November Champagne Couch

[missvjc420]

So I had a great class tonight - the barre was clean and I worked on epaulement and dancing the steps, and in center, I nailed every turn- en dedans attitude triples, en dehors from 4th triples, and fouettes from 4th. I really felt the music, and have soo much energy! Here's to tomorrow!

[dianec]

fantastic!

[Guest pink tights]

Most exciting!!

[missvjc420]

So it's official- triple turns are part of my ballet vocab now! I can pull off many in a class now. I find what helps is fast spotting on the first and second revolutions, I've been floating the third, but now that I'm sure about them, I'm gonna try to take it around faster- who knows- I could end up with a quad! I'm really feeling the movements and music again and finding it easier to blend everything, epaulement, port de bras, center support. I feel like I'm playing again, it's soooo wonderful. I still need to concentrate on relaxing my tailbone and strength on pointe- my regular technique is so far ahead of pointe, but I'm going to ask if I can take a Ballet 1 or 2 class en pointe in I thoroughly warm up beforehand. I ballet!

[Skittl1321]

I don't know if this really deserves champagne, but can I sit on the couch for a second?

 

Today is the first time this term I have gotten through my hardest class without wondering if I should just quit ballet. I left feeling worthwhile. It was great. (That time normally comes during adagio or petite allegro... neither were great today, but I felt like there was some good in it.)

 

AND! During a sissone combination I actually got a "Good Jessica" from the teacher. Something I have never heard during jumps of any kind!

[missvjc420]

Take a seat Skittl- plenty of room! Of course that calls for celebration- you're getting closer to being comfortable in that level. It's only a matter of time before you are. Warning- that will probably come after another period of things feeling horrible- for some reason ballet is like that- you hit a real low and then it's wonderful until your next challenge. Sounds great- keep it up!

[psavola]

Yes, ballet is very much like that. I felt really good about myself and my progress for a few months after summer, but now I'm hitting another low. Every class I take I notice new problems in my technique! I feel like dropping down two or three levels and spending the rest of the year in working them out.

 

Not to go entirely off topic, I'll share a small champagne moment: My injury has healed well. It reacted favorably to restarting jumping, and I can now start slowly adding classes (I've been restricted to 3/week, although I was allowed to do ballet barre in a pool) starting next week. Life is good.

 

Päivi

[Redbookish]

And I managed two full classes in a row - Improvers Plus, and Advanced - at my studio on Wednesday. The teacher was very nice and self-controlled `as he didn't laugh at my flailing attempts at fouettés. I got home after 10pm and fell into a looooong bath. So now up to four 90 minute classes a week.

[Laschwen]

I had a positively thrilling moment in class Friday even though it was rather a cheat.

Until then I had never managed to do a portion of our barre stretching where you have one leg up in front on the barre, grab the foot and pull up and out to the side. I just couldn't reach my foot and move the thing.

Friday, I wore a new footless unitard to class and when the time came I grabbed the ankle of the unitard and used it to lift my leg up and out. It totally worked and I had an upright torso and everything. That so beat skipping or seriously altering the exercise.

I even managed to let go from the side, hold a count and then go to the prescribed high passe without dropping the leg.

It was a big mood booster for the day and I needed it.

 

Laschwen

[ashatNYU]

I did the cleanest double pirouette that I have ever done last night. Truth be told, it was in my living room, but it felt SO GOOD!

[lampwick]

Laschwen---you could always grab higher up on your leg too. My left one's been injured for a while now, and I don't try to do full pied dans la main. You can do "thigh" dans la main, or "calf" dans la main. But the "unitard" dans la main is a good one

[Laschwen]

Laschwen---you could always grab higher up on your leg too. My left one's been injured for a while now, and I don't try to do full pied dans la main. You can do "thigh" dans la main, or "calf" dans la main. But the "unitard" dans la main is a good one

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

I was doing a sad version of the thigh one but it wasn't very satisfying for the process or the look. I probably gained a bit of strength though. I am pretty sure I am going to have the legs of that uni stretched out a lot pretty quick though.

 

 

Laschwen

[koshka]

I think you might be able to use a theraband rather than the poor leg of your unitard.

 

I know what you mean about those stretches, though--the modifications just don't work nearly as well as the real thing--it's a lot hard to hold/leverage a thigh than a knee or ankle.

 

Recently we did that stretch and when I let go a la seconde, my leg actually kind of stayed up there. It was rather shocking.

[Guest pink tights]

Yippee!

[ami1436]

My class attendance has been spotty lately, to say the least... (see the support thread).

 

That said, my work on arabesques is paying off, and my balance is getting so much better. We did this exercise en pointe where you face the barre, pique towards the barre into arabesque, with the same arm as leg in fifth en haut. Then, you lift the hand on the barre to fifth en haut, hold, and switch arms on the barre, hold, switch again, alonge the arabesque a bit, and then the other side. I saw this exercise and though 'there is no way'. But whaddya know.... I was just on. These weren't fake balances, but the real thing. In centre we did hops en pointe in arabesque travelling backwards. 12 hops then pull straight into arabesque and balance. Again, I was there. And then grande allegro - starting with echappe saute to second, fouette to arabesque, and releve balance. Again! I was flabbergasted. But at the same time, it felt really good!!!