Ballet, exercise, discipline, more inspirational photos...

I ended up not staying the whole ballet yesterday. Honestly, I was quite tired and could not keep my eyes open, so when my daughter asked me if I wanted to go, as she and her girlfriends wanted to leave, I said yes. We left during intermission, and I got to meet the owners of the ballet studio since my daughter knows them well. It was a contemporary piece, and I was hoping more for classical.

Anyway, I'm recognizing I'm once again looking at ballet as a chore. I need to find the FUN in it again. Even on my "down" swings, I try to keep up with some exercises- like if I go to the kitchen, I will do ten plies while I'm in there. Since yesterday, though, I've amped it up a notch and have been working on my grand plies in fifth, both sides. Those are my most difficult, both because they take balance and they work my legs the hardest. I'm noticing some extra muscle coming, so that's inspired me to do those, at least. I usually hold onto something when I do them, but focus on engaging my core as though I'm doing them without holding on. My legs really ache, so it's great!

Here are some new photos I've come across today. I wanted to go ahead and post them while I have the names handy:

These three are Olga Esina and Eno Peçi, The Second Detail, Vienna State Ballet.

From: Ballet 422 (Magnolia Pictures)

Rachelle Di Stasio and Aran Bell, American Ballet Theatre Studio

Inspiration

I know I can use a bit of inspiration right now, so here we go!

Olga Smirnova rehearsing Tatiana in John Cranko’s ‘Onegin’. Check out that port de bras!!

Kate Hosier, National Ballet of Canada

Maria Kochetkovah

Adji Cissoko

Note: I always try to include information about the dancer when it's listed. If I don't, then chances are, I came across it that way, or less likely, I was in a hurry and forgot to grab it.

Frustration, slacking, end of the year demo

I've definitely been slacking in the ballet department... and blogging, too! I've gotten a touch frustrated with ballet lately. First of all, our class stops and starts a LOT, and the stopping tends to take forever. The kids I'm in class with have been doing ballet for nearly two full ballet years, but they still can't remember the basic terminology they've been doing every class, twice a week for those past two years. "xxx, what is a frappe?" Then we sit while the teacher shows the girl (or occasionally the one boy) what the movement is and tries to eek out the one-word definition from her. SO much of our class is spent doing this.

I skipped a Thursday two weeks ago and went this past Tuesday. Our class has started working on it's end of the year demonstration. I was stressing over whether or not I wanted to be in the demo, as my being an adult would stand out terribly on stage- yet, it would give me something to work towards and give me an opportunity to perform (no matter how poorly, haha!). Well, when I went to class Tuesday, our teacher told me and the other adult (the third only takes class once a week right now) that adults don't usually perform in the demonstration at the end of the year. That takes the dilemma of whether or not I do want to perform off the table (and on the plus side, the girls will be showing off their splits, and as we know, I cannot do a split- and yes, I'm still recovering from my outlandish attempt to do so!) But, well, I was actually leaning towards wanting to perform. I was going to invite my boyfriend and family to watch and everything. Thinking I would have the opportunity to do so was encouraging- I was coming home working quite a bit on my trouble areas, and improving. And now, it's a bit of a bummer, a bit of a discouragement, to know that I won't be able to perform.

Don't get me wrong- I can see the reasoning behind it. It's mostly a kids studio, and these kids have to be treated as though they will be professionals one day, while we all know us adults have long past that ability. It's just a bit of a drag, a bit of a let down.

On the plus side, since everyone is working on the demo, class is moving somewhat faster now, or at least it did Tuesday. We're dancing to different music, which has totally left me (and everyone else) confused, LOL. We didn't stop nearly as much to go over terminology, and DID stop to go over a move I was having trouble with. (I'm still having trouble picking up a few things. If the moves were taught before I started, those are the ones I really struggle with because I'm basically having to learn from others who often get it wrong. When I am shown the move correctly by the teacher, I usually have it down in no time.) On the downside, we also did a lot of practice sitting- sitting there very still so the kids could practice what they would have to do on stage (since they will perform, then sit on stage while others perform). I skipped Thursday's class as well.

I also realized there's no way I could do a summer intensive because, duh! I have a job.

I was going to cancel my Danceflix subscription, but now I think I'm going to keep it and start working more on the Finis Jhung series. I'm even considering dropping out of ballet until the next fall/new season begins. I think I will pick up a few more things first, then do that. And just work as I was doing initially- teaching myself at home. I now have a bunch of corrections to work on and when I checked out one of Finis's DVD sections the other day, which I haven't even looked at in months, it looks totally doable now that I have real class experience under my belt.

Edit: I forgot to add: I'm going to see a ballet this evening! It's being done by the school I took my first class from (the one where everyone was too busy chatting to ballet... though I may have to give that one another shot soon- hopefully the real instructor is off maternity leave by now). It is supposed to be their top-notch students, so hopefully *crosses fingers and points toes* this will give me the inspiration I need to get back to dancing!

