Well, I'm home from my first class. And I'm very sorry to say that it was quite a disappointment. No, it wasn't horrible or anything. But at least half, probably more, of the class was spent with everyone socializing and/or the instructor trying to find music (chatting the entire time). I didn't pay $10 to chat and make friends. I can do that for free. I can't say anything- that's what the majority of the people seemed to want to do, which is great for them. But I want, I need more out of a ballet class if I am going to attend it regularly.
I did have a lot of fun with the exercises we did do. The barre exercises were definitely a change from Tamra Chace's videos, and change is good. Because they were different, I was struggling a little bit, which means I was being challenged, and that's good. The center exercises were definitely different than what I've been doing, even incorporating quarter/half/full pirouettes, which I've only worked on briefly. I had trouble with that and with the waltz-with-turns we did. All of this involved motion in the center, movement around the room, while I'm used to center exercises being mostly done in one spot. So that part was fun and challenging.
But there just wasn't ENOUGH fun and challenging things for me to do! I brought a towel because I sweat very easily. I brought a water bottle. There was so much time spent talking in between the things we did that I really didn't sweat at all. I had no need for water.
I brought up that I'd been doing some YouTube videos but had never had a class. After class, one of the girls told me she'd never have guessed I learned from YouTube, that if I hadn't said anything she would have just thought I hadn't been in awhile.
So: class could have been so much better if there had been more teaching and less talking. As of right now, I'm finding it pretty hard to justify spending $10 + gas and basically a whole evening I could spend teaching myself a lot more than what we did in class. And that was BEFORE the lady walking out ahead of me told me that we did more dancing than usual- usually it's almost all talk!! Oh, and I didn't mention that no one at all got any corrections. That's a big reason for my taking a class at all. I can teach myself and have the exact same risk of hurting myself by doing stuff wrong as if I keep going there!
I may try again. I do plan to go to the one that's an hour away. I may ask this place if I can take class with younger, more serious people. Right now, though, it looks like I'm going to have to keep teaching myself. I'm glad I have Jhung's center exercise DVD on it's way. I'm not quite sure what else I can do to keep challenging myself without getting bored. (I can only do Tamra's videos so much, regardless of the fact that I like them and repetition can help hone and perfect movements... it's still the same thing over and over...) I'll be working on a plan, though.
I did have a lot of fun with the exercises we did do. The barre exercises were definitely a change from Tamra Chace's videos, and change is good. Because they were different, I was struggling a little bit, which means I was being challenged, and that's good. The center exercises were definitely different than what I've been doing, even incorporating quarter/half/full pirouettes, which I've only worked on briefly. I had trouble with that and with the waltz-with-turns we did. All of this involved motion in the center, movement around the room, while I'm used to center exercises being mostly done in one spot. So that part was fun and challenging.
But there just wasn't ENOUGH fun and challenging things for me to do! I brought a towel because I sweat very easily. I brought a water bottle. There was so much time spent talking in between the things we did that I really didn't sweat at all. I had no need for water.
I brought up that I'd been doing some YouTube videos but had never had a class. After class, one of the girls told me she'd never have guessed I learned from YouTube, that if I hadn't said anything she would have just thought I hadn't been in awhile.
So: class could have been so much better if there had been more teaching and less talking. As of right now, I'm finding it pretty hard to justify spending $10 + gas and basically a whole evening I could spend teaching myself a lot more than what we did in class. And that was BEFORE the lady walking out ahead of me told me that we did more dancing than usual- usually it's almost all talk!! Oh, and I didn't mention that no one at all got any corrections. That's a big reason for my taking a class at all. I can teach myself and have the exact same risk of hurting myself by doing stuff wrong as if I keep going there!
I may try again. I do plan to go to the one that's an hour away. I may ask this place if I can take class with younger, more serious people. Right now, though, it looks like I'm going to have to keep teaching myself. I'm glad I have Jhung's center exercise DVD on it's way. I'm not quite sure what else I can do to keep challenging myself without getting bored. (I can only do Tamra's videos so much, regardless of the fact that I like them and repetition can help hone and perfect movements... it's still the same thing over and over...) I'll be working on a plan, though.
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