Much Tendu About Nothing

As an adult, we have to learn that our ambitions aren't as easily fetched as when we were kids. As soon as I got my first taste of ballet, I immediately wanted to advance to the next level, no matter the costs. I yearned to dance en pointe and I wanted to do it NOW!

But after a couple months of practicing en pointe, I realized I was nowhere near ready to dance in them. My ankles, knees, and feet were not at that stage yet.  I realized that if I kept pursuing pointe, I would have done some real damage.

Believe it or not, they are not as fun as you would think. It may take a lot of muscle strength, but it also takes tons mental strength to get the job done and to do it gracefully.

I do get a little frustrated when I see other adults who are not ready to dance on pointe, but do it anyway. I'm not as mad at them as I am at their instructors for misleading them. If they only knew how tremendous the effects could be on their bodies as well as their skills.

My first ballet class in NYC was this morning at The Dance Studio of Park Slope. It's a cute and cozy studio tucked away in Brooklyn.

Starting at a new studio is always nerve racking to me, so to ease the pressure, I made sure to choose my attire appropriately. I didn't want to show up to class dressed up like I knew what I was doing because we all know how that went the first time (see first blog post here).  

I wore a black leotard (hides sweat the best), cotton leggings, and an athletic hoodie. Dressing down would allow me to be able to make mistakes and/or strive for the more complicated combination without anyone expecting too much from the new girl. First impressions are pretty lasting, right?

                                 My Overall Review

The Studio

The studio is on a quiet, low-traffic street in Park Slope. When you walk in, you are greeted by a friendly receptionist who walks you through signing up for a class.  It's a truly hassle-free process. There is a changing room, his/her bathrooms, and some seating in the lobby. Down a narrow hall is three or four different dance studios with wooden ballet barres bolted to the wall. A long mirror traces the entire front wall, perfect for all students to watch their technique. The floors are hardwood (not the usual soft spring floor), but doesn't have too bad of an impact on jumps. The best part are the two huge skylights allowing beautiful natural light shine in. So refreshing!

The Students

The class was no bigger than 15 people and no one younger than 25. The women in class are super dedicated to this studio and have been attending for years. Most spots at the barre were pretty much assigned to the veterans, but they had no problem taking up a new place so that us beginners could easily follow along during combinations. Almost everyone in class was at an advanced-beginner level. Not one beat was skipped during barre. However, I was a bit all over the place. This would normally have me red in the face from embarrassment, but I knew that no one was watching me because they were too concerned with their own technique. I must say, it was a little intimidating.

The Teacher

Setsuko Maruhashi was the instructor and also the very first Asian (Japanese) to join the Radio City Rockettes. She is one of the cutest, sweetest people I have every met. She was very welcoming by greeting every student at the door with a big, bright smile and caught up with a little small talk. She introduced herself, shook my hand and asked my name. She also introduced me to the entire studio and had me explain my dance background. I am assuming that was her way of taking poll of the class so she could know what level to teach at. She was very technical with her combinations. Her idea was to teach the adults as if they were professional ballerinas and not just for the exercise. AMAZING!!!  I danced better than I ever have before. I wanted to show Setsuko my true potential. She had me doing things I would have never dared to do in Louisville. If I felt overwhelmed with a combo, I would usually sit it out, but something about the way she taught her students made me swallow my pride and take the front row. I did every single step, even if I had never done it before. I may have looked like a fish flapping around outside of water, but I was actually doing/attempting the steps and that is a big deal for me. After class, Setsuko stuck around to thank me for attending her class and to critique my technique. She actually brought to my attention that my legs are hyper-extended (which I never knew) and that it's a good thing in the ballet world. She followed by pointing out other problem areas that I thought only I was aware of. She has a great eye for targeting problem areas no matter how small.

My Experience

This is Basil, or better known as Basilbutt. She is the best thing since a perfect sliced fifth. She's the reason my turnout has vanished, my passé looks like the Leaning Tower Pisa, and my tight core is as soft as the lambs wool in my pointe shoe. 

I went from Changements to changing diapers in the matter of months.

Now, finding a healthy balance between breastfeeding and battements has proven to be one hell of a challenge.

