It’s been so long!

Oh goodness, guys, it’s been such a long time! Let’s see, what’s happened in that time?

I’ve started attending one improvers class each week. It’s pretty intense but I love it. I feel like I’m not the absolute beginner I was fifteen months ago; I actually know what I’m doing and I feel prepared!

And obviously I’m carrying on at the two beginners classes as well. So that’s a lot of dancing each week and I love it.

Pirouettes! Both ways! I can do them! Sort of, anyway.

I’ve tried a lot of new shoes but keep coming back to my wonderful Bloch pro elastics. However big I seem to go in leathers, they’re not quite as comfortable – the sizing for me goes painfully tight, tight, baggy. But I’m happy with my split sole canvases for now.

I’m struggling a little with my leotards though. They all have shelf bras in them, and I keep thinking I must cut them out (let’s just say that my chest laughs at a shelf bra) – but I never remember until I’m back at the studio forcing myself into the leo! Hopefully I’ll remember to do it before going back this week.

I ended up missing the first four classes of this term as I was down with the flu. But I’m back now and went to class on Thursday and loved it.

I have a lot of posts to catch up on!

Back from the summer!

It’s been a while, sorry – I went to a week of classes and then went on holiday and I was a bit rushed off my feet.

My aching feet, that is. Wow, that first class back was a killer! I think people at work the next day thought I’d been seriously injured or something. I was hobbling, my feet and legs and knees and hips hurt so badly. Oh, my hips.

But then I went to the second class of the week two days later and everything was fine. So obviously I just needed 24 hours of extreme, bizarre pain to get back into the swing of things!

As it’s an open beginner level class, the very first class was very basic, and I can see how much I’ve improved over the last year. Maybe next week I’ll try the improvers class!

Taylor Swift – Shake It Off

Okay, so I’m late to this as the video was release a week or so ago, but there is ballet in Taylor Swift’s new video, Shake It Off.

It’s crazy, though, because she’s dressed in ballet clothes and she’s there moving her hips and my brain is going, “that looks like fun – but, no. Not ballet.”

I am not a natural dancer, not even slightly. I love to move to music, I can’t stop myself. I dance in the car, in the shower, hell, I’m dancing now while writing this post and listening to Taylor Swift’s music! But I’m too self-conscious to move freely when I’m around other people. So that’s why ballet is perfect for me. It’s basically just following instructions, and I’m good at that.

But I love watching other people dancing freely, so this video makes me smile!

Boo!

Hello, everyone! It’s been a while, obviously.

I’m still on my summer break from classes and, honestly, the biggest thing that I’ve learnt about myself this summer is that I need a structure to keep to. I started off the summer by saying, oh yeah, I’ll go swimming twice a week and take a pilates class and a stretch and tone class.

Yeah. I’ve been swimming twice. That’s it.

No classes. Done some stretches at home but not every day. Bent down this morning and realised I can’t touch my toes anymore. Yikes!

So, I need to get my butt in gear. Classes start on 16th September. Not long to go!

 

Happy summer!

Happy summer, dancers! How are you all doing? How are you keeping busy?

Me, I’m being lazy. I was planning to start pilates and stretch-and-tone classes, but work has been busy so I haven’t got around to it yet. I’ve been swimming once in the two weeks since my dance classes finished.

But I have bought some pretty dancewear: a ballet pink leotard with an attached chiffon skirt, and some leather split sole Bloch shoes.

I’ve tried Bloch’s leather full soles (Arise) and I’ve tried their Pro Elastic canvas split sole, so it’s about time I split (haha, I crack me up) the difference and went for the leather split soles. I like the strength of leather, but I have a high instep so full soles don’t work great for me. But wow, are these ones small! I usually take a 6C in Bloch shoes, but these are tight. They have a breathable mesh in the middle though so I think I’ll be able to stretch them in a bit.

It’s so long until my next class!

Hello!

Oh dear, it’s been weeks!

There’s going to be a class performance soon – unfortunately I’m not available that week, it’s too busy for me. But I’m okay with this (now, I was quite disappointed at first) because I figure that hey, by next year I’ll actually be able to do something interesting in it.

I’ve been taking classes for nearly a year – how time flies when you’re having fun!

Of course!

So a friend and I are planning a trip to London in a couple of weeks (we live about two, three hours away).

