Wine Couch

[Guest pink tights]

OK. A week of truly hideous class has finally come to an end.

[Claude_Catastrophique]

Tonight we had rehearsal for our performance. We are spiders and have to do the whole dance on pointe and the rehearsal was longer than one and a half hour. Yes, my feet hurt afterwards like hell (not anymore) and I had to chance to my flats for the last couple of minutes. I have never had problems with my feet on pointe but since I was skiing in the Alpes my feet hurt when I am on pointe. I hope this will be over soon.

I walked around barefoot at home and suddenly my mother cried: "Claude! My God, your feet! What did you do to them? They look horrible." And she really could not stop.

Now I have extremly red toes, a shocked mother (she seems like she has never seen bloody dance toes) and another rehearsal tomorrow (thank God no pointe, just character)

 

Mhhh, I will join you on your wine couch (although I don't like wine) Anyway, I will drink a grape juice.

[TemptressToo]

I've come to the point in my dancing where I have to be willing to take some risks...like balancing on demi-pointe in pique arabesque. The thing is, I'm strong enough to do it. I've found the balance point and am well lifted. I'm just TOO CHICKEN to try. I'm truly afraid I'll hurt myself...as in my ankle gives out and my leg snaps in two.

 

I'm simply mental.

[WendyMichelle]

I haven't been to class since last Wednesday night due to a lack of communication from the AD and AAD about schedule changes because of a company performance the 31st and 1st and rehearsals/classes being cut short/a workshop deal going on. I've emailed and called and no response. I will be front row tomorrow night (or later tonight depending on how you look at it) so I can't wait to see the AAD's face when she's dancing the lead and looks down and sees me sitting there.

 

Guess I'll show up on Monday at the regular time and hope things are back to normal.

[anb717]

Maybe it was stress, maybe it was the weather, or maybe this week just wasn't meant for me dancing. Usually, I have on good, solid improvement every week or every other week. This week, it was a lot of mistakes and mistakes that are uncharacteristic for me. Normally, balancing in releve is a strong point of mine, but by watching me this week, there's no way you could tell. I was tipping and wobbling all over the place and when I was able to balance, my teacher told me it looked like I was miserable and contracting every muscle in my body to get to releve

 

What really was worse was the center work. Oh boy. I actually feel straight over doing an arabesque after my teacher asked me to raise it up on demi pointe. I sort of tumbled right out of that and hit my knee pretty hard going down. I'm now the owner of a nice, big bruise. Petite allegro was by far the worst. I seem to have forgotten how to point my toes during a jump and how to jump like a dancer--not an elephant. And to just add insult to injury, I've been consistenly hitting double pirouttes and have been working for my triples, but I couldn't pull of a decent single this week.

 

It was just a bad week

[Skittl1321]

I did something in pointe class 3 weeks ago and hurt my foot/ankle (I can't pinpoint where). At the time, it hurt, but that was on a Saturday and I didn't have a class again until Thursday (2 weeks ago) I took that class and my foot was throbbing with pain. So I sat out Saturday class, this week, I sat out Thursday and figured it's been 3 weeks now. It doesn't hurt at all during the week, it isn't swelling anymore so it's probably better. Saturday class told me otherwise. I didn't even do it en pointe. I have rehearsal today, but I'll probably just be marking through it. I am icing, resting, and it's just not getting better.

 

I feel like I'm wasting my money. We can do make ups but I don't have time to get to the studio for them, so I generally don't. I wish I knew what I did in the first place. URGH.

 

There's my wine.

[lampwick]

I've had a tough couple of weeks. Apprenticing is hard.

 

I will chase with a glass of champagne though. I took open class yesterday and finally decided to throw myself into my double pique turns, and to not wuss out and do singles. I attacked the hell out of them, spotted very sharply, and they worked out perfectly. I impressed myself.

 

How about everyone chases with a glass of champagne after the w[h]ine. Or we'll call it a brief "toast"?

I have to be thankful for something. Two good legs and two good feet

[Redbookish]

I have to be thankful for something. Two good legs and two good feet

 

Yes, I had a ballet teacher in Australia who came back to teaching after a life-threatening illness. Whenever we complained about being old or fat, she'd remind us we were lucky to have two legs and were able to dance. And she was right!