                         Summer Deadline Goals:

Lose the baby weight (15lbs to be exact).

Work on regaining my flexibility, endurance, and solid core.

Fit back into my old leotards (poor guys are starting to collect dust)

Work on my turnout and alignment.  After carrying a baby for 10 months, gaining 40lbs, and taking a six-month hiatus from the barre, it kind of has an affect on a girl’s posture.  Hold on! What am I saying? It has an affect on EVERYTHING!'

Please fasten your buns, this is going to be a bumpy ride.

After my husband accepted an amazing new opportunity in Manhattan, we packed our bags, sold our four bedroom, three bath house and headed straight to Brooklyn.

We traded our 2000sqft (with backyard) house for a 700sqft, four-story walk-up apartment. That’s six flights of stairs, my friends. Yeah, ouch!

This apartment is about the size of our kitchen back in Louisville, but, it’s actually not too bad. Makes it super easy to keep an eye on Basil and even easier to clean. So far, I love this cozy little flat. What I don’t love is how isolating it can be to live in New York and having a baby only adds to the feeling. The people here are in their own worlds. If I shoot a friendly smile at a passerbyer on the street, it goes unreceived. In fact, it’s crazy to me how someone (a mother at that) can watch a woman struggling with getting her baby and stroller up an extra-high flight of stairs without lending a helping hand. A Louisvillian would drop everything and basically run to the rescue. My fear is that I will slowly become like the rest of the New Yorkers here. I have a feeling that my southern (mid-west technically) heart will not let that happen. “Kill them with kindness” my mother always said.

Some other things that are a bit of a culture shock are buying groceries and walking everywhere you need to go. As for stocking your house full of food, well that’s totally impossible if you do not have a car or a personal shopping cart at home. The grocery stores here are very small because it is so rare for someone to buy $100 or more worth of food. I mean, how would you get all of that home, especially if you have to hop on a train. My husband, Jason, has to run to the corner store almost every single day to pick up things we need. Ugh, I feel so bad for him. The winters here are no joke!

Thankfully we discovered this website called FreshDirect.com. You can buy all of your groceries online and have them delivered to your door the next day. How amazing does that sound? With me being a super introverted person, this is like a dream come true. FreshDirect has everything a normal grocery has and for basically the same prices. It’s the best thing ever invented! So that’s one plus for living in New York. Convenience!

Speaking of convenience, walking where you need to go or hopping on the train makes things pretty easy too. Anything you need is always in walking distance of your home. Laundromats, cafes, restaurants, salons, clothing boutiques, doctor offices, and, of course... ballet studios. YES, that’s right, Ballet within walking distance! That means no more being late to class due to Louisville traffic.

The dance opportunities for adults in New York are endless. Any type of dance style you can think of they most definitely have classes available here. Even studios that allow their adult students to perform in a recital at the end of the season. You can imagine how stoked I am about that.

Here is the dance studio I will be trying out this Saturday: http://www.thedancestudiops.com/  It’s a super small and cute studio, from the looks of the outside (did a little stalking over the weekend).

The adult instructor was the very first Asian to be a part of the famous “Radio City Rockettes”. How exciting! I will be posting about my experience with this studio and teacher in the days to come.

For the longest time, I have always called super high insteps “Goose necks”. You know, that beautiful bone on top of your foot that when en pointe looks like the toes are directly under (aligned with) the heel? Just look up any picture of Svetlana Zakharova’s feet and you will know what I mean.

Well, I must be the only person in the ballet world who didn’t know they were actually called “Banana feet!"

Banana feet?!! That sounds almost as dumb as whoever thought of the ballet term “lame duck!"

If you ask me (which I am imagining you are), I think a high instep looks more like a goose’s neck. It also sounds a bit more elegant than describing some prima’s feet as a piece of fruit. Ha

Plus, isn’t there a ballet or two solely dedicated to a goose or swan, or something of that matter? wink* wink*

So it kind of goes hand-in-hand.

Here is the pose my lovely teacher used to describe absolute beginners.

Find any topic on Adult Ballet in the forum above.

