to try out different studios I guess, to see if one fits your needs better, and it also would help to see where my technique is at in comparison. His classes are Beginners on Tuesdays and Intermediate on Wednesdays. Right now my schedule won't fit in with his, since I work on those days, but I think every now and then I should have a day free to drop in!

Anyhow, this Monday's class was great. It was led by Shu-Chen, the Gin Dance Company founder and artistic director. She was fantastic! She has beautiful beautiful feet, was funny, and had challenging exercises that were all doable but took some getting used to. Constance Walsh was out of town for some ballet conference thingy I think. But it was definitely a pleasure to take class from Shu-Chen and I hope she comes back some time soon!

Pictured: Shu-Chen

Today I did a goofy thing... and it stems back from when I did the LAST really silly dorky nerdy goofy thing. I bought pointe shoes. I know. I said it. I did it. I went to the dance store nearby and got fitted for pointe shoes, telling the manager/fitter that my "instructor gave me the go ahead for the Spring" <-- not true. I guess I COULD say that Saki is my "other instructor," and she would've told me to just get fitted so I can see what brand works for me so that when the time COMES, I would know... so I went based off of that. Plus, what's another 5 months after when I told the lady I'd start pointe? =P So anyway, I tried on Bloch, Chacott, Grishko, and Russian Pointe. The best fitting pair were a pair of Bloch Serenades, 3.5C. This wasn't terribly off of the Grishko 2007's that I got off of eBay back in my early blog entry, since I ordered a size 3 back then I think, based off a size 6 street shoe.. However, the lady went by my ballet slipper size (6.5) so a 3.5 was the best fit. I guess ballet dancers have real narrow feet sometimes, because I'm considered a C width and I have pretty narrow/regular feet in my opinion.

Click here to see the Serenades on Discountdance.com, here's a pic though:

OMG aren't they pretty? These (both photos) are the exact ones I got, a 3.5 C =) Preeeeettty pointe shoes. I got 'em on eBay for $35 with Free Shipping, woot! 

Rolling up to pointe in the Blochs (and all the pointe shoes I tried) was actually really easy and was a LOT MORE COMFORTABLE than I expected! It was easy to go to susu (closed fifth position en pointe or demi pointe) without holding onto the barre. I didn't passe in them in the store but it was so fun to wear them and roll up to pointe and not feel like I was torturing my feet! Fun Fun Fun! Can't wait to get 'em so I can take some pictures and practice some controlled moves in them...muahahaha... I know this is somewhat disrespecting the art of ballet, but I'm way too impatient to wait until next Fall. At $35, I don't mind getting re-fitted in a year and getting different shoes. 

...So now I'll need to get some elastic, ribbons, and lambswool toe pads. =P

Bloch makes an Elastorib ribbon (Right) that has elastic positioned where the ribbon would wrap around the achilles' tendon, which reduces the occurrence of tendonitis, a common problem with ribbons tied too-tightly around the ankle. On the left are pictured lambswool toe pillows.

My goodness, I am just hanging my head out of shame for myself. Hahah... 

New Term this Week: 

pas de cheval: 

"step of the horse," where the dancer does a coupe then a small developpe and tendu back into the starting position. 

Semaine 14 - "Don't Crush your Tutu"

I think I'll try to come up with a funny lesson/quote that was said in class, for each week. This week's was "Don't crush your tutu!" said by Walsh, in describing how we use our arms and not dropping our arms too low, and not swooping up and overdramatically with our tambe.

"Don't crush your tutu!" There are way too many adorable pug tutu pictures on the internet... 

I have a hard time choosing which one =) 

Mei-Mei is definitely going to be a ballerina for Halloween this year!

Monday Night @ 6:15 PM - Walsh

Monday night's class was with the wonderful Walsh! Again it was a pleasant experience, I sweated my tutu off haha... nothing exciting to show in a video, so Kelly and I didn't record a clip. Hopefully Thursday's class will have something exciting... if anything maybe I'll have her take a pic of me in the splits? This week for corner exercises all we did was a tambe-pas de burre combo and then a soute arabesque one. Not that thrilling, it's nothing we haven't done already.

