Semaine 25

After a long long time away from the barre, I finally slapped on those pink tights and ballet slippers back on Wednesday, February 27th! I tried out a class at the Metropolitan Fine Arts center in Springfield, VA which was recommended to me by Saki whose friend Melissa took Advanced Beginning Ballet II and Intermediate Ballet III and dances pointe with the Intermediate class. It's such a great deal! Online registration was a $30 3-class package for new students, so I took that opportunity asap. After the three are finished, classes are $13/ea for a 10-class card for $130. Not shabby since BalletNova's 10-class cards are $180.

The class I took was Advanced Beginning Ballet (Ballet II) for adults. The class was small, 8 of us. About 60% of the class usually takes the Intermediate III class (they grew up dancing pointe). I'll have to admit, I was definitely intimidated at the beginning of class - I mean, it's reasonable right? It's always a little nerve wracking at a new studio not knowing how the class' level will feel compared to the comfort of an old studio. I got through it though and was terribly sore afterward. Good sore!

I learned a lot of moves that night!

At the barre: 
* petit battement - look at the video below, I don't know how I can make my foot move that fast, maybe it involves a higher level of hip control!
* double frappes to the front and back - we only did double frappes to the side at BalletNova, so watching this video is helpful to find out where the heel is placed during the movement.

In center: 
* sissonne (pronounced "see-sone")
* pique turns (I'd shown pique turns in a previous video but we hadn't formally done them)
* chaines turns (pronounced "shuh-nay")

Our floor exercises (I'll try and videotape next week) were:
A) Pique turns x6, with chaines turns to finish
B) From Fifth (right foot front), sissonne to the right, sissonne to left, plié to (back) right leg extended back into a dégagé, plié to (front) left foot dégagé, plié fifth, assemblé. Repeat opposite side.
C) Inside turns - From Fifth left foot in front en croix (to the corner), chassé to passé (right foot) on relevé close Fifth, plié. Chassé to a 1 1/2 pirouette to finish en croix to the opposite corner, repeat other side. I miss outside turns, it always seems like it's easier to balance that way.

For reference:

Sissonne:

Chaines Turns:

Pique Turns:

Petit Battement (en pointe, obvies):

That's all for this week!

Semaine 24

I am a complete disappointment lately. I know I need to get back on the horse (er, barre...) but I have just been so lazy! The studio is a 30 minute drive from home which I guess, to me, is too far to feel motivated! I'll need to look into a closer studio!

Anyway, so I went to Carmen Perez's class on Thursday morning at 10 AM. Remember back when Carmen Perez was the instructor I took class from last summer? I was intimidated by her? Well this class was a pleasant surprise! It was great! The combinations felt foreign, of course, but that comes with the territory of going to a different instructor. Barre exercises have already left my mind (I didn't set it up to record) but what I did like about her Thursday class was stretching during the first 5 minutes of class, barre work, then stretching, then barre work, then center.

Our corner exercises were:

1) soute arabesque, soute arabesque (other side), soute arabesque, pas de chat, pas de chat.

2) waltz step to the right, to the left, waltz a tournant, pas de bourre to fifth, lunge to pirouette en dehors (outward turn), waltz right, waltz left, pas de bourre to fifth, tendu lunge, pirouette en dedans (inward)

The good thing I gained from LAST week's video at the barre was catching at how bad I was doing at keeping my head in its proper position. Being made aware of my traveling neck and head made me stay very aware about my head's position during class (even though I kept messing it up!). So I'll try to incorporate more barre into my videos.

With the Inauguration on Monday, January 21st, I think class was cancelled. I didn't end up going to class this week (this is horrible, I need to get the momentum back up for the Spring!

Then I'm off to VIVA LAS VEGAS for a week for Jeff's Microstrategy World Conference. Wohoo! I'm out of town the whole week of January 27th, so when I come back it'll be Winter/Spring session at the studios. I might consider taking from MFA, I'll have to see how I feel about MFA's classes.

No video this week, didn't have time between all my shifts and errands to run before the trip!

Semaine 23

Wow has it really been almost a month since my last class? Time has flown by like crazy! I knew it had been 2 weeks before Christmas, but seeing the last entry was 12/13/12, this is just unacceptable! :)

For Christmas, my super cool and awesome supportive husband got me a ballet barre!

My beautiful VitaVibe double-barre in our condo living room amongst our Christmas decor

I've yet to put it to use, but I'm considering taking it down to the basketball court for my next video, to show some of the barrework we do in class. Hope no one finds it extremely odd to be bringing this down the elevator! 

Monday night's class was Walsh's 6:15 pm BBFNB and it was busier than normal. Some of the advanced beginning students came to class, were probably bored out of their minds, but at any rate it was a good class. It felt great to be back!

Later on, I'm {seriously!!!} going to try and go to the Metropolitan Fine Arts Center in Springfield for classes. $15/class means $300 for 20 classes (cheaper than $329 per semester at BalletNova with 20 classes per semester). No registration means if I don't make it (like after the car accident and the holidays) I don't lose the $! 

Hope you like this week's video!

Of course there are MANY other exercises we did, but I honestly can't remember them! I'll have to find my little mini digital recorder from graduate school so I can stow it in my bag and record the audio at least (to jog my memory). 

New Terminology: 
Failli - (pronounced "fah-YEE") after a dancer lands on their front foot, the back foot slides through to the front.