 

(I'm older & fatter than I was then, but I think I dance better now. It's a journey)

[psavola]

I have influenza. I hate being sick.

Haven't been in class since last Wednesday, and probably won't be able to get back during this week either.

 

Päivi

[Swiss_Chard]

My complaint is that my web browser has taken up the annoying habit of crashing whenever I visit this site. How am I supposed to procrastinate at school?

[Marjolein]

I had been planning to go back to class after a long time. I still haven't been able to, I have back pain. Again! So I have to go to my osteopath again before I can go to class. I had been looking forward to dancing after 6 months so much. I really hope I can start again in 2 weeks, after Easter break. To make it even worse, after being out for so long I can hardly point feet anymore, so I don't even want to know what has happened to the rest of my technique.

[Tiffany]

I'll have a glass of wine!

 

I took a company class as an audition today and looked terrible. My turns were awful and the combinations were very different from what I'm used to so I could barely remember them and watched other people a lot. Its a tiny company, less than 10 dancers, and at the end the AD did tell me that if I came to the summer program they would consider me for apprentice, so that is great, but my performance in class was awful! It was so weird b/c I was in a bad mood driving to the studio; I didn't want to go take class, I was just grumpy for no reason--well now I know why!

 

Okay and on to the champagne!

Last month I auditioned for another company and should hear from them later this month, but even if I don't get a job with them, I will probably move there anyway, because its good company that has guy dancers and has a repertoire that I enjoy, good city, good hospitals where I can get a job (I'll finish up in nursing school for RN in Dec.), etc. So at least now I know where I will move after graduation! FYI: I have been auditioning this season in the hope that a company might take me mid season or call me if a dancer got injured and they needed a replacement in January. Also champagne; I auditioned for another company on Saturday and that audition went well, I actually did manage some turns!

 

Marjolein, I hope that they can manage your back pain, I know that is a very difficult to treat.

[AmyKL]

Whee, can I w[h]ine?

 

I massively bruised my knee falling down the stairs. It's still a bit tender, but will be just fine. So that was my good news because I thought I did something bad to it.

 

I definitely sympathize with the sick people. I've had a bad cold that won't go away. It mostly goes away, comes back, etc. over and over. I don't have insurance, so I'm waiting to get into the university clinic and pounding down the Day Quill to function. Apparently, everyone else has it because I can't get an appointment until Friday. I have no idea what is wrong with me. I keep randomly dosing off all the time which can be rather inconvenient. I fell asleep on the bathroom floor for a minute while my daughter was in the bath. She woke me up by pouring a bowl of water on my legs. Fun stuff.

 

Today in class, I couldn't think. Pas de bourres? Sorry, no. I tried. I was either on the wrong foot or going the wrong direction or looking all wrung out like a wet noodle. When I'm not totally focused on breathing and everything else, my hands seize up into these horrible claw-like things. One of the instructors for the class goes around and gives you a literal slap on the wrist for that. In jest, but still. Yikes. I was falling all over the place today.

 

And one more whine to top it all off. Why aren't there studios here that give more than one adult class a week? Wahhh.

 

Ok. I'll stop. That was rather satisfying.

[TemptressToo]

Move to itty-bitty Pensacola, FL. Middle of nowhere BUT 4 adult classes per week (two morning, two evening) soon to be 5 adult classes per week for the summer (two morning, three evening), two ballet companies city-wide, a ballet school (FREE for school children able to test into the program school grades 3-6) AND instruction by the charming Dorothy Daniels Lister. ;)

 

Speaking of Ms. Lister...she was telling us stories of dancing on raked stages in Europe with Ballet Russe. I SO love it when she tells us little bits about her history. I'd also like to go on record to say I hope I'm in that sort of shape when I'm her age. She's in her 70's, still petite, still with legs like a teenager and above 90 degree extension. ;)

 

Did you know she broke her wrist following a student across the floor last summer at the local ballet intensive? Broke her wrist, got back up...FINISHED TEACHING the class and THEN went to have pins put in her wrist.

[lampwick]

I decided to have a really positive day today. I just focused on my work without getting emotional about it.

 

Until somebody stole my tax refund out of my backpack when I went to get a coffee. It was all the money I had to get me through the month. Now I can't pay my bills (my cell phone's going to get shut off...which I need in case someone calls with a job offer), eat, buy pointe shoes, or anything.