Good news...

Well, good news for the blog. I'm thinking about going back to
skating. Since I won't have a coach, I'm not sure how it is going to
go- but at least I'll have skating to write about. I plan to just
skate once a week for now. I'm not sure what I'll work on- maybe a
program for the summer competition?

I have to say, I'm glad I decided not to continue toward the dances.
It would have cost me a lot in coaching fees, plus inconvienent lesson
times since my coach doesn't do weekends anymore, to keep taking
lessons to this point (I haven't skated since before Christmas I
think) and the test session papers for April came out- they aren't
offering dance! So it would have been in vain, and I would have had
to wait until June!

So when I return to skating, dance is pretty much out. There is a
girl at our rink who I think may be willing to do lessons with me, but
I need to get there for awhile and decide if I still want lessons. I
know she has her first few ice dances, but what made Carson so ideal
for dance was that he was a great partner. Plus, I don't think I'd
want to do the first 3 dances for more than a month or so before the
test, I am so tired of them! I do like the cha-cha, even though that
was pretty well finished too. (The swing dance though, that needs a
ton of work and that feels like a real dance!)

Mostly, I just want to spin.


I think the longing for skating is coming because the ballet class is
just not working out. I had decided to set a 2 years to pointe goal,
which I thought was realistic, my ankles have gotten quite weak while
skating. But our class has turned into adult exercise social hour. I
won't sign up again, but it is a 16 week session, so it goes until the
summer. Sigh...


I am really enjoying classes at the gym. I do a Kick Butt Step class
that is insanely hard and a Sh'Bam class, which is kind of hip-hopish
dance. I love them both. Last night, KB step was replaced with
"Athletic body step". Body Step is a Les Mills program like Sh'Bam
is. It was terrible. It was simultaneously too hard for me, and not
much of a workout at all. I say too hard because so much of it was
jumping- it wasn't a step class, the step was like an accessory. And
not enough of a workout because we took these hugely long pauses
between all the songs. It was ridiculous. In KB step, I rarely do
even the medium option (the high option- no way), but even the low
option provides me a chance to work my butt off. In this class, I was
taking a lot of the high options that I could, and I still never felt
that challenged, and then the things I couldn't do there wasn't really
much I could do in the time except basic steps. It was not a good
class. The other thing that just drove me crazy is the way Les Mills
has their instructors call the class. The instructor NEVER stopped
talking. The other thing is the instructor says the lyrics to the
song as part of her cueing. They do this in Sh'Bam too, and I've
often felt it was silly, but maybe because it was a dance class it
didn't seem as weird. But during one song, she kept telling us to
"keep our eyes open". I was wondering if this was a problem or
something, until I realized it was the song (I wasn't familar with
it). She also kept saying "we are nearing the finish line!" for
another one. But in Sh'Bam they do it in a singing along way, and in
step it was like a motivational yelling way, so it was just
ridiculous. I did not enjoy the class at all. (We also did burpees
and pushups with our hands on the step- and the steps are PAINFUL. I
think maybe I had an allergic reaction to the rubber or something,
because my hands hurt for the entire class after those.) Oddly, it
had about half as many people as normal in it, and Kevin said his spin
class had about 6 people in it who were usually in step, so it seems
like I'm not the only one who didn't like the class. People were
purposefully avoiding it when the change in class was announced.
Thankfully, next week is KB step again.

So wish me good luck in skating on Saturday. Not sure what to do for
my program. Maybe I'll just keep my music cut from Geisha, and
rechoreograph to meet the jump and spin requirements of Bronze (my
current program doesn't because my test had 3 spins, and the jumps are
too basic.)

Less Enthusiastic

Class Number 3.

Hmmm- I feel like with each class, my enthusiasm is slipping. They
are fun classes- the adults joke with each other, we dance a bit, it
is a nice little outlet; but the thing is, I don't feel like I'm going
to get any better at ballet taking these classes. We do the same
thing each class (our barre, petit allegro, and grande allegro were
all the same as last week. We didn't do adagio and instead did
crunches), so far, no steps have been taught- just combinations where
it is assumed (correctly) that we know the steps.

With skating- I was learning something new and getting better at it.
With this, yeah, it is fun to dance- but there is so much dead time
each class. And I'm not learning something new.

I have 13 more classes (well kind of, she says there isn't one the
week of finals, but it is on the schedule, so it seems to me it should
be up to the dance department to find a sub, and not me to go to a
'make up' class!) and then I'm not sure. I'd love to work my way back
to pointe, but these classes won't take me there. Maybe after a 6
month break I'll be ready to go back to skating, of course, when there
is no longer a coach available to me!!! (Maybe I should have stuck it
out to take those tests...)

I need a new blog title...

