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.

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 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

Semaine 9

Not as much to update this week, the class with Irina Wunder on Monday night (BBFNB) was similar in the centrework and cross floor exercises; pretty easy to follow! It was still pretty challenging don't get me wrong, there were unpredictable combos with frappes, battements (pronounced "baht-mahn") with interesting port de bras craziness ("go down, and then come up and then back around and toward the barre and away, and back to fifth" for instance). But the centrework was easy to digest, even after running to the bathroom to pee real fast (which takes a lot more time than you'd think, considering a sweaty mess of a leotard, tights, shorts, and tank top) during a 2 minute stretch break between barre and centre. Monday night's "intimidating" cross-floor exercise wasn't as scary as anticipated - it was the same combo that we did last week (not the pas de chat video, but the one with the balance - pronounced "ball-ahn-say," pirouette thingamajig). What a relief!

(my half-used 10-class card for BalletNova; why there are 5 classes for $90 and 10 for $180 is beyond me. Can't we strike a better deal for dancers with a higher level of financial commitment??

Thursday night is another night's class of BBFNB but this time led by the scary and non-smiling instructor Perez... dun dun dun! After being around Irina's cheery smiling adorably graceful Russian (?) instruction, I really am dreading feeling like a big dummy in Perez's class. I hope that I've learned something since my last class with her, so that I get some sort of positive feedback. I'd take Irina's tougher class any day compared with Perez's daunting glare of disappointment!

**update** Did not end up going to Thursday night's class unfortunately. I got my days mixed up (my Alzheimer's is probably going to start coming in right about now, early at age 28...) and thought tonight's class was ALSO beginning at 7:45 PM only to realize after Kelly texted me, that it was at 6:15. Fail. I would've been at least 15 minutes late and in the world of ballet, being late is a BIG NO-NO. However, today, my friend Megan and I watched Monday night's episode of Bunheads, so in a way, I got some ballet in, right? She did mention battements! :(

Next week is Monday night 7:45 PM AND THURSDAY 6:15 PM! Oh well, at least I still have my punches left on my card!



disclaimer: some of my ballet terminology may be a little off... our instructors for adults don't really harp on the names of moves, which is sort of a downside... I usually try to hold off and ask the instructor after class. However, if I miss my chance, I'll run it by a couple coworkers who know, like fellow nurse Cynthia and/or nurse practitioner Tammy who's incredible memories are still fresh with ballet terms as if they'd just taken off their pointe shoes! Please feel free to comment and correct me!

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!

Semaine 4

Monday 6/25/12: 

I thought that the Adult Ballet class at Washington School of Ballet was advanced for a "beginning" class. Boy was I wrong... 

Tonight was my first class at BalletNova Center for Dance in Falls Church. The class was called Beginning Ballet (For Non-Beginners). I'd convinced my co-worker, Kelly (a physical therapist), to join me since she'd danced ballet for her young years. To my surprise, she was completely into it! She even stopped by Robcyn's to pick up some Capezio ballet slippers. :) 

Anyway so we showed up for class and after looking around us, I noticed about twenty girls in their 20s stretching in their ballet tights, leotards, and dance skirts, all outfitted and ready to dance. I tried not to think about how intense this group seemed compared to the group at WSB... It seemed intimidating! The class was nuts! It was super fast-paced compared to what I'm used to, the girls knew what they were doing ("Beginning Ballet" my pink tight-ed ass!) and they were great at it; graceful and extremely precise. The instructor wasted not even a minute before class started. No one asked questions, no one (except me) was confused with the combos. Complicated exercises I can't even remember the sequence let alone the names of some of the more advanced moves, and sweat dripping down my forehead and down my back was a quick realization that "wow and I thought I would take Ballet II by the Fall?!" Not so much. 

Centrework exercises were absolutely frightening. A handful of floor routines- again, that I can't even remember the moves for- put me at the slow end of class. In a group of about 30 dancers, Kelly and I tried to hide in the back. Then, the back row was forced to come to the front row - TERRIFYING. Not only was I probably one of the most inexperienced dancers in the class, but now I was practically leading it? I missed my WSB class desperately, where I felt closer to the top. The arm movements, the combinations, the foot placement, the WRONG foot placement, all of it felt all incredibly foreign.  However, it made more sense after the class was over, after running through the combos in my head. 

Kona, in Second Position

I called Jeff after class was over, telling him how embarrassed I felt and how I didn't know what class I should really be taking - Basic Beginning Ballet or keep going to Beginning Ballet for Non-Beginners. In the end, I think I'll stick with this class. It's true what Jeff said - Though I may feel confidence being one of the best in a Basic class, it may be so slow to feel like I am being challenged. It may feel like a waste of money. His analogy was Spanish Immersion - kids don't become proficient in Spanish by taking Spanish I, they get immersed in it and come out stronger. Besides, I already rearranged my schedule at work to accommodate BBFNB (my abbreviation for Beginning Ballet for Non-Beginners). 

Tuesday 6/26/12: 

I ditched my last Washington School of Ballet class tonight to go to the Basic Beginning Ballet class with Kelly at BalletNova. This way, I'll be much more certain that BBFNB is the class that fits me and my beginner-though-non-beginner skills level. Hopefully - HOPEFULLY - the class will be soooo remedial that I'll feel ok about being in the hard class. Class is at 7:45 pm-9 pm. Basic Beginning Ballet. 

As I'm writing this, I'm laying on my belly in the Frog Position (see the video in Semaine 3 "Improving Ballet Turnout" at the 1:22 mark) after noticing (for the hundredth time?) how horrible my Fifth Position is. 

