January Champange Couch

[kellylynn]

In the past week two separate teachers of mine told me to start thinking about pointe! I guess my 2006 goal will be reached alot sooner than I had hoped.

[Skittl1321]

Congratulations kellylynn.

 

I had my first class back yesterday and it was a killer. But I got a huge compliment. I did a double piroutte and the teacher said "Excellent job" and then used my turn as an example to the rest of the class.

 

Apparently what I was doing well, that we tend to not do is keeping my leg in a high retire until I was finished with the turn (I guess we all tended to drop our leg as soon as we 'gave up' turning, and she encouraged us to do a little hop, if we have to, to finish the rotation and to keep our retire position.)

[gimpydancer]

Had my first ballet class in five months after coming back from my broken foot! It was a very beginner class and I still can't do releves on one foot or any jumping or turns (I LOVE jumping )

 

Mentally everything was still there, had to just keep reminding myself what I couldn't do physically.

 

I have a good physical therapist who has had a little ballet back when she was a kid and is trying to focus my therapy on returning to ballet (and running).

[ami1436]

Hi all.

 

I just realised today that I think I've had a little mini-breakthrough. Two, actually. And rather funny since I've just come back from fieldwork and have so far only had two classes (obviously didn't do pointe in either).

 

First is that I'm holding my ground without flinching. This is in reference to my big long panic attack from back in Sep/October about a particular class and it's bad consequences. I used to be scared of holding my own and sticking to the 'it's my body and i'm going to protect it' idea - but I just realised that I did so in both of the past two classes without thinking twice. I did think I might get told off later, but that didn't happen either.

 

Secondly is that I realised that I didn't panic in regards to any of the turns. I just went for them. And you know what, most of the time they worked, and rather nicely at that (touch wood). Yeah yeah, I wasn't on pointe - but usually regardless of what shoes I'm wearing I over-analyse..... But for the most part they've worked, and when they didn't - they didn't ruin the class for me or make it a 'bad class'. (Now I just need to keep not freaking out!)

 

I think this last thing is the closest I've come to the way I used to approach classes as a teen, except now I'm a smarter/more-informed dancer as well - if that makes sense.

 

Good to be back in the virutal world - I have a lot of reading to do here!

[Redbookish]

Welcome back, Ami! It's good to hear from you again and congratulations on holding your own, particularly after your conflicts about that class.

 

I hope the fieldwork went well.

[Fiz]

Welcome back, Ami! It's good to hear from you again and congratulations on holding your own, particularly after your conflicts about that class.

 

Well done, Ami! And I'm so glad you're back - I've missed you!

Fiz.

[spinbug]

I love it when teachers give compliments! The corrections are needed but the praise is like icing on the cake. Teacher praised my degages tonight and that I get up to retires quickly and hold them. She told the other girls to travel "like Candi" during jete coupe pas de bourre de cote. I got lots of other corrections, though, which fit perfect, but the praise really sticks.

 

Does that sound conceited?

[ami1436]

.Secondly is that I realised that I didn't panic in regards to any of the turns.  I just went for them.  And you know what, most of the time they worked, and rather nicely at that (touch wood).  Yeah yeah, I wasn't on pointe - but usually regardless of what shoes I'm wearing I over-analyse.....  But for the most part they've worked, and when they didn't - they didn't ruin the class for me or make it a 'bad class'.  (Now I just need to keep not freaking out!)

I think this last thing is the closest I've come to the way I used to approach classes as a teen, except now I'm a smarter/more-informed dancer as well - if that makes sense.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I think I've done it. I really think I've done it! (Now I'm probably going to jinx myself by talking about it.. but ....)

 

So, held my own at barre in class today and as a result was much more aligned, warm, and ready for center. Have been working really hard with my fave teacher - in her classes and in my private lessons with her - on fine-tuning alignment, turn-out... and on my arabesques. Scary teacher actually said 'beautiful' to me on some of my arabesques today! (And Spinbug, liking compliments isn't conceited. We all work hard - and it's nice when our work shows results, and is appreciated. We would do the same for students in an academic setting, why not in ballet?).

 

Anyways. So there we were, en pointe, in center.

 

First tendu/pirouette exercise - from fifth pirouette en dehor land tendu efface devant, three tendus. Pirouette en dedans land tendu efface derriere, three tendus. Pirouette en dehor land tendu a la seconde (en face). Three tendus, flic flac into fourth croise pirouette en dedans.

 

Okay. I saw this exercise and thought, yeah right, I suck at turns. Took the first time through really easy - just focused on clean singles and clean landings. Let's ignore the flic flac completely, okay?

 

Then she said for the second time through 'oh come on ladies, try doubles'. So I tried. It wasn't necessarily pretty (or at all), but I remember thinking, hey, I'm at least getting up right, and I'm not completely falling over. Hmmmmm.