Video clip of assemble, from last week's centrework exercise

I called Art Stone Dance Supply (the one I got my leotard from back in June) if they carried demi pointe shoes. Unfortunately they don't (sighh...) I may just get a pair off of discountdance.com then. What I think I may do is go to the store, ask again (pretending that I hadn't already), and when they say no, I'll ask if I can get fitted into Sansha's (link click here) anyway so that I know what size I am since they don't carry them and that I'll come back for my pointes in the future. =D Maybe they won't hate me too much. That's my goal for Thursday, my next day off. They're only $25.20 and are the better of the two that can be purchased on discountdance.com, since this one has a wider, more square box/pointe.

Comparison: 

Left: European ($29.95), Right: American ($25.20). Note the one on the right has a more square box, and the one on the left is a smaller box that is tapered at the toe. I like the one on the right way more. 

Thursday Night @ 7:30 PM - Clark

Class was fine, nothing new or exciting to be learned, except for when Clark uses me as the example before a floor routine, I completely screw it up and look like I'm out of my league in that class hah. We did pirouette exercises again and when I get used to the way she does a certain exercise, I assume it's the same routine the next time. Even if I listen to her, I'm not paying attention to her change up the exercise. So of course, when she said "plie, quarter turn," knowing it was a pirouette exercise, I still did the "preparacion" which was plie - passe - plie, quarter turn. NOPE! Wasn't paying attention. Additionally, with my old woman mind and muscle memory, when she told me to reverse and go the other way, I still did the preparacion. Dangit! {hand slaps forehead}

I really didn't feel like videotaping any of the corner exercises they weren't exciting. All it was, was a chasse grand jete - step - grand jete, and the other was a soute arabesque exercise we've done in the past. 

That's all for this week. Hopefully the week of September 23rd is more exciting! Depending on if Jeff and I have to fly to Ohio to get the car, I may or may not be able to attend class on Thursday. :( sad. 

Semaine 13

{sorry for posting so late, with Jeff's 30th bday this weekend, I got distracted}

~Monday Night~

I'm writing this on Monday night after my class with Constance Walsh - O.M.G. I. LOVE. HER. Kelly was right, she is the best teacher EVER! I know I said this after class with Clark, and while I do love Clark, I am so grateful and happy to have TWO instructors as my regulars whom I adore! Since I enrolled on Mondays at 6:15 PM, I'll have Walsh every week (weeeeeeeee!!!) and then on Thursdays as a walk-in, as long as I am free for class on Thursday nights, I'll have Clark! I'm so excited! BalletNova's motto is "Where you dance matters," and I'm seriously a believer! I think that Walsh's instruction and guidance will really help me. She smiles, she laughs and jokes around, but also comes up with challenging combinations and pays attention to every student helping them individually. When we were doing a reverse passé, she came up and fixed my heel so that my turnout was better (I had no idea I was doing it THAT wrong!), and fixed my hands in port de bras a la seconde (second position arms). No videos for this class, we didn't do challenging corner work. The more challenging parts were a developpe exercise that was just too complicated for my early-alzheimer's brain to handle haha... but it wasn't beyond comprehension... I was just too slow-minded that I would flub it every other attempt haha...

The best thing about Monday night class - A LIVE PIANIST! I seriously felt like I was in a class straight out of Center Stage:

Fast Forward to 2:55 and that was how our class felt with the live music! Sooo fun :) 

~Thursday Night~ 

So, Kelly didn't join me on Thursday night's class with Clark, which I thought was OK. Well, turns out I was wrong. Yknow when you have one of those days where physically you're present, but mentally you're spaced out completely? Almost every time Clark gave a combination to us, I would just NOT GET IT. It wasn't that the combos were HARD, my mind just wasn't there! It was so frustrating!! Since I'm not classically trained aside from what I've learned since this past June, I need the instructor to be specific about what the combination IS. The problem with Thursday was that she would step-through the first 1/4 of the combination and then change something up within it but wouldn't demonstrate it. Instead, she just used the terminology and that just messed me up because I don't KNOW ALL of the terminology. This was my first really truly frustrating classes at BalletNova. Sigh. 

