Breakthrough point(e)!

Today we had our weekly dose (45 minutes) of pointe class. Only 3 of 5 students could make it, so it was practically private/personal teaching for us :) Also one of us 3 had forgotten her gel-pads home, so she could only do the warming up with soft slippers. The lesson consisted of barré exercises with softies + one allegro in the middle, then with pointes by the barré, after which we did some stuff in the middle.

Barré: one warm-up set / pliés / tendus & jetés together.
Middle: set of 4 x ballotté, 1 x assemblé (did this from both corners, en diagonale)
Pointe barré: relevé & slow plié (still en pointe) & slowly down with straight knees (all of this 4 times), then relevé & turn heels "back" (so the feet are parallel) & turn heels in = back to first position and legs turned out & slowly roll down with straight knees (all of this 4 times) / 3 x èchappé, sous-sus, pas de bourrée, then a movement I can't name :D (tombé with something), then same thing to the other side (with the other foot in front) -> both sides twice / pas de bourrée 4 x, change quickly the other foot (the one that was supporting as you "landed" from the last pdb) to cou-de-pied in front, pas de bourrée "te other way round" (is it en dehor or en dedans??? I don't remember, bohoo....) 4 x (and All of this twice).
Pointe middle: Balancé en diagonale (no turning or going side to side, just plain forward-going, both sides twice I think) / bourrée suivi cross the floor (straight, no diagonale this time, the shorter way because we were slow, haha), both ways / piqué arabesque (also cross the floor, starting first with right foot all the way, then coming back with left, the whole thing twice) / relevés from 1st position 16 x (quite fast).

And the big news: This was the first time since I quit ballet as a teen, that I did this much in the middle en pointe. I'm very proud of everything!!! I didn't suck at all (as I thought I would, if I try something else in the middle besides this bourrée suivi thing). I felt confident and gave massive thoughts to my knees and the center of my body, and guess what. IT DID HELP! :D Especially the first balancés were frightening, but I can handle them if I want to. So it seems. YAY! My wobbly ankles were in a good mood today.

The not-so-great news is that we might have to give up on this separate pointe class :( Too few people. Our teacher M said that we could get 15-30 minutes of pointe right after the Wednesday class (90 min.), which would of course be nice. But I like it when I have a class on Monday, too... And if it comes to the point that we'll change it to Wed, I'm really hoping it to be 30 instead of 15 minutes. I want to learn and become better. That's something I can't do at home by myself, not with them hard pointed shoes.

Anyway, today was nice: sun shining, work okay, Great ballet class :)

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In the end I want to give a thought to a friend's child, who's in hospital at the moment (serious situation...). I do hope it gets better somehow. Waiting for it to happen must be so awful for the parents :( Here's a link to a song that gives me a good feeling about knowing that there are people who care about their friends. That's something I noticed during these past 2 days when the unfortunate situation started... The song is in Finnish, but the tittle is something like "it's going to be alright / you'll get through it / etc.". Samuli sings about being there for a friend, when they are having hard time.

Samuli Edelmann - Ei mitään hätää



Let's all be happy of the good in us. And enjoy everyday we get to live (and dance).

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