**update** 

Yay! After going to Basic Beginning Ballet (for COMPLETE beginners), I feel good about starting BBFNB. The Basic Beginning Ballet class was really basic, and it was even a "moderately difficult" version of class for Walk-In Week. I felt proud to be able to say that I wasn't in the middle of the class, I was probably in the upper third of the class as far as skills are concerned. That being said, the upper third of the class comprised of 7 or so ballet students who have been taking ballet consistently for the past 1-2 years, who are even beginning POINTE this summer session. So BAM, TAKE THAT BASIC BEGINNING BALLET! =P 

Tonight's class resembled last night's BBFNB class, but at about half the pace and half the difficulty level, including the centrework exercises. They were slightly "dumbed down" to fit the pace of a Basics class. 

So anyway, after class I spoke with Madame Burnstein who led the BASICS class, and she said that Class #1 of Basics is much more basic than today's class, since the Walk-In Week is basically a snapshot of what's to come for that class, similarly to last night's tough class. It was a snapshot of the class as a whole, not necessarily the start pointe (heh) of where the class begins instruction. ADDITIONALLY, she said that Madame Wunder, who led BBFNB, is a notoriously fast-paced instructor (even considering the skills level of the class). 

After class was over, I also spoke with Andrea, one of the more advanced ballet dancers in tonight's class, about the general skills level of the classes. She mentioned that she, along with other more advanced students I've been in class with, have moved on to taking pointe (or close to it) and enroll in any and all classes they can (including Basics and BBFNB). This means that I'll be learning ballet alongside these advanced students, who are taking BBFNB with me just to keep their muscles/hamstrings warm and limber. Plus, she said that everyone is really really nice and really helpful and would NOT turn their noses up to the slower and less-skilled students (like myself). 

yay! 

My next class is July 5th, next Thursday, with Perez. So my Summer Session is as follows: 

Week 1: Thursday July 5th @ 6:15 PM (Perez)

Week 2: Amsterdam Dance Centre Thursday July 12th @ 5:45 PM

Week 3: Thursday July 19th @ 6:15 PM (Perez)

Week 4: Monday July 23rd @ 7:45 PM (Wunder)

Week 5: Monday July 30th @ 7:45 PM (Wunder) AND
             Thursday August 2nd @ 6:15 PM (Perez)

Week 6: Monday August 6th @ 7:45 PM (Wunder) AND 

             Thursday August 9th @ 6:15 PM (Perez)

Week 7: Monday August 13th @ 7:45 PM (Wunder) AND 

             Thursday August 16th @ 6:15 PM (Perez)

Week 8: Monday August 20th @ 7:45 PM (Wunder) 

Semaine 3

I got the pointe shoes from eBay... they were SO TINY! The Grishko size chart was way off, saying I was a size 3. I could barely shove my heel into the shoe and it felt like a Chinese Bound-Foot torture device! Ahhh! Returning them on Thursday, sadly. Today I did buy a wrap skirt from eBay, and I'm still waiting on a black one that's being shipped from China (eBay also).

Tonight I had class #3 at WSB. Maggie, our original instructor, was back from her NYC trip. Thank goodness! We did a lot of similar exercises as the first class this Summer, which was good to refine the moves that I know now. These are some videos of things we did tonight:

The video above shows grand battements en croix (front side back side), from fifth like we do in class. Ours just don't look as fluid haha... 

We didn't exactly passé up like this girl does, instead we started in fifth position, did a tendu with a dégagé with arms in second, then go into passé with arms closing, then dégagé arms out in second and tendu then closed. We did this en croix (to side, then back, then side and front). Most of these explanations aren't in detail, they're mainly for me to remember for when I want to work on this later in the weeks... sorry if they're hard to follow!

Dégagé: 

We did these jumping exercises in first, tendu to second, tendu to fifth (changement) and then again in fifth (changement), then we tendu to second, then first, and then finish in first.  

We did these other exercises I couldn't find videos for, where we began in port de bras (one arm up above the head, and the other arm out to the side) while standing in fifth position ecarte (the body is placed diagonally, to the 11 o'clock position). We would tendu (with the right foot) x 4 to the front, then change the arms opposite, then tendu x 4 to the side, change the angle of our head, and then tendu to the back x 4. Then we would do a tendu, then pas de bourre to end up ecarte in fifth with the left foot in front, facing the opposite side we started (1 o'clock position). Then we repeated that. 

To improve my fifth position turnout, she advised these stretches: 

Today, I caught up with Sake via text, and mentioned to her that I will probably end up enrolling in Beginning Ballet (for non-beginners) - an oxymoron- for the Fall, which is different than I mentioned in my first post where I mentioned that I would be taking Ballet II in the Fall. HOWEVER, I think it's probably better that I nail all the moves down in the Summer and Fall and then blow them out of the water when I progress to Ballet II next year. Who knows, maybe things will progress much faster for me than I am expecting, but I don't want to set myself up for failure, either!

Next week June 26th is my LAST class at Washington School of Ballet! BalletNova is also doing a Walk-In Week of preview classes, so I'm going to try to go to one on the 25th (Beginning Ballet for non-beginners), then the 26th is my WSB class, and then Saturday June 30th I can go to a Basic Ballet class (just to get some more ballet time, hopefully this is way too basic for me! I'd hate to go to a BASIC class and for me to be clueless!!)

Terms this Week: (I learned these moves before, I just asked what the terms were)

Changement

Enveloppe 

Developpe

Coupe 

Sous-sus

Here's a cute video I found describing most of the basics of ballet: 

Til next week!