Skittles Exercises and Dances doesn't seem to work... I'm also
wondering if I should start a seperate ballet blog so that maybe I can
attract a few ballet followers?

Anyhow, last night I took a Sh'Bam class and I think my knee untwisted
itself! It still hurts when I sit cross legged (I hate being short-
the stupid foot rest is ackward and I have to sit cross legged because
my legs don't comfortably touch the floor) but for the most part, pain
free. Woo!

The class is a lot of fun, and I highly recommend it if you go to a
gym with Les Mills classes- if they don't offer it, ask for it! I
love the high energy dancing, and this new choreography (they rotate
it every few months) doesn't have as much ackward booty shaking. We
have a guy in the class now and he was rocking out to Paradise by the
Dashboard lights- I kept catching him singing along!

Resolution update

So this year I made resolutions to attend 75 classes and go to the gym
150 times. Here's a question- when I said it, I kind of meant gym
classes, but didn't specify that: so can I count ballet classes?

Right now, I am at 68 classes left and 138 gym visits left. I'm
slightly behind where I wanted to be at the end of January, but not
too behind. If I count ballet classes, I am right where I need to be
for classes. You know what, I think I will count ballet classes. I
mean, they are a fitness type class.


Last night I went to a new class at the gym: Kick Butt Step. OMG- it
is well named. This was a HARD class. There are 3 high intensity
intervals that even doing the 'low' option are just killer. And even
the step is designed to be rather killer- I took the low option for
everything and today, my knees are hurting! (Though oddly, the one
that has really been hurting feels ever so slightly less twisted
inward, so maybe I'm actually fixing it...) This class is earlier in
the day than the Sh'Bam class I take on Wed, so it can be hard to get
to, but I definetly plan to attend again! (The ballet class is at the
same time as the BodyJam class I like, so that is off the schedule
now.)

As for skating: after nationals, I missed it a bit, but really, I'm
still happy with my decision.

Don't compare yourself to the past...

Yesterday before going to ballet I saw a motivational poster on
facebook. "The only dancer you should compare yourself to is the one
you used to be."
Well crap, that girl was good. Me- not so good. Not a very
motivating poster at all.

My knee is still really bothering me. It started hurting before last
week's ballet class, so ballet is not to blame. But it hurts. No
grand plie for me.
However, today I also have horrible pain in my right heel, in the
morning it was just when I walked, now it is a constant almost
'electric' like buzz, and terrible pain when I walk. I'm not amused,
and I do blame ballet for that. I must have been jumping wrong.

So my thoughts on my second class:
Only one class a week is tough, I want to go to ballet so badly on the
other days!

The class went fairly well. I'm glad it is a 90 minute class, because
we waste a lot of time- the teacher trying to find music (a lot on
that), us talking (an appropriate amount for an adult class), etc-
that makes it a good solid 75 minute class. The reason I say 'fairly
well' this week is because it kind of turned a bit into an 'exercise'
class. We ended up spending a portion of center time doing crunches.
One of the ladies said "I paid for this class, I want to see results!"
Um, add in pilates on another day? I'd like to do ballet... We didn't
do adagio, which while slow and not very 'make you sweat' is kind of
an essential part of class.

We did however do a fantastic across the floor combination that
combined grande allegro with turns, the instructor had us list off all
the things we wanted to do, and she did a good job putting them all
together. I loved the pirouette combination and I LOVE chaine turns.
I forgot to wear contacts so I had to do most of center blind- very
disorienting, but I found I could still spot well to the right without
seeing (my spot to the left sucks regardless).

These are the combinations we did across the floor:


-Left foot front: glissade (to the right), jete, glissade (to the
right) jete, glissade (to the right), jete, ballotte, glissade (to
the left), assemble, soubresout.


-Waltz step right, waltz step left, waltz turn under your arm, chasse,
tendu, pirouette, steps to the back, develope, step to arabesque,
super quick chainnes


I was able to hit 3 really clean double pirouettes (and a number of
not so clean ones)- right en dehors (that's the 'normal' one right, I
get en dedans confused...) Left side I am still working on perfect
singles. Man it was nice to have a double!!


I also realized that a good amount of my ballet vocabulary stayed with
me. While demonstrating our petite allegro the instructor added a new
step, which I was thinking was a ballotte, and it was. YAY for knowing
the names of things! This was the petite allegro: Tombe pas de-
chasse, jete, arabesque, tour jete, 2 chaines, arabesque turn

Other than the wasted time, the most disappointing part of the class
was how wobbly my ankles are. Holding balances in releve is so
difficult, one legged on my left side- totally impossible. I keep
sitting back, or just actually wobbling back and forth. That needs to
get fixed!


I also found out the school is open to adults in the kids classes, so
once I get a bit more strength, I may have to switch. Three years to
pointe plan?