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 21

I think I'm going to approach my blogging every week a little differently than I have been this whole time. It's hard to reliably get videos taken after class (I know some of you have taken notice that there haven't been ANY videos since Semaine 18 and it wasn't even me in it), and because it's a little awkward when girls start filtering into the studio, I'm going to use the inspiration I've gained from watching the Jenna Marbles YouTube videos (as my friend Darren says, minus the cursing and dogs in the videos) and try to re-create interesting/challenging ballet exercises and edit my own videos (!!!!!) on my MacBook Air.

Now, since we don't have an appropriately-sized unused section of the condo OR spacious areas of non-carpeted flooring, I'm going to take my trusty little laptop down to our indoor basketball courts during "off hours" to minimize awkwardness that this whole idea would create, should some guys come in to shoot some hoops. I'm so so excited, because as I am writing this post, I'm literally teaching myself how to use iMovie =)

So Monday night's class was good. My ballet class friend Mark wasn't there and neither was Kelly! It felt a little lonely...

Exercises earlier tonight at the barre focused on a lot of staying on relevé to passé in hold, to get us ready for all the pirouetting we were going to be doing in center.

Anyway, some combinations I shall demonstrate:

I swear, when I recorded this, my feet were recorded for exercise A... and then when I clipped it down for editing it chopped off my feet! Ahh! I'll have to give myself that cushion for space later. Jeff tells me this is an "aspect ratio" issue... I am not a computer person, haha... 

 The music was also a looooot quieter when I edited the video but it exported a lot louder. 

Oh well, not bad for first video, right? 

a) {in center, fifth position right foot front} arms a la seconde, tendu front, tendu side, tendu back, sweep to front, close fifth. plié, pirouette, close back. Repeat other foot.

b) {in center, preparacion right foot back} balancé right, balancé left, tombé-pas de bourré, chassé, plié, pirouette. I know my head isn't turned correctly. Then there's the whole issue with my arms...

c) {this was the corner exercise, preparacion right foot back} step right to waltz turn, 3-steps, waltz turn, repeat. Next week Constance says we'll add the pirouette after the sweep. Since I forgot to even DO this exercise altogether, here is a good beefed up version of it!

This is Larry Payne, who teaches ballet at Long Beach Community Center in CA demonstrating the on-line waltz (and in a basketball court too, ah!) the way it's supposed to look. Ha. Looks a lot better with the waltz en tourant (turning waltz) afterward.

Lots of pirouette work to be done I know, but the semester isn't over until Feb 3rd, so we'll just have to see how much better things come with time!

OK, well til Thursday or next week!! Happy Dancing!

Semaine 20

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.

Semaine 19

So this week only ended up being Monday night's class by Walsh. Not much to update from class itself, it was the usual. --Balancé-balancé-tombé-pas de bourré-souté-arabesque combo as the corner exercise, developpé exercises center, etc. It was a large class, with about 30 people in attendance.

I want to take advantage of the good running weather while I can, and lately the Clark classes haven't been so stimulating, with only 5 or so students each class. Plus, Hurricane Sandy is headed our way, so I may not have many running days this week if I don't go tonight! Next week I'll only be going to Monday's class as well, since I'm working Tues/Wed/Thurs and then rushing off to Charleston to visit my parents for the Coastal Carolina Fair. I feel like such a ballet slacker, but the way I am looking at it, I have plenty of weeks left before Advanced would start, so it's not so bad. Just two weeks with 1 class/week is OK, right?

But in some ballet-related news, Jeff and I are going to see The Washington Ballet: Dracula at The Kennedy Center on Saturday afternoon! My friend Saki hooked us up with free tickets to the show, so excited!!!!(Thanks, Saki!!!!!)

The part of Lucy Westenra will be played by Maki Onuki, one of the Principal dancers at The Washington Ballet whom Jeff and I watched perform the role of the Sugar Plum Queen in The Nutcracker last Christmas.

I'll let you know how it goes!

Semaine 18

Monday night's class was the most. fun. class. ever!! We had really fun and great barre exercises, a center pirouette exercise along with developpé-pas de bourre tournet exercises, and best of all, we had a ballet dance off at the end of class! It was like a dance off-relay-type thing. The whole class divided into four groups of 6-8 people (yes, class was huge tonight), and each group went to the each corner of the studio. At the start of the music, one person from each group would move in a huge circle doing souté arabesques around and around and around. When that person came back, we traded off with the next person in the group, sort of to see which group finished first. Lots of cheering and clapping, it was just a lot of fun! No video footage. Kelly wasn't at class, plus it's really inappropriate-slash-frowned upon to whip out the iPhone in the middle of class -- which is why all of my videos are post-class. The other centrework exercise we did was

I've been wearing my pointe shoes around the house to break them in, and I'm getting a lot more comfortable standing en pointe and tournet.

