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?