 

And the she gives this pirouette combination:

Start right foot front croise fifth. Releve passe - land in fourth croise (left foot front). Pirouette en dehor land fourth croise; pirouette en dedans land croise fourth (right foot front). Then again pirouette en dehor, pirouette en dedans but land in fifth (left foot front) - chaine toward front foot, tendu close fifth, chaine back to the other side, tendu close fifth and then start other side.

 

Okay, so me and my over-analytical I-can't-turn-brain basically thought 'yeah right' when I saw this. She said that we could change our shoes if we wanted to (It was a two hour class, she likes to do the first hour and a half or so en pointe, and then take off the shoes for some other of the jumps. By the end of term we won't be changing shoes - that's how she usually does it anyways....).

 

For some reason, and completely not me - I didn't change my shoes. Okay, so I'm going to do singles and hope that I don't go all over the place.

 

But then, as the music started and I did that first releve passe, I thought what the heck, just try a double. And I did it. The full exercise, all doubles. Some weren't perfectly clean, but most were decently solid, and I wasn't falling. I totally shocked myself. I turned to ajwithers (who also posts here) after and was like 'guess what I just did!' And then I did it the second time through. I didn't psyche myself out!

 

I also got compliments on my grand allegro today. And then at the end we were doing fouettes (in soft shoes, not en pointe this time) and I got in some awesome doubles.

 

I think the turner inside of me is finally coming out!

 

I hope *this* doesn't sound conceited either. I feel like I've been at this big long plateau for so long and have been so frustrated and I just talk myself out of trying/doing things. This is the closest I've felt to how I was as a 14 year old training - when I would just try and go for things (by the time I was 17, and had cut back on training while the rest of my class improved amazingly, I was started to psyche myself out). It felt good to just go for it, to tell myself *I Can, and I Will*.

 

Touch wood!

 

Today's not an amazing accomplishment in terms of steps/combinations when one looks at the young dancer's brag board. But I'm not a young dancer anymore, and the mental breakthrough in the past few weeks has made all the trials and tribulations of the past year or so worth it.

[lampwick]

ami, I'm so happy for you! Every technical difficulty is usually a mental block, anyway. I totally psych myself out all the time too, and am trying to not let that get to me.

 

And the teens bragging is probably just that... I believe about 5% of that.

 

Awesome.

[ami1436]

Thanks lampwick! (And thanks in general for all the support over the year!).

 

The turns weren't so hot today, but still better than normal - I think a big part of this is not letting one missed turn make the class a 'bad class', you know?

 

A huge part of it was mental, but also all the alignment work I've been doing. I saw that teacher today and thanked her a lot.... It's nice to know that all the effort eventually does lead to results...

[TemptressToo]

Well, I made it through January with improvements in my dance. Especially noted when I've been "moved up" to the mid-group when doing combinations. When we do things across the floor in centre, Miss Dorothy has the advanced students go first, followed by mid-group, followed by those that are either hopeless, don't care or still learning.

 

During Monday night's beginner/intermediate classes, I'm in the first group and used at times as an example. In Wednesday nights intermediate/advanced group...I was in the last group as I have only been taking formal lessons since June and I had some things to figure out. Proud to say, I've was moved to the mid-group this January (which consists mostly of dancers who have been dancing for more than a year). That definitely is encouraging.

 

My only sadness is that I go into February injured. As mentioned in another thread, I visited the chiropractor yesterday because of some pain in my lower back and found I'd misaligned my pelvis...this caused muscle spasms in my low back (left side) which resulted in soreness. I was told I could still take ballet as the pain will diminish. Went through last night's ballet class (Miss Dorothy was out, so we had a substitute) feeling less than par and performing below my standard in some pain. I kept thinking "I'm better than this." I hope the pain is gone by Monday so that I will better my flagging spirits.

[lampwick]

Keep a heating pad on that muscle when you get home. Sometimes, I think life would be easier if I had a heating pad permanently attached to me somehow.

[jayo]

For muscle spasms, I've had much better luck with ice than heat. You'd think it would tighten up a spasming muscle, but instead it seems to just calm it down. I get muscle spasms in my neck and the first time I used heat - after two days with no relief I had to get high-powered muscle relaxents to solve the problem. Since then I've learned that if I take some Advil and ice my neck, I can usually solve the problem in about an hour.

 

jayo

[TemptressToo]

Hot baths seem to help. Too bad I spend all my excess dough on ballet and have no gym membership where I could partake in a hot tub.

 

Honestly, I didn't feel like I was having a spasm...it felt more like either a muscle strain or a slight pull or plain old soreness. However, the chiropractor knows best and I've felt improved today. I've a followup tomorrow morning.

 

Anyone have any opinion on massage helping? Thinking about getting one this weekend.

[missvjc420]

I wasn't counting, but a woman in my Thursday class told me she did and I completed a quad piroette! Hopefully, it's not a fluke.