#circus studio

I wasn't actually planning to take this class until about a week before it started! My friend M was friendly with the instructor, and posted on Facebook that it was in danger of being cancelled due to low enrollment. I'd thought it was interesting but inconveniently scheduled for me, but when M said she wanted to take it as her first class at that studio, I was on board. I'd taken several conditioning classes at the studio last year, and absolutely love it there, so I was pretty pleased to hear that M was willing to try a class, and wanted to cheer her on. I'd also just come up with the idea for this blog and figured, "Why not?" At worst I try something new for eight weeks, it kicks my ass in a not fun way, and I don't sign up again. The good news is that is not the case!

I picked M up and we arrived at the studio early so she could do waiver paperwork and get acclimated. As usual, the all-classes warmup kicked my ass, but that didn't surprise me as it was led by my conditioning class intructor. After we waved goodbye to the students in other classes, M, seven other people, and I went to the barre area to meet our instructor, J. They welcomed us all to the class, which was now fully registered plus a drop-in student that night, and asked each of us for our names and pronouns, checked whether we had any injuries or other physical issues, and whether it was okay to touch us to make corrections. This is actually standard for the studio and one of the things I really love about it there!

Aside: This was also the first time that I have given my pronouns as 'she or they' which felt immensely liberating and comfortable, and was pretty much the reason my genderqueer ass procrastinated on writing this post for a couple weeks because I wasn't sure how to say as much in text, but fuck it, I've IDed this way since the early/mid 2000s back when I was on LiveJournal and first found a word that fit how I feel. I present fairly feminine because I can't be arsed to care that much about how I look; I'm much more concerned with physical comfort and not having to spend any more time than absolutely necessary dealing with the complexities of clothing fit while short and fat. It's been awkward and uncomfortable to be presumed to be a representative of 'women in STEM fields' while in college and my early career because, well, I'm not...but I digress.

Anyway, I had to laugh and say, "Warn me if you're going to touch my feet because I'm ticklish!" I really don't want to kick J, they're so nice! J started us off by having us use lacrosse, tennis, and/or golf balls to massage our feet and legs prior to barre work. They walked us through basic ballet positions and introduced several new terms in French for the movements we were doing. There were honestly a fair number of new words, and I don't remember all of them even after three class sessions at this point, but most of what we focused on was body movement and relative positioning. I found the foot positions fairly easy but struggle a little with arms. And putting movements of feet together with movements of arms? Hoo boy, that's hard. I think after a few more classes that'll get easier as it becomes muscle memory, but I'm not quite there yet!

We start with massage, positions, and simple movements every class. I have had several moments of gratitude for my conditioning instructor’s refrain of, “Point your toes! From your quads!” which is great for circus classes in general but especially for ballet! So far J has introduced a couple of new moves each week, and reinforced previously learned ones. Other than a tendency to tuck my head forward to look at the mirror, I think I've been doing pretty well. Last week I was pleasantly surprised to discover that my super-strong calves are great for ballet. I'm below average in height for AFAB people, so I regularly stand on tiptoe to reach things, and that apparently makes for strong calves and a solidly high relevé. This week I managed to do a piqué turn in spite of J's warning that we probably wouldn't be able to on the first day. I feel like I'm actually making solid progress each week, and I look forward to the next class. Honestly, I sort of wish it were twice a week! M and I have also made some new friends in this class. I can't wait for next Monday!