Sur le coup-de-pied & Isabelle Ciaravola's Perfect Feet

I need to watch this next time I'm working on ballet and practice it over and over and over again: sur le coup-de-pied rising up, showing how the foot will rise to retiré. Perfect!

Isabelle Ciaravola

And more photos of Isabelle and her amazingly perfect feet:

This is one thing I haven't really been able to figure out. It looks beautiful when ballerinas go so far over their boxes that they are on the very tip, and it certainly shows unique ability, but are those the only reason they do this? It doesn't really seem like there's any practical reason to it... ?

Her foot is practically at a right angle! WTH??!! Just stunning!

I mean, c'mon now! It should be illegal to have feet that perfect!!

Surviving Parent's Night, Today's Success at Discipline

Parent's Night
Just a quick note: my ballet practice today went wonderfully. Actually, let me back up: parent's night was lovely as well. My mom did attend, which was fun, and there weren't really but a couple of other parents there (including one with a super nice camera... please don't post my splits online or anywhere!) I messed up on quite a few things, but that was okay. We also have another adult, which makes for three of us now!

We go over terminology over and over and over again in class. For some reason, these kids just can't pick up the one-word definitions of "frappe", "petite", "degage", etc. I still have a few I mix up (frappe is one, actually), but for the most part, I know all of the definitions. So much of class, we all just stand there while the instructor calls out on of the kids who she knows struggles with the definitions, and we wait while the little girl (or boy) stands there doe-eyed as she pries the definition out. This happens with nearly every single movement we do. Tendus: "what does tendu mean?... Anyone... ***....? .................." Petite battements: "what does tendu mean?... Anyone... ***....? .................." On and on and on. It really eats up class time, and is a bit frustrating at times. I want to make these kids flashcards or something. I would, if I thought they might use it.

Anyway, on parent's night this time (this didn't happen previously), we barely went over any terms! Maybe two or three total! And it was wonderful! I worked so hard because instead of stopping so much for so long, we just went from movement to movement to movement. I was far more sore the day after than I usually am! I can't wait for all our classes to be like that!

I had my mom record a few of the movements I still have problems with, like the body positions. I haven't checked those out yet, but I nearly have them down. We are supposed to do a demonstration at the end of the ballet year. Positions are one of my lesser concerns, because it's very easy to sneak peaks at what the other students do, without being too out of sync. Unlike with, say, pas de bourree, where if you mess up and go the wrong way, it's super obvious.

Today's Practice (at home)
So today, I wasn't at all sure what I was going to do, or if I was even going to do any practice. I was doing some plies at my barre and decided what the heck, I'd get dressed and work some. Practice went so well. I just made up my own routine, and listened to some of the classical music I have. I did quite a few plies and tendus- I went through those two or three times on both sides. Especially with the tendus: they are easy enough to do... but I wanted to work on actually leading with my heel and keeping my foot on the floor as long as possible before bringing it up so my toe was on the ground.

Rond de jambes: I worked on really getting that turnout. The movement seems so easy, but it's difficult for me to remember to turn out as soon as I possibly can and as much as I possibly can.

Frappes: Worked on these as well. With my frappe, I think I flex my foot too much when it's at my ankle. My instructor recently told me to strike the foot farther out, so I worked on that and smoothly brushing it on the floor before coming up. This one's a little hard to do on carpet!

Chasses: I've almost had down our chasses in class- we do them a certain way, in a certain order. But I've also been struggling with these. I've understood the direction we had to move, but it wasn't making sense to me what foot crossed in front when. And then our instructor said something last class that gave me an "aha!" moment: the first half, the left foot is chasing the right and the second half, the right chases the left. With just that short description, I now have the movement down pretty well.

[Description: Start in 5th, right foot in front, arms down in preparatory. Plie. Glide forward (in plie), leading with the right foot, bringing arms up to first (fingers at naval... I just looked this up and realized my arms have been too high!). Quickly bring left foot back to fifth (in the back). With right foot, glide into second plie, arms out. Close to fifth (prep arms), this time with right leg in back. Now reverse that, using the left foot to lead and going to the left instead of right. (See, I kept trying to put the wrong foot in back when gliding into second.)

There are two ways we do this, both actually have an extra step that what I said above: à terre and en l'air. In à terre, before closing the non-leading foot to fifth, we tendu the non-working leg. So if I'm going forward with right foot, I'll glide forward, tendu back with my left leg, and quickly close. Glide right, tendu with left leg, close left foot in front. Glide back with right foot, tendu left foot to the front, snap it back to fifth in front. En l'air is the same, except we dégagé instead of tendu.]