After class I met up with Saki, my friend I met through Jeff, who helped mentor and guide me along this whole ballet journey (She's the one who teaches at Washington School of Ballet... She also hooked Jeff and me up with free tickets to The Nutcracker last Christmas!). We met up at the Capital City Brewery down in Shirlington and caught up. After talking about her new engagement, we eventually talked about my ballet classes. I told her about what I'm learning, how my bad class was that night, and then about what my plans were for the next year. She gawked at the price of classes at BalletNova ($329 for 18-ish classes, plus supplementing with $16/class for a second class each week). So, she suggested that after this Fall Session is complete, that I consider taking classes at other studios she has taught or has friends who take class. One of them is the Metropolitan Fine Arts Center and the other is The Ballet Studio (Saki used to work here and knows the owner really well). Both have recitals that include adult ballet classes! (exciting!) MFAC is $330 for a 30 class card ($11/class; no registration only class card attendance) and The Ballet Studio is $18/class for an 8-class card (more expensive than BalletNova). The only upside of The Ballet Studio is that Saki's friend teaches the Advanced Adult Ballet + Pointe class, which as an enrolled student is $325. This is for Fall, which is only Sept 10-Dec 15 vs. Sept 3-Feb 3 at BalletNova (Advanced Beg Ballet + Pointe would be $439, for comparison purposes). So it seems like once on pointe, BalletNova is cheaper. BUT, Saki said that her friend who teaches the Advanced Adult + Pointe class has only 4 students right now, and could give me a lot of focused attention to help me get on pointe faster. Lots to think about. For right now, I'm sticking with BalletNova. May as well, since my work schedule is all figured out with my Monday enrollment, and it's just too complicated to factor in starting at a new studio. Knowing me, I'd probably wind up at the wrong studio on the wrong day and miss out overall haha. 

Saki did mention demi-pointe shoes. I've never heard of them, but she said they are good for training those who have weak arches, to get on pointe. Since I don't have weak arches, she said I may not need them, but based on my quick google research, they help prep for pointe and get the dancer used to the feel of pointe shoes. Also, she suggested seeing Maggie from Washington School of Ballet when looking into pointe shoes, since she used to work in ballet retail. :) OMG now I am like... intensely wanting a pair just to mess around with hahaha... Found them online at Discount Dance and they are $25 a pair... omg I can feel my excitement grow =P Definitely stopping by the dance supply store nearby to get sized tomorrow, weeeee!!!!! OF COURSE, I wouldn't dare bringing these into class, lest I be judged or scoffed at! I'll dance in private in these. Yay.

Demi-Pointe Shoes

OK so throwback to early entries... 

New Terminology This Week: 

Echappe 

Assemble

Semaine 12 (Start of Fall Session)

Hellooooo!!!!!

It's been a while since I've posted, and it feels even LONGER since I've been away from ballet. Thursday night (September 6th) was my first class since my last post (August 16th, Week 11) - THREE whole weeks of a torturous non-ballet "break." It felt so much longer, and after class it truly felt like I hadn't stretched in months. I went to visit my friend Laura in Indiana the weekend of August 24th, and before then, my mom was in town visiting so I didn't go to class. On the way back home from our Indiana trip on the 27th (Monday), Jeff and I stopped for a bite to eat in Ohio where we got T-boned on the driver's (my) side by an out of control Toyota 4Runner while we were stopped at a light. My car had to be towed to a nearby Auto Shop and has been there since. I suffered a minor concussion and back injury and Jeff had a knee sprain. The doggies were safe (thank GOD). Anyhow, even though I was in pain and unable to work- let alone go to ballet class- I was really sad to have missed $10 walk-in week classes!

Thursday night's class at 7:30 PM was with Carol Ann Clark, my favorite instructor (so far). This was my first class of the Fall Session (studio was closed Labor Day), so there were almost all new people in class. Advanced Beginning was also held at the same time so Nobu, Andrea, and Joo (and a few others), the girls we're used to seeing in BBFNB, were probably in that class. Class was pretty full, I think around 15 students - usually we have about 8 or 9. A few of the girls in class were part of Labor Day's make-up class, which explains the large size. Kelly and I fell in around the top part of the middle in terms of technique, I think?

Anyhow, Thursday night's barre work seemed moderately difficult, though it might've just been the time away from the barre that made everything seem harder than it was in reality. Getting our heads back into the game after weeks of fogginess was tough. Kelly and I felt our feet and ankles were just a-floppin'-aboot during the frappe exercises! The splits exercise was a killer- I think my hamstrings were woken up from their long slumber, cause they were aching the entire next day! It's kinda nice to go to class where you aren't necessarily learning NEW terminology. Instead you're cleaning up messy technique, which I was definitely working on. Centrework was kind of confusing. We did this odd combination of things that weren't even hard, per se, it was just a bit confusing... another was a weird jumping exercise. When things are confusing I feel old and mental haha...

