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.
I can always show up and eff up the class
ReplyDeleteSeriously, you should! I still want you to come to class with me :)
DeleteHi Jennifer! I just discovered your blog today, and it's been wonderful reading about your experience at BalletNova. I am a complete beginner (30 years old, never took a dance class of any kind in my kind) and am in Clark's four-week, introductory workshop. (Actually, I finished the intro workshop last month, but Clark suggested I may want to take it again, so I am.)
ReplyDeleteI've been thinking about what class I may want to move on to next, and it's been great reading your insights into the different instructors at the school. We had Wunder as a substitute last night, and I liked her -- super high energy and enthusiastic, but she took a very slow, methodical, foundational approach, which I think is beneficial for (near) complete beginners. Anyway, I'd love to get your thoughts on the basic beginner instructors you've had experience with (I think they're Perez, Watson, Wunder this semester). You've been quite candid in your writing on this blog, but if you'd prefer to continue this by e-mail, that would be great, too.
Thanks again! Your devotion -- both to dance, and to your writing here -- is admirable and something I aspire to.
Best,
Simon
Wow! I'm so excited to know that someone I don't even FORCE to read my blog is following! How flattering! :) I am so happy to hear you are gaining knowledge or insight from my jib-jabbering! I never took a workshop at BalletNova, but if you're interested in ballet specifically - and I assume you do since you're taking Clark's workshop, I would try the Basic Beginning Ballet class and see how you feel with the level of technique. After learning some terms in the workshop I am pretty confident that after completing just one workshop you can keep up with class! I didn't know ANY terms when I started (except the 5 positions, NOT including arms. I still have trouble with that) and was in a Basic Adult class and it was perfect for the first month. After then, the Non-Beginner class was perfect for me (as you may have read). How do you feel with the workshops? My favorites are Walsh and Wunder. In order of preference: Walsh, Wunder, Clark, Perez. I have loved Leisel when she substitutes, too.
DeleteThank you so much for your feedback, it makes me feel so encouraged to keep writing the way I am! (I know I am really verbose...) Keep dancing!
(I submitted comments -- twice! -- before but I think they got lost in the ether ... apologies if this ends up as multiple posts.)
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for the reply! I feel pretty comfortable in Clark's workshop, but getting an initial grasp of even basic combinations is still a challenge for me, as I'm brand new to dance. Coordinating arms and legs, and linking different steps, still feels foreign to me. Incidentally, I'm also a former figure skater (I stopped when I was 11; got up to doing single lutzes, flips, salchows, etc.) but I'm not finding that experience helpful at all! It's probably too far in the past.
But I feel good (not struggling) at the barre and with most of the basic things we do in the center. I asked Clark after class what I should work on at home, and she said articulating my feet (working through demi-pointe on tendus, and things like that). She recommended that I work with a Theraband.
Another question for you -- what was the level of dancing you encountered in Kintz-Mejia's beginning class? I know you blogged about it a little, but I'm wondering if you thought the class could be appropriate for someone who's only been dancing for a few months. The Mariinsky's my favorite ballet company, and I'd love to learn Vaganova technique.
I've also started taking the intro class at Maryland Youth Ballet, which is a little closer to my house, and that has been very helpful in starting to build up a foundation of technique.
Thanks again for blogging!
-Simon