I’m sure my two readers probably have this figured out right now, but I am total FAIL at posting when it comes to continuous events. Because the Ballet Intensive wrapped two weeks ago, I’ll have to do a little summary. Maybe when I’m done I can finish my Seattle posts…

Day 5

Day 5 of the Ballet Intensive kicked off with a half-hour of Pilates with Yuki. I would have thought that it wouldn’t be enough time to make my body hurt, but apparently it was. Since we had learned the basics the week before, she wasted no time diving right in to the stuff that, you know, you have to use muscles for and stuff.

Pilates was followed by the standard 90 minutes of ballet. We had Kari again. I ended up getting a nasty case of shin splints. I did a bit of reading on the interwebs, and I think it was lack of proper warm up that did me in. Some of the instructors used our time at the bar to actually warm us up, while others… didn’t.

After, we had modern with Lauren. Tiny little thing, about my height, real cute like. She made some comment about how short dancers are good at traveling across the floor because we are expected to move just as fast as those long legged people. Inside I was like “fuck yeah!” The class was interesting, but I felt like we did more time doing warm-up type moves instead of actually dancing. And after two hours of class, warm-ups really aren’t all that necessary any more. I mean, my body was already loosey goosey, it was a little too late for my shins, kwim?

What I liked about Lauren was that she took time to explain things, show them again if necessary, and let us mark to the music before attempting it full out. She would also give us helpful tips. At one point, I asked her if she’d explain something because I just wasn’t getting it. She made some comment along the lines of how she wasn’t going to turn on the music and send us out there clueless. Oh, my dear Lauren, you would be surprised.

Day 7

Wait, wut? Where’s Day 6? You must have missed it. Scroll up and look again.

After barely being able to walk, let alone jump around, I decided to stay home on Tuesday. I missed ballet with Laura (the modern instructor from the previous week), who was apparently pretty good, classical jazz with Colleen, and yoga, which was apparently a lot of work. I didn’t feel too bad about missing it. One, because, like I stated earlier, I could barely walk. And two, I like my yoga workouts to be relaxing and stretchy. Very non-workoutish. The funny part is that what I felt most guilty about was letting BRK down. Especially after she left this comment:

I like intense ballerina Jill. She doesn’t drop like a fly on day 4 like some of the other less intense ballerinas.

Day 7 had the same schedule and instructors as Day 5, and my body suffered from much of the same results. I don’t understand. I seemed to adjust to everything just fine on the first week, then during the second week it was like my body had never danced before. I took it easy on the jumping during ballet, and by the time modern rolled around, I had to sit for about 10 minutes. I toughed it out near the end, though. Also, I was missing my partner in crime, Susie. You see, the thing about me and Susie? We went to DOB in the ’90s. We tap. Ballet and all this écarté and retiré and assemblé business… well, you’d think they were speaking a foreign language or something. Typically Susie and I just gave each other terrified looks and then watch others do it and try to fumble through, but without her, I was no longer in the quarter of the class that was slow to catch on. No. I was that person. The one who’s like “nope, didn’t get that,” “can you say that again?” “one more time,” “um, what is that exactly?” It got to the point where Kari would tell us what to do, then turn and look at me for approval to go on. At least she was starting to learn. It’s like, I didn’t want to hold the class up, but I didn’t want to stand there and hop around like an idiot because I honestly had no idea what was going on. And I’m sure this all makes me sound like a horrible dancer, but I’m really not. I know what a lot of basic moves, I just don’t know/remember what they’re called. And everything in dance is just building on the basics. And to be fair to myself, everyone in the class had that clueless moment at one time or another.

Day 8

I kind of whimped out on Day 8 of the Intensive. My body felt about as crappy as it did on Tuesday, but I didn’t want to miss the last day. The first 90 minutes was ballet with Lauren. Like Yuki, she wanted us to use our arms and head while at the barre. I don’t know, I’m really not coordinated enough to think of my feet and my head and arms in a ballet environment. But she looked pretty good doing it.