Thinking about what I want to do that day – do I want to go down Oxford Street, do I want to go to Harrods? Well, they both sound fun, but what I want to do most of all is visit the Bloch shop! I mean, I know I’ll feel insanely intimidated in there because I’ll feel like this slightly chubby not a real dancer, but I want to see what it’s like and pretend I am a real dancer. Because hey, I take classes! I can do a pirouette!

Although I really don’t need any more dancewear. I already have an awful lot of Bloch stuff!

Pushing myself

Class the other day was really really tough. My back was aching a bit and I think I may be coming down with some kind of virus as I feel a bit achy all over to be honest. My throat was hurting, and all I wanted to do was sit down and have a long long drink of water.

But I’d paid £6 for class (plus another £6 or so in car parking!) so I was going to stick with it, dammit. And I’m so glad that I did!

Barre didn’t feel great – I couldn’t stretch myself as fully as I like to because of my back, tendus and anything that involved reaching my leg out to the back hurt and in this particular class, we do all barre exercises en croix, so I felt like I was half-assing a full third of the barre work.

But then we moved to the centre. Now, the first part of centre work is always hard for me – I’m not sure why. But we did a nice port de bras and it felt good to stretch like that. Definitely helped my back!

In between exercises I made sure to bend fully down and stretch out my back. Bending double and holding onto my ankles helped.

And then we did this glissade, assemblé combination that is split into three difficulties. I’ve tried the hardest version before but failed miserably. But I thought, hey, I didn’t couldn’t push myself at all during barre, but glissades I can do! I don’t have to move my back at all! And I managed it. I kept time with people who’ve been learning for literally 20 years, and it felt great!

I’m really glad I pushed myself.

(My back’s fine now, by the way! I must have just slept weirdly on it or something.)

7 things

Okay, firstly the title of this post has me singing away to “7 Things” by Miley Cyrus – which is a song I really really loved in my final year of uni. Embarrassing or what? Anyway, moving on…

The All-round lovely RO nominated me for the versatile blog award. I’m really flattered because hers is one of my favourite blogs to read.

I am struggling with who to nominate in return, as so many of the ballet blogger circle have already been nominated! So in the end, I’m just going to pick a few and if you’ve already been nominated, tough! Just accept that you’re super popular!

1. Kitteacat Does Ballet: She’s another ballet beginner as an adult, and I love reading about what she’s trying. Also, I swear we’re living the same life, based on her last post! (Okay, I didn’t have a new super awesome skirt, but I did get told to be the person doing the demonstrating, and it was so so tense but ultimately a good thing.)

2. we.do.ballet: So RO also nominated her, but I just like this blog that much! You get two stories for the price of one here, as both the lovely author and her adorable-sounding son are learning ballet.

3. Boys and Ballet: This isn’t a personal blog but a collection of stories about, you guessed it, boys in ballet!

So, my seven things…

1. Today marks exactly five years since I took my final university exams. My final year of uni was honestly one of the happiest of my life, and I can’t believe how long ago it was now.

2. I’m scared of wind turbines. They look cruel.

3. I still play Neopets. The virtual pet game from 1999. Like, all the time. I have four Neopets tabs open right now, in fact. My oldest Neopet is now older than I was when I created her (that’s nearly 14, if we’re counting).

4. I can’t wear flipflops – I hate the feel of anything between my toes.

5. The sound of birdsong can make me feel physically sick. I hate it. I’m not sure why so many people say they enjoy it so much!

6. I’m really really ticklish. Thankfully, my partner is even more so, so he can’t take advantage of it!

7. I really love my job. I know this makes me a bit unusual, but I feel very lucky!

Wow, an almost entirely non-ballet post! How weird for me.

Experienced?!

So, my teacher demonstrated a combination. We had a few new people in the class, so she said she was going to ask a few more experienced people who knew what they were doing to come to the front of the room.

She asked two ladies who are excellent dancers. And then she looked in my direction. I assumed she was looking at the lady behind me, so didn’t move. And then she comes up to me. “Come on, you know what you’re doing. You do this one!”

I didn’t mess up that particular combination, either. So I guess I do know what I’m doing – a bit! I’m obviously no longer one of the real beginner beginners! When did that happen?!

I have been so happy about this all day. Crazy, huh?