I discovered the joy of ballet in mid January 2012. Believe it or not, I never knew adult ballet existed. In fact, the thought of ballet never crossed my mind since I was in first grade. I remember standing outside of the neighborhood ballet studio watching all of the little girls in their pink tutus run and jump across the floor. Boy, how I wished I were spinning and twirling along with them, but my mother couldn’t even afford a drop-in class at that time in our lives.

What led me to discover adult ballet was a random comment from a coworker. She noticed that I always stood in a fourth position (which, at the time, I had no idea what that even meant. Oblivious!). It was just naturally comfortable for me. So that day I did some heavy searching and stumbled upon The Louisville Ballet School.  Turns out, they had beginning adult classes for a great price.

I remember my first class like it was yesterday… and how naive I was.

I walked into class (not knowing what to expect) wearing thigh-high leggings, a black leotard, and a scarf! You know, what you see on google image search. Let me tell you, as soon as I walked into class, I shriveled up to about the size of mouse (not to mention I was five minutes late already).  So, you can imagine the looks I was getting as I interrupted class. I’m sure they were all wondering who I was by how I was dressed. 1: I either looked like an experienced dancer, or 2: looked like a girl who just finished watching the Black Swan. I’ll go with option two. I jumped in the back of the line hoping to follow the women in front of me, and guess what? The right-side combination just finished, which means it’s now time for the left-side - making me the head of the line. By that time, I was about the size of the dust bunnies in the corner.

Life as you know it was over! I was completely horrified. What was I to do?

The teacher went over the combinations full out, yelling, “okay everyone, first position, heels together and demi plie.”

DEMI PLIE? What the hell is a demi plie?

I vividly remember looking like a baked turkey, or as my teacher would call it, “The old lady carrying her purse pose.” Meaning elbows and wrists bent with a hunch back. Yup, that was me.

After about fifteen minutes of going with the flow, my fear had subsided and I felt like I was starting to get the hang of things. It’s very easy to forget your fear when you’re focusing on your feet and trying to make your heels touch all while holding your arms out at shoulder height. My brain can only handle so much.

The teacher must have smelled my perspiration desperation. She lingered on the side of the room where I was standing. Probably waiting for me to give her the “I have no idea what I am doing” look (which definitely happened countless times). She had no problem swooping over to save me from embarrassment. She had the knack for making the absolute beginner feel less like a bull in a china shop.

As class progressed, I started to fall in love with the complexity of ballet and the thought of trying to master it. My competitive side left me hungry for more. As soon as class was over, I couldn’t wait to plant myself in front of the computer and do as much research on ballet as my tiny brain could handle. From that day forward, I was obsessed with any and everything ballet related. I joined adult ballet forums, bought books on the art, watched every adult ballet video on youtube, and attended three ballet classes a week (along with ballet stretch, ballet fit, and pilates). It’s safe to say, I was a dancing maniac!

By the next year and a half, I was attending intermediate classes with an advanced class here and there. Don’t let that fool you! I am no prodigy… just super dedicated to becoming as professional as my body (and wallet) would allow me. Everything was going so well. I finally found something that was just for me, something to give my all to. However, just as I started to reach my peak, the most amazing thing happened…

I got pregnant! As you know, pregnancy doesn’t really leave room for improving technique. Ballet had to take the back seat as becoming a mother took precedence. After almost a year hiatus (with a class here and there), I gave birth to my beautiful daughter, Basil. My days consisted of two consecutive hours of sleep, being pooped and peed on, boobs transforming to the size of watermelons, and crying over my body that still looked like I was six months pregnant. With a schedule like that, who had time to even think of ballet? It’s sad to say I could feel my passion slowly dwindling. The butterfly feeling was no longer there.

What should I do?  Hey, I know… let’s move to New York City. Thanks to a new job my husband accepted in The Big Apple, I now have a fresh start and a new opportunity to regain the love I once had for the beautiful art of ballet.

Basil is now seven months old and no longer poops on me! Oh, the things that excite a new mother. ha.

So what’s next? What should this blog be about?

This blog chronicle my new adventures in Brooklyn, New York while raising my daughter and finding my passion for dance again.

Hope you enjoy!

This wonderful work was a gift from my good friend, Katie Sorrel. I would say this pretty much sums up who I am. ;)

Photo credit by Katie Sorrel