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 8

Monday was one of two classes for this week's entry, taught by the tough instructor Irina Wunder (she's the one from the walk-in week class). I actually really enjoyed her class (even though the centrework and cross floor exercises were a little challenging). She's so sweet, smiles a lot, and is so beautifully graceful. Between Wunder and Perez, I think Wunder is really growing on me. The class was packed! There were about 20 people in this class, with one male dancer who's probably in his 30s who is really good. Andrea and another student Nobu were in this class. They were the ones in their 20s who just started ballet a year ago and are beginning pointe.

Here are some centrework exercises we learned that were particularly challenging to me, that I recorded of Nobu (in white top and black legwarmers) and Andrea. It'd probably be way too distracting to watch me in the video, since I would be doing a terrible job at doing them correctly!

Video 1: This exercise was a combo with chasses (I think?), balances, and pirouettes.

Video 2: This next video is a pas de chat and jete combo. "pas de chat, pas de chat, jete jete, pas de chat, changement" and repeat.

Tuesday's Basic Beginning Ballet class was - like before - easy. It almost exactly mimicked the first time I went to Basic Beginning during Walk-in week, complete with the identical cross floor exercise. It was a nice sweaty workout which was great, and I'm glad I had a second chance to stretch, strengthen, and refresh/reinforce some ballet terminology!

Another successfully sweaty week of ballet!