The cross floor exercise was a grand jete one, super easy. However, after doing about 8 or 9 of them in groups of 3, a girl starts to get worn out! So by the time the video (below) was taken, this was attempt #14 (solo attempt post-class #5ish). The clip we recorded right before this, I nearly collapsed at the end, haha...

If you ever wanted to know what a Clydesdale horse sounds like in ballet slippers, you'll find out shortly! And I really can't explain my floppy hands. I need to work on: #1 getting up higher in my splits, #2 not sounding like a thompin' clompin' rhino, #3 graceful hands, and #4 maybe a smile or two would make it better. I wanted to start my grand jetes with a chasse, but since we didn't do that in class Kelly said I wasn't allowed to for the video.

Clydesdales doing Grand Jetes:

...Can't wait to get back into the groove!
Next week is Monday 6:15 PM (Walsh) and Thursday 7:30 PM (Clark)

Pug Grand Jete

Fall Ballet Schedule

Oh gosh, so I was just working on my Fall ballet schedule - a total of 43 classes! Look at this sucker:

Walk-In Week: $10/class
Mon Aug 27th @ 6:15 PM (Walsh)
Thurs Aug 30th @ 7:30 PM (Clark - she's awesome!! my fave)

Fall Session:

(All Mondays are enrolled with Walsh)

September:
Thurs Sept 6th @ 7:30 PM make-up for Labor Day (Clark)
Mon Sept 10th Enrolled @ 6:15
Thurs Sept 13th @ 7:30 PM (Clark)
Mon Sept 17th Enrolled @ 6:15
Thurs Sept 20th @ 7:30 PM (Clark)
Mon Sept 24th Enrolled @ 6:15
Thurs Sept 27th @ 7:30 PM (Clark)
Fri Sept 28th @ 6:30 PM (Burnstein)

October:
Mon Oct 1st Enrolled @ 6:15 PM
Thurs Oct 4th @ 7:30 PM (Clark)
Mon Oct 8th Enrolled @ 6:15 PM
Thurs Oct 11th @ 7:30 PM (Clark)
Mon Oct 15th Enrolled @ 6:15 PM
Thurs Oct 18th @ 7:30 PM (Clark)
Mon Oct 22nd Enrolled @ 6:15 PM
Thurs Oct 25th @ 7:30 PM
Mon Oct 29th Enrolled @ 6:15 PM

November:
Thurs Nov 1st @ 7:30 PM (Clark)
Mon Nov 5th Enrolled @ 6:15 PM
Thurs Nov 8th @ 7:30 PM (Clark)
Mon Nov 12th Enrolled @ 6:15 PM
Thurs Nov 15th 7:30 PM (Clark)
Mon Nov 19th Enrolled @ 6:15 PM
CLOSED FOR THANKSGIVING
Mon Nov 26th Enrolled @ 6:15 PM
Thurs Nov 29th @ 7:30 PM (Clark)

December:
Mon Dec 3rd Enrolled @ 6:15 PM
Thurs Dec 6th @ 7:30 PM (Clark)
Mon Dec 10th Enrolled @ 6:15 PM
Thurs Dec 13th @ 7:30 PM (Clark)
Mon Dec 17th Enrolled @ 6:15 PM
Thurs Dec 20th @ 7:30 PM (Clark)
BALLET STUDIO CLOSED CHRISTMAS 24TH-26TH
Thurs Dec 27th @ 10 AM and 7:30 PM (one Christmas make-up and one extra class; Perez/Clark)

January: 
BALLET STUDIO CLOSED DEC 31-JAN 1ST
Thurs Jan 3rd @ 10 AM and 7:30 PM (one New Year's make-up and one extra class; Perez/Clark)
Mon Jan 7th Enrolled @ 6:15 PM
Thurs Jan 10th @ 7:30 PM (Clark)
Mon Jan 14th Enrolled @ 6:15 PM
Thurs Jan 17th @ 7:30 PM (Clark)
Mon Jan 21st Enrolled @ 6:15 PM
Thurs Jan 24th @ 7:30 PM (Clark)
Mon Jan 28th Enrolled @ 6:15 PM
Thurs Jan 31st @ 7:30 PM (Clark)

For the most part, two classes per week. I can't wait until Fall Session is over so that I can consider taking Advanced Beginning Ballet in the Winter/Spring Session! 