Adagio: Finally (after doing my chasses over and over and over again), I went on to our adagio. We do this one both at the barre and in center. It's a passe through retire then the working leg extends up (grande battement?) and then releve (rise up on our standing leg). It's done front, side, back, side. At the barre, instead of passe, we petite battement, sous-sus (feet jump up- releve- in a tight fifth position), spot, and turn. I practiced that one last week. I was having a lot of trouble getting down what happened after the back, and now I have that one nailed- and my spotting has improved as well! (When in center, instead of spotting and turning around, we [try to] stay in releve, do a few short port de bras, then close in the opposite fifth and do it all on the other leg. )

Our adagio has been really difficult for me! I mentioned we do it à terre AND en l'air (in the air)... and I've barely even been able to do just à terre! So today, I did it over and over again- almost totally in the air. I've still got a long way to go, but I'm more or less able to do the movements without having to put my foot down so much for balance.

In summary (I think I am a bit over-explanatory sometimes... I used to write A LOT but now this blog is pretty much the only writing I do nowadays. I hope to improve as I continue on), I'm super proud of myself because today, I showed a lot of discipline! Not just that, but I was totally in the zone doing it. Sometimes I can try things but have my mind elsewhere, wanting to be doing other things. Sometimes the music that came on wasn't fitting for whatever I was doing, so I either turned it off for a while or I just ignored it (instead of allowing myself to become distracted by trying to find the perfect music or something). Today, I was disciplined! Here's to more of that in the future, and more often!

Now to nail my pas de bourres! I was only just starting to get the hang of the two we've been doing, and now there are two more! Slowly, I can do them. But when we are in center, we do all four in a row, and my feet start getting tangled up! I can do this, though. My boyfriend is convincing me I should, indeed, do the demonstration/performance at the end of the ballet year in May... and I think I just might. I think it's just the encouragement I need to really work hard to improve!

Random Notes

Here is a lengthy floor barre routine I found online. It looks pretty intense.

I just read that in arabesques, the shoulders are actually supposed to be squared (as opposed to moving the arms?):

She's not holding her left arm behind her; her shoulders are rotated and squared!

Also, for some reason my left hip area up through my torso is very tight. When I cross my right leg over my left, it feels fine but when it's my left leg over my right, it sends an ache from my hips up. I also feel this when working on splits.

Improvements and Disappointments

So, class was great last night! I left work early in a bad mood, and took a power nap before waking up in a bad mood to get dressed to head to ballet.

Once the music started and we began our ankle rolls, my foul mood and negative thoughts starting drifting on out the door. By the time we were doing degages, I was absorbed in ballet and ballet only.

I totally nailed it at the barre. I'm getting close to knowing the preparations I've been having trouble with. I kept my head pointed in the right direction. I worked on keeping my arm more in front of me. I ended each exercise cleanly, with my arms more raised than towards my legs, as they had been. I messed up on the counts when doing our adagio leg extensions, but my spotting was dead on and I was able to pick it back up within a beat or two since I've been practicing. I even kept my head in the right direction for most of our echappe sous-sus, including the faster ones. I did everything at the barre so well, I didn't get any pointers or feedback.

The center went pretty well. I'm still having trouble with a few things like, uh, this one movement I can't recall the name to, where I mix up which foot goes in front when we transfer. But my arabesques were much more arabesque-like. My port de bras are getting more graceful. I mostly kept up with the harder footwork we do. Class went quite great!

So what's the disappointment? My horrible turnout, especially in retire. I want it to look perfect.

I want to have pretty turnout.

I want clean lines.

But I'm so far behind, especially on my left leg with it's damn tibial torsion. (As an example: in rond de jambe, my left foot can be pointed almost perfectly outwards… but my knee is always pointed down.) It's so frustrating.

So I will be working on my turnout a whole lot more.

Class tonight- hopefully back on track now

I'm so excited to have class again tonight. I pretty much missed most of February's classes, between my car accident and getting sick with a cold. Hopefully all of the hindrances are behind me and I can continue on without missing any more classes for awhile! I feel like it's disrespectful to the teacher, plus I'm finding I learn moves best when I am there the first time she introduces a new movement; otherwise, I'm trying to learn what I can from watching the other students (who may get it mixed up) and it's taking me a LOT longer to learn what has already been taught than what I have been there to see the first time. I'll apologize, of course... and mention that I've injured myself trying to do my splits... yes, it's healing but I can't put a lot of pressure on it now- I'm such a goofball!

Over the weekend I was feeling better and (I may have mentioned this already) worked on my arabesques and spotting. I've also worked some on my port de bras- my arms have not been very pretty, and I feel more "dance-y" when I think they look nice. I developed one of several (so far) bad habits from teaching myself: my arms in second I tend to place too far to the side of me, my elbows possibly even a little behind me. So I've worked on that some lately, too- even just passing by the mirror now and then. I also watched a couple of YouTube videos on arms in ballet, and again, my second hasn't been very correct: I'm now working on keeping the elbow more rounded, with my palms facing inwards along the line of the rest of my arm.

I hope I don't mess up my arabesques today! We do them with the working foot en terre the first time, and then raise it and hold it for a couple of counts in third arabesque. I've been practicing maintaining my balance. I need to get back to work on my turnout muscles because I am unable to hold an arabesque in the air with a very turned-out foot.

A little inspiration for the day: