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 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 11 (Part One)

This post is going to be short and sweet - have to wake up at 5:30 AM for work in the morning! 

Tonight's class was Irina's Monday 7:45 pm class, but substituted by Leisel, the awesome sub from last week's Monday night class. I really like her and she has such a beautiful pointe.

I got to class about 40 minutes early (I had to pick up my car from the service center, which is close by and closed at 7 PM) so I had a long time to stretch beforehand. The Company dancers were warming up next to me, and wow - I have a long ways to go! You could just tell they're so good just by watching them stretch!! They were all thin, lean, long, and when they pointed their toes and stretched out their legs, you could just imagine how great their technique is.

I took a photo of my floor pointe so I could compare it in the next few months and see how much I have progressed. Here's my "semi-start pointe" in the first photo and then the second pic is of me stretching out my feet before class in the second photo. It's not very impressive... but it'll be a benchmark.
                                

One of the company dancers was able to comPLETELY bend her foot

So you see where the pink arrow is pointing to? This Company dancer could literally TOUCH that part of the foot directly to the ground where it was practically bent in half! **way farther than this foot**

I found this contraption online at footstretch.com that looks tempting..

 

At €133 (€98 for the foot stretcher + €35 for air mail) it's kinda pricey ($163.98) 

Anyway, tonight we did the really good pirouette practice for centrework, a glissade-jete-tombe-pas de chat combo, and then a repeat of the corner exercise routine from last week (I know I need to work on getting my arms better and looking less flimsy floppy and more crisp...?!)

I think Kelly and I are progressing pretty well - well, where we're keeping up with class where we are right in the middle skill-wise? Next class is Thursday 6:15 pm!!

Semaine 10

Monday Night Class: 

I'm sitting in my bed in the dark with my glasses on, hair wet, and with my laptop open. I am having a Carrie Bradshaw moment here, and it's funny how that's never crossed my mind before. I guess it's because I'm usually sitting on the couch when writing my blog entry.

Anyhow, this week is a Monday/Thursday combo, and tonight I just finished up my first of two classes. So this will REALLY be a two-part blog entry! Irina isn't in town this week or next week (sad) but the substitute instructor is still a good temporary replacement. She was the same instructor from week 1 for Perez, when she was in Argentina (or was it Chile?). Ontop of that, Kelly (my "bunhead buddy" I'll call her) wasn't able to come. I wasn't too nervous about going to class alone this week, which to me, is a sign that I'm feeling a little more confident with my technique and skills to keep up with the rest of class!

Irina Wunder (aka, best teacher ever)

Anyway, tonight's class was pretty easy. Barre work was for the entire first hour (which is more than usual) and centrework for the last 20ish minutes. Barrework was lots of dégagé, battement, coupe envelope (pronounced "on-ve-lope-ay") and  pirouette prep exercises, then barre stretches. Thinking back, it's hard to remember what took the whole hour! Centrework was really simple from my pointe (hehe) of view, which I guess means it was REALLY easy for everyone else! We did quarter, three-quarter, then full pirouette exercises and a soute arabesque combo with these running-leap things... oops, forgot to ask at the end of class what they were called. I guess I'll be asking my coworkers this week!

Oh something interesting - I met a girl in class named Joo. She's 22 years old and has been taking ballet with BalletNova for 1 year now, and before then, was only taking jazz (and at a different studio). She's taking BBFNB like me, and then also taking Advanced Beginning Ballet. She said Advanced Beginning is a pretty hard class, and she's one of the girls who totally keeps up with my class. I asked if she was going to take pointe soon, since she's in Advanced Beginning (the class you are required to take in conjunction with Intro to Pointe) and she said "OH NO!" and she said MAYBE in a year. She said that other girls ask the instructor (Constance) to see if they can begin pointe. So anyway, there's hope right? If she only started taking ballet 1 year ago and with the class I'm taking now, in a year I should be able to ask the instructor if I can progress to pointe. It'd probably help if by the Spring semester I can make it into Advanced Beginning. Hopefully my technique after the next semester (Sept 3-Feb 3) is up to par to advance. Supposedly you're required to take 2 classes per week with pointe (aka, Beginning Ballet for Non-Beginners, Advanced Beginning Ballet + Intro to Pointe). That's big bucks!

Last week I enrolled in Mondays at 6:15 PM with Walsh (BBFNB) and that itself was $329 for 5 months. If I enrolled in a SECOND class ontop of that (hypothetically if this was the POINTE semester), PLUS enrolled in Intro to Pointe, it would be an additional $329 (there's a small discount if you're enrolling in more than 1 class, but I'm not sure what that discount is), plus $100 for the pointe class. So that's $760! Yikes. =/ I guess I should try to work some overtime shifts at work and save up! At least I have time on my side... haha...

I'm getting ahead of myself... let's keep on practicing my turnout for Fifth Position and my simple single pirouette. As if that wasn't already hard enough!

Thursday Night Class: 

Carmen "I get down to business" Perez

Tonight's class was pretty good, a little confusing. Carmen goes through her combinations quickly but the tricky part is that she makes one tweak in the middle of the combo and I forget which direction to resume the normal part of the combo! So she'll do an exercise en croix with four frappes to the front, four to the side, four to the back, then back to the side with single single double-double, then four to the front, four to the side single single double double, then four to the back. Then repeated while on relevé. The combo itself isn't complicated, I think it's just that my short term memory lacks and I just lose my place in the combo forgetting which way to start again.

Centrework was easy, we did some pas de chat-pas de bourré-changement exercises, pirouette exercises, and then cornerwork (across the floor) was this exercise that I so poorly will demonstrate:

I messed it all up at the end with the pas de chat, nervous because the advanced intermediate dancers are trickling into the room and here I am doing a simple routine haha... anyway, the end would've just had a pas de chat executed with the correct foot leading! I need to work on not looking so much like I'm in karate class and be more graceful =/ oops. 

Semaine 7

So this week was tough after not having gone to class for a while.

This past Thursday was after I'd come back from Amsterdam at 2:30 AM (our flight from NYC to DC was cancelled so Jeff and I drove a rental car for four hours to get home) and class at 6:15 PM, with Perez. Barre work was tougher than usual, since 1) she went through the combos pretty quickly; and hopefully more importantly 2) I'd been away from the "ballet mindset" for a bit. After barrework, the centrework was terrifying! We did some easy combos like  degage en croix, but then we did exercises that start in fifth position, then continued with three glissades (going to the side while appearing like you're gliding, from fifth position, en changement) and then three Pas de Chat(s) (the "step of the cat," where the dancer jumps sideways) then end with a pas de burre then back the other direction:

(above) Glissade and (below) Pas de Chat

We also did these cross floor exercises with arabesques and pirouettes that I was horrible at! In my head it was like, "one, two, three - arabesque, down, arabesque, down. Releve, down (set-up for pirouette) and then pirouette!" again and again and back and forth. Oh it was just a hot mess! 

Well, so from 00:07 until 00:13 was almost like our exercise (it's hard to find on youtube and I can't record during class), except we did it in slippers, and a single pirouette (not triple). We also had some arabesques in there (as you can see from my 'inner' dialogue above). 

Things I need to work on BESIDES stretching my darn ankle, is remembering that for cross floor exercises, to not stop right when I get near the wall, but I have to stand in place and continue until the end of the exercise. I just stopped immediately when I got to the wall (I think it's a confidence thing. I just wanted it to be over!). I was sweating my butt off all class and my legs and back were sore the entire day after!

Man, it was tiring! 

Next week's classes are Monday (BBFNB) and Tuesday (Basic Beginning Ballet - for extra practice)! 

Semaine 5

Tonight was the official first class of Summer Session at BalletNova. The class was supposed to be led by Perez, but she was away in Chile, so a substitute instructor held tonight's class. It was surprisingly slower-paced compared with Wunder's super-charged class during walk-in week, which I REALLY appreciated as a confidence builder! We started off the class with exercises facing the barre with releves and heel presses in first, fifth and fifth with the other foot in front. Then we did some exercises beginning with tendu dégagé en croix (with passé when switching from front to side, or back to side) on both sides. Next were battement exercises ending in susu (closed Fifth position) and rising in port de bras First, and then Fifth, and then we ended with barre stretches. Next came - DUN DUN DUN... centrework.

Centrework consisted of tondu efface (with port de bras), chasse tendu dégagé to tendu passé (I think) and close behind, pas de bourre, and then repeat on the other side.

Next we did cross floor work with arabesques - and I was in the FIRST cross floor group (yay!)!

pretty arabesque en pointe (since everything looks prettier en pointe)

1) arabesques beginning with develope, then pique, coupe x 4;  (video below)

   

2) sauté arabesques (without the little jump after the arabesque); and 3) sauté passé arabesques (with the little jump after the arabesque)

We looked a little like this, haha:

I went to the public library today and picked up these two ballet DVD's to brush up on terminology while I'm away in Amsterdam next week. The first one is "Ballet 101:  A Beginner's Class", and the other is "Ballet Class for Beginners" with David Howard. BUT, the Ballet 101 DVD isn't working! Oh well, at least I'll have one to watch on my trip! 

There are two more DVD's I'm waiting for the library to transfer over to my branch: "Ballet 201: Beyond the Basics" and "Ballet Class: Intermediate and Advanced" with David Howard. Funny how it worked out that the first DVD's I got ahold of were the intro/beginning ones, and the ones that have yet to arrive are the intermediate/advanced ones! 

Jeff and I will be going for MicroStrategy's World Conference and he'll be busy working until Thursday the 12th. We're extending our stay in Amsterdam to sightsee, experience, and soak up some Amsterdam culture, so we'll be there until July 18th. While I'm there, I plan on going to the Amsterdam Dance Centre and taking a basic ballet class. It's a walk-in fee of 15 euros (about $18 USD) which is pretty reasonable (BalletNova's walk-in fee is $20 for non-enrolled dancers, and $18 for me until I enroll in the Fall, where it'll cost $16 per extra class). Here's the schedule for the Amsterdam Dance Centre (I'll be taking "Klassiek Basic" with Kiki Lorier)

 

I keep going on discountdance.com and lusting after these warm-ups: 

They're Harmonie's cactus/frost (far left) stirrup leg warmers to help keep my bum right ankle stretched, and Body Wrappers' Rip Stop Shorts that keep your hip/groin muscles warm during class, so that (hopefully) my turnout will be better. I still feel so far away from getting an acceptable-looking Fifth Position and even a good deep demi plie :( 

Til next week!