Ballet Class

Ballet group at West School, courtesy of Flickr Commons

I just got back from ballet class a little bit ago. This year I hope to go 2x a week, and I think I'll see a lot of improvement, especially once I feel like I know things well enough to practice them at home. Right now I still feel pretty awkward in class, but some things are starting to come more easily. Having a nice teacher and friendly classmates definitely helps, and these past several years of bellydance classes have taught me how to be good at accepting corrections.

Now it's time to get back to getting the guest room ready. I'd rather be dancing! 

So far...

Pretty picture by Liora K Photography

So, here we are, one week into the new year. How are things going so far? Not too bad. I don't think I'm quite up to full-time yet, but I am definitely doing more dance stuff, and better dance stuff. I'm thinking actively about why I do the things I do, examining my motivations and seeing what benefit I get from doing things. I'm writing this stuff down, so that when I get into a "Why bother?" sort of funk, I can remind myself. Of course, I can't take full credit for these ideas, Jolie told me to write that stuff down, and I had a good conversation with Mahin about always knowing why you are doing what you're doing (whether it's going to class or accepting a gig). I am really fortunate to have more experienced dancers share their hard-earned wisdom with me!

I've also been examining the stuff that I own. Later this month I will be hauling a bunch of my old costumes up to Phoenix for Yasmina's Bellydance Swap Meet. I've been pretty mercenary in choosing things to sell. Originally it was just going to be stuff that didn't fit or didn't really suit my style of dance, but I'm also selling some things that I genuinely like but haven't worn in two or more years. And I'm going to be cutting apart some things that I don't wear and don't think are worth selling either. It will be nice to have more room in my dance closet, and more money to buy things at Tribal Fest. The two may seem mutually exclusive, but if I sell TEN things at the swap meet and use that money to buy TWO really nice things at TF, I still end up with more room. Especially if I buy jewelry instead of costumes!

Yesterday was my first chance to actually do some bellydance drills and it felt great. Of course, I had to deal with the fact that I wanted to practice everything and didn't have enough time. The fact that I wanted to do so many more things makes me confident that as I get my schedule ironed out, I will have no problem filling hours with dance practice.

I also went back to Ballet class yesterday. I've been going sporadically over the holidays, but I really enjoy it. The class is small enough that I get individual, hands-on corrections, and the other dancers are really friendly. I'm hoping to take ballet at least two times a week and I think once I'm attending regularly, I will see a lot of improvement. 

More Ballet!

Alison Lee, [stage name Helene Lineva and star of the Original Ballet Russe, 1939-1940, posing in the studio and dancing on the roof of Dupain studio] photographed by Max Dupain.

It's hard to believe, but I've actually been taking ballet classes for 4 weeks now. I go once or twice a week depending on how brave and motivated I'm feeling. And sometimes... I actually have fun! I'm still struggling with a lot of the material and I'm sure I will for a long time, but slowly I'm becoming more comfortable. It helps that the teachers at BreakOut are really nice and encouraging.

One reason why I'm taking ballet, even though I'm currently bad at it, is that when I get things right, I feel beautiful. I have long legs and arms, which sometimes makes me feel awkward in bellydance class (I always pull my arms in when I turn, for fear of hitting somebody), like I'm taking up too much space. But when I relax and allow myself to take all the room I need, and when I can do a full extension and just reach with my arms and legs, I feel lean and elegant. Ballet class is helping me develop proper form, strength, and flexibility to add those moments to my belly dance. 

Cross-training: Ballet

I needed a ballet picture for this post so I went to The Commons on Flickr and found this. Wow!

Valentina Blinova in L'Oiseau de feu [The Firebird], Ballets Russes, Sydney, 1936-1937 / Max Dupain

 

I went to my first ever ballet class yesterday. I've been meaning to go for months and months. It's something that my teacher Jolie has been encouraging me to do to improve my belly dance. But as I've confessed before on this blog, I am very nervous about doing new things. So every week I'd say "I should go to Beginner Adult Ballet on Thursday" and when Thursday rolled around, I'd make an excuse not to... too tired, not feeling well, want to laze around the house with my husband because he's had a stressful week at work. Well, now there's Beginner/Intermediate Ballet on Mondays, so I made myself go. I found out about it yesterday, so I had no time to make excuses.

 

Being in ballet class was totally different from being in bellydance class. Most of the class was spent doing exercises at the barre. The teacher Christy would explain what we were going to do and then watch us do it, rather than leading, which meant I spent a lot of time putting my ITS peripheral vision to use to "follow" the students who seemed to know what the heck they were doing. On the other hand, since Christy wasn't leading, she was walking around the room giving corrections, and she was very nice and encouraging about it.

 

I probably should have gone to a straight-up beginner class rather than a beg/int one, because there seemed to be a definite expectation that the students already knew basic ballet terms and had some familiarity with what they were supposed to be doing. This meant that some things that we already do in bellydance class made sense to me, and others I just kind of stumbled along and hoped no one was looking at me. There was also a bit of material that is pretty difficult for a newbie, such as pirouettes (which we do sometimes in bellydance but I still suck at) and some fast jumping.

 

That said, since Monday at 4:30 is a pretty convenient time for me to go to class, and since I like a challenge, I think I might keep throwing myself into the deep end. Besides, we did exercises to Star Wars music, so my inner nerd was pleased even while my inner dance critic was crying "we're so BAD AT THIS!!!"

 

By the way, speaking of my inner dance critic, I have a message for it: Of course we're bad at ballet. We're new to it. We were bad at ITS when we started, and we were bad at Tribal Fusion when we started. Everything has a learning curve, so just shut up and be patient.

EDIT: I have no idea what Blogger has done to this post. What a mess.