#balletlass

My studio will be performing Alice in Wonderland in less than three weeks, and it is really exciting! I’m dancing 4 roles, while it is still possible I’ll do a 5th one as well. I’ll be dancing as a bird, a cupcake, fog and a door! So this should be interesting :D Two of the pieces are ballet, one is contemporary jazz and one is going to be modern.  

So this summer felt like it lasted forever. I moved back to my hometown, and that means I’m back at my first dance studio. I was pretty intimidated going back, as this studio is the most accomplished RAD dance school in the country. But this first week has been a lot of fun, and hopefully I’ll be able to keep up with my new classes. 

This semester I’ll be dancing 9 classes per week. The classes consist of RAD Grade 6 (2x a week), RAD Intermediate Foundation (2x a week), Contemporary Jazz, Modern, Ballet ball (ballet with a pilates ball for strengthening), Stretch/Strength class, Advanced Adult Ballet class. 

For those of you who do not know the RAD syllabus, the Intermediate Foundation class is part of the vocational branch - meaning there is pointe work!

Sorry about the intense spam today. And for the intense silence before that... I just got back to my ballet classes this week and therefore remembered that I have a blog! Hope you have all been enjoying the holidays and are off to a great new year. I’m so happy to have heard from so many that they are wanting to start ballet! It is so much fun, you won’t regret it guys!!

As for me.. I will continue to take 7 classes (possibly more, but probably not) this semester as well, but I have changed some of the classes somewhat. I’m now dancing five days a week, which is exciting! 

Two of the classes I’m taking are quite challenging, and clever me can’t just wait until summer to up the difficulty, so I start after everyone has already learned how to do their attitude pirouettes, entrechats and god knows what else. This is going to be fun.

And hopefully you guys can forgive my absence if you get to read about my embarrassing pirouette story... Sooo.. STORY TIME. Over the break I suddenly realized I should practice my pirouettes a bit (and of course in the middle of the night) so I wouldn’t forget how to do them. So obviously I did so with socks on slippery wooden floor and fell. And not like a cute little slip, no. I completely lost my balance and fell on a ladder. Did I wake up the whole house? Probably. But they were too nice to say. Or just too used to my (sometimes concerning) night dancing noises. My poor back took the worst of the fall (how I managed to fall on my back from a pirouette is still a bit of a mystery to me), but hopefully no permanent damage has been caused. After this week my whole body hurts anyways so no way to tell. 

I have now been en pointe for just over a month, and my two pointe classes are still my favourites throughout the week! I thought I’d share a bit about what my experience and impressions.

So each of my two pointe classes last for 30 minutes. We sometimes do some work barefoot first, sitting or lying down. The exercises we do then are typically exercises like:

Starting flexed in parallell. Demi pointe to pointe, turnout, demi pointe to flex and then turning in again. Reverse and repeat.

We have spent the vast majority by the barre so far. Here we do lots of plies, rises, releves and tendus. Once we got to try echappes and even some bourrées on the spot, which was so much fun! We have done all the exercises facing the barre, allowing us to use it for support as much as we need, but we are encouraged to practice using a light touch or even letting go in certain exercises. There is always great focus on turning out and rolling up and down through the feet correctly. 

A few times we have left the barre at the end of the class to either walk or run across the floor. Keeping the balance while walking has shown to be surprisingly hard! The shoes feel awkward and unfamiliar. Hopefully this will get much better with time. I have had a couple of challenges with my shoes so far.. Firstly, the heel slipped off once while I was doing the run.. That was not fun. I might have to tighten the elastic or something. They don’t feel all that secure on my feet. Also, I managed to create an uncomfortable knot when I attached the elastic which sometimes bugs me. I guess things like this are stuff I will get a hang of along the way.. 

‘Kay so I decided to post my schedule here, for the people who are wondering, and also so I can look back on it :) I’ll put the activites I do at the gym (NOT my studio) in italic. These classes are free to members, so I don’t actually have to commit to going every week. I do go to those when they fit my schedule, but I don’t feel terrible about missing them if I have other places to be.

Most weekdays: Morning yoga (Hatha or Ashtanga) at 7.30 (I’m most loyal on Mon-Wed – the Hatha days)

Monday: Pilates, Ballet Grade 5, Ballet ball Tuesday: Ashtanga yoga, Pilates Wednesday: Ballet Grade 5, Strength/stretch class, Jazz Thursday: Adult ballet, Dance class* Friday: Nothing except yoga usually.