I'm so excited!

[Guest fastfeets]

I finally started classes again after finding a promising studio with people interested in teaching adults. The first week, last week, in fact, I just took the adult beginner class on monday night. I was planning on going wednesday night, too, for the int/adv adult class, but we were in the middle of what was left of a hurricane (today we're in the middle of another remains of hurricane, but i'm going tonight anyway...nyah nyah...heh). So, anyway, last monday I went again, and once again thoroughly enjoyed the class. It's taught be Jerry Noone, formerly of Nashville Ballet and Philidelphia Ballet (i think). He's a spectacular dancer, and a LOT of fun. He makes the classes fun, but oh so complicated.

 

The intermediate classes back in San Fran were still simplistic, and I'm realizing now that they were dismal, too. His int/adv is REALLY technically hard. And he's quick with corrections. I mean quick...and he doesn't just correct, he shows, and moves your body properly if need be..(ex, rond de jambe en l'air, he'll support the leg going 'round to show how it should rotate in the hip...). I've never been so encouraged.

 

But that's not the cool part. Well, it is, but this is even cooler!! There are two adult classes...just two. The levels of ballet are 1-5....and he invited me to attend the Ballet 4 classes! I haven't been heavy into ballet in over a decade!! I could barely turn in the classes I was in for a few months earlier this year, and this guy had me doing double pirouettes with no trouble at all, so I must be in the right place....but to think that he thinks I'm ready to give the upper level ballet class a go....I'm honored, and a little scared. I will give it a try tonight....but I'm excited to have been asked!

 

Wish me strength

 

Sabrina

[Guest Tibbit]

That is wonderful.

As for the physical corrections, I wonder if he got that from the Philadelphia Ballet? I had a teacher, Sean, that had danced with them, he was very hands on. I have never had any other teacher that was that way, mostly just verbal corrections with an ocaisional adjustment, but Sean was constantly walking by and adjusting us. It definitely helped my alignment.

Good luck in your class tonight.

[Guest moralesr]

That's really great. I love the hands on corrections too. My instructor does that and I find it invaluable. She'll also show us what we're doing wrong herself. For example, she'll say "this is what you are doing" and demonstrate the incorrect form and then she'll say "this is what it should look like" and demonstrate the correct way. I find that really helps.

 

Congratulations on being invited to the advanced class. That's so exciting.

[Guest fastfeets]

Thanks I flubbed royally on a good part of the class, but I finished, and didn't do toooooooo horribly. I'm glad I gave it a go, and I'm going to continue on. The students in the class are all teens, and these kids were so nice! I didn't feel at all displaced, other than skill, of course.

 

Honestly, I stumbled through a few combinations...but managed to laugh it off. Other than one girl who gave me odd looks, everyone else shrugged it off, too. And, maybe he was going easy on me, but the teacher didn't correct a huge amount of detail....so maybe I did something rather right here and there. Still, I feel pretty good, even if I DID do pretty badly

 

Tibbit, I'll have to ask him if it's characteristic of that particular company, the hands on thing. I've never had a teacher quite like this one. His classes are HARD! But he's so thorough....that'd be quite something if he knew the Sean of which you speak

 

 

moralesr, I wholeheartedly agree. Even in the short time I've been studying with this guy, I've found some minor problems I've had in the past becoming corrected and resolved already.

 

sabrina

*exhausted and sore, but pretty dang satisfied at the moment*