I modified all the exercises that included any sort of jumping. At one point I did a lot of relevés. Ouch my calvies. Susie whimped out with me. But I’m not sure if her I’m-pregnant-and-the-baby-is-bouncing excuse holds up. ;)

I went all out at the end when we were doing leaps (yeah they have a proper ballet name, but I’m sick of looking up proper spelling at this point). And by all out, I mean I did like 3 in a row. I was awesome.

Unfortunately I was not awesome enough to stay for classical jazz and yoga. I was pretty limpy by the time ballet was over. So I hobbled out to my car, went home, and propped ice pads on my shins.

Overall I really enjoyed the Ballet Intensive and am glad I did it. My only complaints were about specific instructors and the additional styles of dance. It was nice to try something new, but I would have liked to maybe try 6 or 8 new things instead of just two. Or limit to 30 minutes instead of an hour and skip the additional warm-up. If they did a two hour class with 90 minutes of ballet and 30 minutes of something like yoga, Pilates, or strength, it would be perfect for me.

The final day of the Ballet Intensive this week was a lot of work.

We began the class with 30 minutes of strength training with Katherine. She had us do a lot of core and leg exercises that were reminiscent of yoga and Pilates. I found it to be quite tiring and all around stretchy.

After, we had Ballet Technique with Luke. His style was a lot like Kari’s as far as throwing complicated stuff at us where I had no idea what he was talking about, but at least he took the time to explain things as much as we (I) needed before turning on the music and letting us (me) flail around. I don’t blame my flailing on lack of mad skillz, though; I blame it on my concentration. How can anyone expect me to pay attention to what I’m supposed to be doing while in the presence of such a stunning danseur?

Lots of things I did were laughable, but I didn’t seem to mind. My spirits were much higher than they were on Tuesday. Probably because I got my pirouettes back. I even did a few doubles to the left! Katherine stayed for the class with us and did the majority of it en pointe. *jealous sigh*

There were only six of us who managed to make it to class. We were supposed to have an hour of Classical Jazz after ballet, but we decided to cancel it because some of us had to leave and we didn’t want to do the class with only a few people, or so the story goes. We are hoping to be able to do some sort of stretching class in lieu of the jazz next week.

Day 3 of the Ballet Intensive completely restored my faith in myself.

We started out with an hour of Pilates with Yuki. I had never done pilates before. Some of the exercises were easy and some made my already sore muscles work harder. But really, I can’t complain about anything I can do while lying down.

The hour passed quickly, and then Yuki dropped the bomb on us. Laura, who was supposed to teach a half hour of Modern at the end of class, was sick, and the remaining two hours of class would be all Ballet Technique. This sent me into panic mode. Two hours? Surely I misheard. I didn’t think I could handle two full hours of the torture that occured the day before. My body, ego, and sanity could not handle a repeat. I crossed my fingers that the instructor was not . . . like last night’s.

As it turned out, Yuki stayed with us the entire night which suited me just find. She was nice, funny, and gave great advice much like Ross. Her barre exercises weren’t painful and torturous. She kept the moves basic but used them in combinations that made me think. She threw in some head movements as well, but I struggled enough remembering what my legs and arms are supposed to be doing, so I just glossed over that. The breathing and muscle control excersizes that we learned during pilates proved to be very helpful with my balance as well.

Yuki was very good about taking the time to make sure we all understood what to do, as well as giving us a few chances to mark it which I greatly appreciated, especially once we moved to the floor. The floor combinations were a lot of fun. She had us do them alone, in pairs (you have to know how to dance with someone else!), and even had us in groups criss-crossing across the floor. We did a turn combination as well, and I mostly redeemed myself from the last class. I was a little wobbly still, but even when I lost my balance I was still able to end beautifully like nothing had happened.

This two hour technique class was probably my favorite of everything so far. It was exactly what I was looking for in a program like this. I got to try something new, learn a few tricks that made me better, and have fun.

For as immobile as I was throughout the day, I’m really surprised how much my body loosened up by the end of class. I could have easily gone another half hour. (Not that I necessarily wanted to, I’m just saying my body was up for it.) Also, I now have first hand experience of what a difference the floor can make. I’ve spent 9 hours this week (mostly) on my feet, and other than a little stiffness or cramping here and there, I haven’t had any lasting pain in my heels or my bad toe. I guess that’s what you get when you dancy on marley instead of tile.