Today in studio

Spent half the day doing nothing. After that - some nailpolish fumes. After which it was time to pack some slippers and a bottle of water, then take a quick ride (with bike) to the old potato flour factory. When walking up the stairs I felt like a big bag of that dusty product. I'd been waiting eagerly to get back to barré, but my legs and body didn't want to do it. Luckily my persuasion skills were quite good today! :) Had plenty of time to change clothes, put 3 bobbypins to my hair, walk to the studio.

I've taken photos of my summer outfits, mostly with the phone but also some with a real camera. Decided to use lots of colors this season! :) Have to put them on this laptop and make an exhibition, haha... Today was black with purple -day. Purple leggings and top, some purple flowers on the black shirt, blackish (well, dark-gray) shorts. Last week it was mostly Brrrrright red. (Saw a lovely shirt at H&M, had to buy it...)

So, as I got my place and started warming up, The Feeling kind of got over me. And I knew it was going to be a good one, this class.

via weheartit.com

We've had a guest "star" this summer, a 7th grader boy whose mom is a regular at the class. He goes to the Opera Ballet School (in Helsinki) and is quite good for his age, I think. It's nice to look at his pirouettes and jumps (he sure has that ballon). Today he had a school friend over, who participated also. Another nice thing about this 7th grader is that he's very polite. I really appreciate kids who know how to behave these days. I've seen enough of those who can't do that. 

Ooooookay, about the class. Barré routines were new, all of them. The musics were new, haven't heard them during these 2 years. It's always fun! :) Felt a bit lazy in grand pliés, but tried to fight against it. There was literally no feedback (to me) during the whole 90 minutes, but tried to give some myself, inside my head.

In the centre... Well, mostly it was the same stuff as last week, but they are interesting routines, so I'm not complaining. What I _am_ complaining about are my pirouettes. They were somewhat les miserables this evening... Felt ashamed. Managed to get a small grip at some point, maybe next week will be better again. Hope so! Other moves were much much better.

Here's some dust from that tricky little friend, the Pirouette Fairy... ;)

In the end, for about 10 minutes, we had a chance to practice en pointe. I felt tired and worn out, but still wanted to wear those shoes, so that's what I did. But what I didn't do was centre work, kept myself by the barré during all routines. Concentrated on knees (straight), releves (do not jump), my core (keep it tight but active), shoulders (down) and chin (up). Except that for reverance we all were in the centre.

So it happened once again. A sweaty 90 minute dance class made me feel lighter, happier and... well, Able. I could do things I didn't know 2 years ago I'd be doing again. And they were almost easy again :) I think I've stayed in love, all these years.

Now it's time to strech a little bit more and then sleep. About 3 weeks left of my summer holiday.

Le Corsaire - 3rd Odalisque variation

Without realizing it, I've been practicing a variation from Le Corsaire for about a week now. Today our teacher said that we'll start doing it when she finds a good version of the music. I was making cartwheels inside my head, it's going to be sooooooo fun! Teacher didn't say exactly which variation, but said that we'll rehearse some steps already, just with different music. 

As I got home, I decided to look through some youtube videos, if it would reveal this secret. And it did, quite soon even. And I realized we started to work on it already last week, the diagonal part (in 5.22) with arabesques and pirouettes en dehors. 

Here it is -> starts at 4.54, danced by Gillian Murphy herself. Not bad, I think... ;)

p.s. We won't be doing it en pointe, but I don't mind - wouldn't be possible for me at least :)

Minus 7 by our National Ballet @ the Senate Square

As promised, here's rest of my photos from Friday 25th May. The work is indeed an excerpt from the fabulous 'Minus 7' by Ohad Naharin (music was a compilation). If you ever have the chance to see this, go! :)

The energy!

Getting ready... 

...to leave the stage...

...and mingle with the audience! 

Yay! :)

The girl (second from the left) was sitting next to me, wearing some supercool shoes!

Grand plié!

Some slow latin mood...

The girl with The shoes. (At this point she was the only audience member left on stage.)

Arabesques.

3 rows, each doing their own thing.

This was just before the final freestylish part! The dancers went crazy! :D No good photos from that part, sorry :)

Marimekko ♥ National Ballet

Yesterday went by too quickly, so now's the time to post some photos from Friday's first event - the traditional Marimekko's fashion show! This year the models were a bit different from the usual, they were dancers from the Finnish National Ballet. Which happens to celebrate it's 90th anniversary this year. What a coincidence... ;) Theme of the show was a certain Finnish tradition, this kind of a "barn dance". Except that we don't actually dance in a barn, but it's usually a building that contains a huge dance floor (called stage, in Finnish) and a stage for the band. And a bar, of course... :D Waltz, tango, polka, everything like that.

Coreography was by Johanna Nuutinen (dancer herself also at the FNB), fun, lively, captured the spirit of Finnish summer so well. There was a live band, too - drums, accordeon and double bass. They played some "golden schlagers", the sun was shining and everyone seemed to be in a good mood! :)

There are some amazing and fabulous photos of the show in the internet, by some real photographers (google them or find for example Mikael Rantalainen Photography on facebook). But here are some of mine - not so sharp and great, but I still had fun taking them, yes sir!

The directors... :)

Minna Tervamäki herself, grace and elegance.

The kids were so sweet.

Girls got the meet and perform with their idol!

Wouldn't mind dancing there myself :)

Up in the air!

Jamming with the kids again! :)

One of my favorite dresses.

Smiling... :)

Loved her short hair-do!

Who gets the boy? ;)

The Shoe.

The Shoes.

One of my absolutely favorite things in the show was the fact that everyone was SMILING. All the time. Fashion doesn't always have to be so serious, you know... :)