Last Friday was a Good Day in general. Took some stuff to my flea-market table, then off to work, 2 lovely pupils (grown-ups both), back to the center, sun shining, some tea in a cafe and then, YES, Finally... To the studio. I had a good amount of time to get changed, warm up and strech a little. There were actually more of us than probably ever this Spring! I didn't feel as worn out as I had the previous Friday class, only a little and only in a good way. At that moment as I realized this, I knew I'd gotten better. No more flu.
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| On my way to work on Monday this week. Friday was almost as good! :) |
Our barre-routines were still the same, so I had time to concentrate on the Quality of my movements. The tourist class I took in Helsinki reminded me of constantly Really turning out/presenting my heels, crossing the legs (tendus etc.) and stomach in - popo under... :) I tried also "work the floor" all the time, feeeeeel the toes and the whole sole sliding against it. Even in the grand battements - which were the best I've done all year. Weird. Especially to the front (devant) the legs seemed to weigh Nothing! They just flew up. Higher. W-e-i-r-d. To the side - again better. To the back - a bit better, but it was a small challenge with so much crowd. We did do the grand b's in directions, but still. I guess I'm used to too much space round me.
In the middle we had the same adagio, same tendus, same everything. But the adagio felt easier, although I do not like developpes a la seconde without barre. (Mind you, I don't like them much w/ the barre either.) Tendus we had in two ways. First (starting with the right leg) from 1st position - devant, a la seconde, derriere, a la seconde again - combined with 2 sautes in the end and a short balance demi-pointe. Same thing with the left leg. Second (starting to the right) from the 5th position - tendus a la seconde, but changing direction all the time. We started en face, but with the very first tendu we turned 90 degrees to the right. Same thing with the 3rd, 5th and 7th tendus, ending en face again. Then there was something (pirouette probably), after which the whole turning Thing to the left. (I know there's a word for it - but I forgot... :D)
Before starting the rehearsal of our Spring performance, we did some Fast grand battements in the middle. And our teacher asked us once again: "Why do we practice these throws Fast? Where do we need this kind of movement to help us?" I said jumps - and it was correct! Yay, I've learned at least one thing this year. (Or learned to remember it anyway.) (Actually, I've learned the difference between croise & efface & ecarte, too.)
About 20 minutes (or bit more) was spent on The Choreography. We know it through now, nice and quite simple. Not much fast movements, except some piques (steps, no turns) and in the end tombe - pas de bourree - pirouette en dehors (twice, with some small running steps in between). I'm very happy to do the pirouettes, as my singles are quite solid now. And I do like the en dehors from 4th position a lot!
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Saturday class had same routines also, both barre and middle. Except for one slow routine cross the floor with beautiful poses and hands, 2 pique turns and "some" chaines. And we did our Spring performance choreo there, too (different piece - different teacher). The only "negative" thing about the class was this: no pointe. Not even the 15 minutes there's supposed to be. Our teacher did ask us nice and polite, if we'd mind about doing only "a little" pointe that day. And we ended up with 0 minutes. Weeeelllllll, it's good to rehearse the performance bit, but I do pay for the pointe session... All of us don't. So they get extra teaching and us pointe-freaks lose it. Okay okay, call me greedy/mingy, but I'd been waiting to do even that little moment with my shoes, waiting for weeks... And the next Saturday class is after Easter, so there are over 2 weeks to wait again. But maybe then we'll be dancing sur les pointes. Let's keep our fingers crossed!
Last but not least - I just noticed a big number on my blog. Over ten thousand visits, on different posts and pages of mine. That calls for a huuuuuuge YAY!!!!!! Thank you to all who've been here! :) I do hope you'll come back every once in a while. You most certainly are all very welcome.
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