Description of Ballet II (Advanced Beg Ballet): 
"Must have at least 2 years of Ballet experience. This is a good level for non-beginning dancers unsure of their level, those returning after some time away from the ballet studio, and those confident at the Beginning Ballet level. Dancers should have a full understanding of ballet terminology. Students can expect a full barre followed by center with pirouette combinations, petit and grand allegro with 1-to-1 and 2-to-1 foot jumps."

I recall that Nobu only has been dancing ballet for a year, but is taking a couple more classes per week. She'd only been taking Ballet for Non-Beginners (BBFNB) for 2 sessions before starting Advanced Beginning, so maybe Spring/Winter will be it! Maybe I'll have to wait til next Summer session to feel more confident to start it but I must ...  

Semaine 11 (Part Two)

I got my new swag in from Discount Dance Supply! I'd been lusting after some nice legwarmers and trash bag shorts for ballet class (originally mentioned in Semaine 5).

I got some new tights (I'd been wearing my light pink ones this whole time), so I got two new pairs of Slimz convertible tights that are super super soft. I got light tan ones and black ones. In addition to the 27" stirrup thigh-high Body Wrappers legwarmers (I got them more of a function of keeping my right ankle loosened up for some good grand plies) and Body Wrappers sweat-awesome trash bag shorts (well, they're really called rip-stop shorts), I got a new pair of ballet flats! They're Grishko's Ultimate split-sole canvas ballet slippers. I'm not sure if I need to be a size 7 in them.. Both the Capezio's and Grishko's recommended me get a 6 1/2 (half size larger than my street shoe size) which is perfect for my right foot, but my left big toe is a TINY bit smushed in both of the 6 1/2's. I'm sitting here stretching the left one out with a rolled up sock in the front. I already tried warm water on the toe and wearing them around the house to stretch 'em but no luck so far.

Anyway, to burn some extra calories, at around 2 pm today I'm going to go to the gym and do some cardio with my trash bag shorts on haha. Then tonight's 6:15pm class with Carmen Perez, last BBFNB class of the summer! I'll have one more punch on my card, I wonder if I should just use it for Basic Beginning on Tuesday or if I should just save it for the Fall class. Extra classes are now $16 for me since I'm enrolled, and the class card makes each class out to be $18/class, but if I already bought it, I may as well use it for a class I'll get more out of, right? I think Basic Beginning is a bit too easy now (SO SO SO glad I can say that now!). Advanced Beginning Ballet, here I come next year! =P Maybe next Summer??

Walk-In Week is coming around the corner! With $10/class, I'm already adding two classes to my schedule!

Monday August 27 @ 6:15-7:30 pm
Thursday August 30 @ 7:30-8:45 pm

*************
Tonight's class was great! We had Carol Clark as a sub since Carmen Perez was at the beach this week, but it was a nice replacement! Everyone loved her, she is probably my favorite instructor out of everyone I've ever had (Carmen Perez, Irina Wunder, Leisl Swogger, Silvia Burnstein, and Carol Clark), she was lighthearted and the most real of all of them. I think all the instructors at BalletNova are wonderful, but my favorite is Carol.

We had some challenging fondu floor/halfway/90 degree exercises, and my favorite centrework exercise was a pirouette prep one (starting in Fifth with hands on hips, plie-passe x 3, then plie to pirouette and finish behind, then switch feet). We did about 3 sets of that exercise. We did some first/second/changement jumping exercises where I need to learn to turn out less so I don't keep landing on the balls of my feet unbalanced.

Since my Bunhead Buddy wasn't with me tonight, I didn't have anyone I wanted to nerdily ask to record a clip of the corner exercise. Today was a chasse, degagé with attitude exercise which was fun. We did it first with arms in Second and head front, then we did it with arms in arabesque position with head straight, then we did it with arms in arabesque with head facing the acting leg, then with hands on hips. Hands on hips was awkward. The other exercise was a chassé-grand jeté exercise which was a lot of fun. Here's a video of a grand jeté (though honestly she looks like she's performing a developpé):

I debuted my new gear tonight, but Kelly wasn't there to laugh with me in the trashbag shorts...

Trashbag shorts, leg warmer on the bum ankle, and new canvas slippers. I'm officially a fan of canvas slippers over leather. They don't stick annoyingly to the studio floor when trying to do dégagés. 

Studio C, where class is held every week

Beautiful portraits line the walls of the studio's hallways. This is one of my favorites, because they're the kind of photos I'd want to have taken of myself when that ONE DAY COMES! :)