#dance beginner

Tl;dr When starting dance, there is sometimes a choice between improvised or structured movement. What’s right for someone probably depends on personality and environment. You can always experiment and see what feels good for you. When it comes to dance improvisation, there are two schools of thought when it comes to newer dancers. If you are starting out dance, especially contemporary dance, a…

Tl;dr Starting dance from no experience is scary and working through fear, sometimes just by showing up in some way despite the fear, is probably the most important first step to dance. There’s a lot of people just starting to dance out there and loads who have never even started! So, I figured a good place to start when talking about how dance is available to everyone is how to start from the…

it happened again. i felt like a ballet dancer -- for like, the majority of the first half of class at the barre. it was wonderful. i'm so encouraged again, especially after last class's little hiccup. 

so i live in a university city and our summer b term just began which means an influx of students. so there were new people in class tonight, like, newer than me new. people, like me, who have never done ballet before. i'm happy to report remembering the combinations is getting so much easier now. it's almost intuitive -- almost. this was something i was afraid i wasn't going to get like so many of my classmates do so easily.

today, barre work went slowly and easily for the new people. it really helped me work on my technique (especially my turnout and pushing my heel forward). we also worked on port de bras because mine is so dismal. ulysses came around the room and fixed mine so many times. also, once, he swatted my stomach because i forgot to keep it in when he was working on my arms and it was great. the girl next to me was like, "did he just hit you??" i felt like it was very vaganova-ish (which i think our resident tumblr prima ryanishka would approve of).

i'm finally, finally more confident with my jetes. i think i'm finally getting the hang of it. also, we worked on technique more with jetes, as in, turning out the foot, landing correctly, etc., which i was clueless about. we also worked a great deal on glisses both at the barre and in floor work. i need to work more on those. sometimes i nail them, and sometimes i look like a newborn filly on ice.

anyway, today was a success. ulysses told me to work on strengthening my toes and i'm going to pretend he was sending me a secret message that he sees me as a future (distant future) candidate for going on pointe.

this is the first ballet lesson where i felt like a dancer, like i was really doing something lovely. i'll get to that part in a minute.

this class, there were only two of us super new students, while the rest have been dancing for months already. ulysses did barre combinations for the others, and then dumbed them down a bit for my fellow newbie and i. so while the others did some ronde de jambes into complicated other things into pirouettes, we worked on ronde de jambe technique (and for me, keeping the beat, and the repetitions correct, and the direction going the right way). we also did some more complicated combinations, but the slow singular exercises really helped me focus on my technique instead of hurrying to keep up with everyone and move on to the next thing. we did some ronde de jambes en l'air as well, and that was really neat feeling/looking. also, i am getting a lot better with my arms. i catch glimpses of myself in the mirror and i feel like i look soft and elegant.

after barre work, we stretched for a bit. i have a pretty shoddy turnout at the beginning of class, but by the time we are done at the barre, first position is looking pretty good. third and fifth still need some work though.

next we moved on to floor work. ulysses choreographed a few things for the pro-ish students, and then something else for my fellow beginner and i. while part of me longs to do the same things as the others, i appreciated the easier exercises. it let me concentrate not on the step itself, but also my arms, my head, my posture, and everything else, instead of trying to remember what comes next in the combination. i mustn't let ambition get in my way.

at the end of the floor work, ulysses had the whole class do a combination together. i'm not sure what the step is called, but it involved a jete (front, side, and back), and during the side jete, when we brought our feet back in, we batted our calves front to back before extending the leg again, a very staccato movement. i caught sight of myself in the mirror and for the briefest moment, i looked like a ballerina. it made me so happy.

at the very end of class, we did a moving exercise that seems easy in theory, but is causing me a lot of trouble. it's a spritely walk into jumps that have a name i don't remember. but you push off one leg while moving forward and extend the other, and land opposite. meanwhile, arms belong front and back, opposite of the leading leg. you know when you walk, your arms swing opposite your legs? i know this. i also walk normally. but for some reason, when i go into the jumps, my left arm comes up with my left leg and vice versa and arghhhh. ulysses cutely made me walk twice around the room with him, arms swinging in exaggeration. while he singled me out, it was playful and cute, and i felt good about it, like he was doing this to really get me over this mental block i have with the arms.

the best news i have is that he said i'm free to come twice a week now, to a more advanced class as well as the beginner one that i've been attending. (i think because the class is small in the summer and he needs more students, over any real testament to my skill, but it still felt really good to hear it.)