They're starting to look a little worn, so they are extra beautiful now :) I'll have to admit, most of the worn-look on my pointes has come from the photo shoot and walking outside in them, hehe... they are pretty nonetheless...

Thursday Night's class was pretty standard, there were only 5 people in attendance so it was a pretty intimate group of adults. I guess Constance Walsh takes the cake for the popularity contest in terms of ballet instruction for adults, since her class was PACKED with people this week.

Anyway, tonight we had some pretty mild run-of-the-mill barre work, but a couple tricky barre exercises that included a developpé/reverse developpé, then degagé exercise that was a bit confusing, pretty fast but easy to catch on after the first round, and a fun temps lié-tendu-flexed foot exercise.

Centerwork consisted of 1/2 pirouette exercises and developpé/passé exercises that really made my thighs burn with long holds! The corner exercise was a super easy routine two-step then grand jeté jumps. It was pretty strange with only 5 of us, because there were very few distractions and quick turnaround for the next person in line! All around, a pretty good week for ballet. I kind of wish that last night's class was a little bit more of a challenge than it was though...

On a sad note, I think I'm catching a cold :(

New Terminology from Week 17 that I forgot:
Temps lié - where there is a transfer of weight from one leg to the next with a plié

Pointe and Shoot

I had a fun little photoshoot for my blog the other day with our wedding photographer (and friend) Sara Liu. She does fantastic work and these photos just captured such adorable doggie moments :) We were trying to incorporate the whole "From nursing clogs to pointe shoes" theme so that I could have a new fun banner for the page.

Thanks Sara!!!
(Visit Sara's photography page LeeLiu Photography to view her beautiful photos and even request her services!)

Adorable Mei-Linh (L) and Kona (R), my little pug supermodels :) 

You can find a barre just about anywhere!

I ADORE this one so much, but I wish Mei-Mei was in the picture too. She was left out of this one :( 

Sara said, "this picture has so much going on!" 

haha... pointe shoes, stethoscope, pug, me in the background in scrubs... <3 <3 <3 it!

awwwww... 

Pugs, nursing, and pointe. What's not to love?! 

Poor Mei looks like she's got seasonal allergies and is about to sneeze

I think this is the one I might end up using for the blog banner. What do you think? 

...or this one, but my pointe is just so bad, so I hesitate posting this one on the banner. 

Semaine 17

Sunday ~  From 11:30 AM-1 PM, I put on my big girl leotard and braved Advanced Beginning Ballet taught by Walsh. Yeah. Seriously. Thank goodness Kelly came with me, because I would've been in tears after this class if I was on my own, because I was stru-guh-ling! As you may recall, I felt this way after walk-in week with Beginning Ballet for Non-Beginners at BalletNova back in June, so I'm optimistic this will get easier after a few classes. Barre work was fun and challenging, but we did ridiculous center and corner work. In 1.5 hours, boy can you smush in a bunch of ballet!

After all of my confusion, I just HAD to record a girl I met in class named Rebecca, who was sweet enough to walk through the {corner} exercises with me after class was over. I'll include the videos only because it'll help me in the future, but ... a warning, these were done in the hallway since yoga was starting in the studio we were in, so she sometimes ran out of space.

1) Glissade-jete-hop... glissade (opposite)-jete-hop.... plie to the front, assemble, repeat.

2) Balance-balance-tombe-pas de bourre-glissade-saut de chat-glissade-saut de chat. (saut de chat was a new term for me, so I was all sorts of lost)

3) tombe-pas de bourre-pirouette (leg back) x 3, soutenu, plie front, pique turn.

Overall, the exercises themselves weren't hard, it was just the first time we'd been exposed to them, and we went really fast... If I recorded Rebecca with all of the centerwork ONTOP of these corner exercises, I'd end up with like, 10 videos from one class. Kelly and I will keep at it and hopefully keep improving!

PS. There was a mean girl in Advanced who Kelly {kindly} asked to scoot down a tad to provide more space for her (this girl was hogging two barres to herself), and this girl sassy-like said "um... NO." --- Did she say "sorry, I can't" or "No. I'm really sorry, I need...." Nope. This girl took up TWO BARRES for herself. Who does that? This was disappointing.

image courtesy of Vihao Pham Photography

Monday ~ 6:15 PM BBFNB class was good and fun! The Sunday Advanced class really helped warm me up for Monday's class, since the exercises in BBFNB were reminiscent of Sunday's class. I spoke with Walsh in between barre and centrework and thanked her for her patience with me in Sunday's Advanced class, to which she responded, "No, you were great!" :) She encouraged me to keep coming to Advanced, telling me that I'll get so much from the class from the repetition in the advanced level.

So, Kelly and I decided (we think) to enroll in the Advanced Beginning Ballet class in the Spring and take BBFNB as our supplement class (or maybe a second Advanced class). If you've been following my blog, you'll remember that I wasn't even planning on the Advanced class until the Summer session!

Good week for ballet!

New Terminology: 
Saut de chat