Pointe?!

My teacher has given me the green light. I’ve booked a pointe shoe fitting for tomorrow afternoon. Who knew I would ever get to this stage? Not me, that’s for sure.

I feel nervous but so SO EXCITED. The lady I spoke to on the phone when I booked asked which dance school I go to, and it turns out she goes to the same place! Hopefully she does my fitting tomorrow.

It doesn’t feel real. I know it’s going to be hard work and everyone sucks at first, so I’m trying not to get too excited… But it’s hard not to.

I’ll make sure to do a blog post about the pointe shoe fitting experience.

theraband exercise underneath desk at work intensifies

On another note, the class I was worried about in my previous post was completely fine. I worried for nothing as per usual. The only thing I noticed was a slight decline in flexibility, most noticeable during grande battements. My releve has gotten better. And for goodness sake, I hate humidity because it makes the floor so sticky in this one room that it’s like pirouette-ing on sticky tape. Then I went to another class on Wednesday in the other studio and the floor was slippery as hell which made it tricky to land the pirouettes. The things I would do for a regular floor in an air-conditioned studio…

Regress

So it’s been almost three weeks since I last danced. Honestly, I kind of thought I would practice at home more but that’s not how it’s turned out. I took a dance holiday. I feel sloth-like. My whole body feels uncomfortably achey and stiff. I hate it. Whining fuels me.

On the bright side, I think my knee really needed the break. It’s been injured for a while and because I’m Really Very Stupid, I’ve been dancing on it. It feels a lot less hurty and more stable now.

My first class of 2016 is a level 2 class tomorrow night. I’m actually really nervous. Surprisingly nervous. The thing is, I know I’ve regressed because I haven’t danced and I’ve only lightly stretched since mid December. And that is making me anxious.

I wonder if the other people in my class have been in sloth-mode like me.

I’m probably making a mountain out of a mole hill, I just can’t stand the idea of being surprisingly bad in class tomorrow. Only one way to find out, folks. I’ll keep you updated.

Merry Christmas! I got you a blog post.

I have not posted in a long time but I’m here now. Better late than never!

I’m currently on a two week dance break because of the Christmas period. I love that my dance studio only has a two week break! Although I already feel so stiff and out of practice. It’s funny how fast you can lose things like flexibility… And by funny, I mean distressing.

So to every ballet deprived person out there including myself, this is a reminder to stretch! Stretch yaself out, folks. It’ll do you good.

I’ve also had something else on my mind. Obviously this blog is a ballet blog. A beginning ballet blog. BBB. The thing is, there’s actually another ‘B’ in my life. A ‘B’ that I don’t really talk about that much. Bipolar. I have that. Imagine this kid is me and the pole is my mood. I think I need to write down my thoughts about it, but I’m not sure if I should do it on this blog. I wouldn’t write anything too heavy, that’s not what I’m about. I’m just not sure how I feel about mixing the two topics. There’s not really any coherence apart from the letter ‘B’. That’s literally my life though.

I will think about it. Do you guys have any thoughts about it?

LASTLY I hope you all had a fab Christmas and managed to relax a little!

Struggle street

I had another ballet class (different teacher, same studio) last night. I learnt something: I am distressingly bad at balancing. I was just like…worse than the majority of the class. Maybe it’s because I’m 5’11” and my centre of gravity is way up in the clouds. I actively tried to engage my core, I wasn’t flopping around up there… I just wobbled a decent amount.

I’ve heard that practicing balancing every day with your eyes shut on two legs and then on one leg helps. I guess I’ll do that. If anyone knows of any sneaky lil techniques you should let me know!

The struggle is real, friends.

On the upside, my arms looked really floaty and lovely when they cooperated during barre. Oh but then I looked like a starfish when I tried to alternate between a pas de chat and something else across the diagonal.

On a non-ballet note, work was completely shit today and I was unbelievably glad to be home. It’s now the weekend and I have ballet on Monday so that’s my silver lining.

A few thoughts on late bloomers (or adult beginners)

I won’t lie. I get jealous when I see spectacularly beautiful dancers and you just know they’ve been training since they were 0.001 years old. Whyyy oh why didn’t my mum encourage me to stay in dance classes? What if what if what if. You know, that old train of thought.

And I was thinking, I might actually be kind of glad that I’m beginning at this age?? See, as an (obligatory: young) adult beginner, I can really immerse myself in the learning process through reading and watching documentaries and movies and reading other peoples experiences right here on WordPress. Isn’t that kinda rad? And we know our bodies so much better than we did when we were four.

Like, we’re doing what kids do but we get the cool added bonus of being able to think about ballet in a way that four year olds just aren’t able to (as far as I’m aware). Intelligently, artistically, analytically, and on this deeper personal level.

Yeah, we’ll never get to learn ballet in a completely spongey (kids are sponges right) pure way, but they’ll never get to learn ballet in the adventurous/passionate/personal way that we get to learn it, ya know? You have to have a good amount of dedication, determination, and desire to learn ballet as an adult. A four year old only needs her mum to take her to classes.

I don’t mean to make people who have learnt since they were kids feel bad or anything. I’m just trying and failing to put my thoughts into words!

PS: Yo that’s half my face.

Beginning Ballet: A practice in self control

When you sign up for your first ballet class and find out that you’ll need some fab dancin’ shoes, that’s pretty exciting. So you hop online and type in ballet shoes to see what you’re in for. I hope they’re not too expensive, you’ll think to yourself.

And then you start looking at Bloch, Capezio, Discount Dance, etc. online and what’s this? Leotards? Leg warmers? Dance skirts? Dance tops? Dance pants? Dance shorts? Dance bras? Dance crop tops? You discover a whole world of ~trendy dance wear~ and if you’re like me, you’ll spend hours scrolling and bookmarking, telling yourself that you need these things.

Then you end up with about 25 things in your shopping cart, Ready To Buy.

And then you think, what about dance books?

Book Depository. Search Query: ballet. Add to cart. Add to cart. Add to cart.

Tip: Just stick to the basics at first.