Giselle Variation

Welp after class last night I finally worked up the nerve to ask Mr Taylor about learning the variation from Peasant Pas De Deux dance in Giselle and to my surprise he said yes.

I have never learned any variation in my previous ballet life and would like to learn at least one while I can still walk :) No desire to ever perform the variation or let anyone else ever see it, I just want to learn.

I know it'll probably have to wait until next summer as he has YAGP and the Studio's Spring Show to do so it'll give me time to make sure I can do double cabrioles to the front and back (used to be able to those) and tour en l'air's without falling on the landings. The variation runs 52 seconds and I'm using this video as inspiration as I'm going to need it!

What Extension?

After what seemed like forever (two weeks) it was back to class last night and unlike in the past I couldn’t do the maintenance classes because I had to work and no weekend classes because I couldn’t afford it. Only maintenance I did was what I could do at home when I remembered to. Flexibility and turnout loss wasn’t as bad as I expected but what the heck happened to my extensions?!?!?! Before the break I was proud of the fact that I could get to 90 degrees, in class last night I could barely make 45 degrees and that was with a whole lot of effort and that wasn’t consistent one more thing to add to the goals list. Rest of the class regulars struggled also so I wasn’t alone. Our Russian “Ballerina” didn’t fair very well either, for someone who carries around an attitude of superiority you would think that she would at least able to do a degage to second center floor without losing her balance or fall down the each time with did a grand plie in center and blame it on the winter break. I just smiled and went on.

So it's been two weeks with no classes due to winter break for the kids classes and I am soooo ready to get back into class. Been using my NYC Ballet exercise CD and some of the wife's Pilates exercise CD's to try and help stay in shape but it's just not the same. Like a fellow member on a Web Form that I read said "The inactivity is driving me crazy, like an addict deprived of his drug."

Something a little funny

Holidays are near so attendance in the adult classes is dropping and not much going on. Got a chuckle from Alexi in Monday night's class when he wanted to someone (me) to demonstrate for the class, "We need to review Fourth Arabesque", wiggling finger to me "Come here, I need a demonstration dummy" I know what he meant but I know what I and the rest of the class heard. Cracked up.

Done and done

Did our Nutcracker performance last night and it went well especially considering the horrid dress rehearsal earlier in the day. Theater sound system didn’t like the cd with half of the music and quit partway through the show and the back up disk was at the studio. The Mother Ginger platform broke the day before and had to be partially rebuilt in the dock area of the theater. And what I found really disappointing is the professional dancers hired in to do the character parts, cavalier and prince rarely made rehearsals and when they did were usually late and generally very rude. The younger kids were told early on to look to them for examples of how to rehearse and behave in the theater, the amateur adult dancers carried themselves much better. I’ve done two Nutcrackers in the last two years and while fun I think I would like to be back in the audience watching, something odd about being on the stage after the years of watching my youngest daughter perform. Have to be honest with myself as I would really like to do something else besides the party scene, like maybe mouse king or another costumed part where it’s not apparent that I’m an older male. It’s time to return back to being strictly a student, anonymity sometimes has it perks.

A week to go

Don't know whether to be happy or sad that Nutcracker is next weekend. My partner and I are working well together and know our parts and the musical ques so it's easier to polish the little things to make ourselves look better. And the story being told is rich with more detail that I seen in other Nutcrackers. Guess that's the part to be happy about. The sad part is that it looks like none of my family or friends will be coming to the performance. Mother in law has Alzheimer's and is taking up more and more of my wife's time, church potluck is the same night as the performance and mother in law is instant that she and Cathy go. Looks like my daughters won't be there either, one used to be a dancer but go hurt and now won't watch anything, says it hurts too much to watch. Other daughter and her husband don't have any interest and friends from last year made empty promises about going so I haven't said anything about this years performance. Makes me feel pretty down right now.

I'm baaaaak

Been missing a lot of classes and so far only one Nutcracker rehearsal due to a cold, flu, mystery virus that has been plaguing me the last two weeks with headaches, exhaustion and general feeling of weakness. Hopefully things will be back to normal soon. Nice thing happened with Pas De Deux classes last weekend, the young ladies assigned to work with me the last class were extremely keen on working and made for a very enjoyable class. Both were from the studio that my youngest daughter used to take classes at and I was amazed that I could tell the difference on who has been training them. While all of the lifts we did while simple (over head, fish) I could tell by feel when they were coming out of the plie and time the lift almost perfectly every time with little effort. Have to let Miss Sue (Sue Knaak) know her that her former students are strong and have really good work ethic when it comes to this kind of work. David let them know in class that he is pleased with the progress being made in working with partners as it is difficult and you have to learn to adjust your comfort level. Speaking of such, the reverence he gave last week involved the men wrapping our arms around our partners shoulders in an embrace as the final pose. Talk about uncomfortable! I even whispered that comment to my first partner. I’m sure she felt the same way I did. ;)