My ballet school does an annual showcase performance and this years theme was Aladdin and the Magic Lamp. In the adult class we had been practicing a waltz to perform during the palace scene at the end.

Performance day was a super loooong day. We were there from 1pm -10pm with rehearsals. We had a lot of waiting time, which can be pretty painful when you are sitting out back with crying babies and little kids waiting for their turn to go on stage. I am still having nightmares about the back room!

The performance itself went OK. Wasn’t perfect, but I think to the untrained eye most people missed the mistakes Overall it was a lot of fun and the chance to dance in front of others was a totally other experienced than compared to the studio. I was a bit nervous, but it wasn’t as bad as I imagined it would be. It was also a lot of fun dressing up and doing the make up as well!

So I am happy to have one performance beneath my belt! Here are some photos:

Ok so I made a decision to work on my fitness driven partially to try to lose the weight I gained over my honeymoon and also by the realization that I can’t even finish a full set of glissades across the room before almost dying from a mini heart attack in my last trip across the room. I’ve been really good this week, I’ve been at the gym 5 times this week which is a total mile stone for me considering I am such a lazy bum when it comes to working out.

I’m also trying to keep my diet pretty clean with a high fibre diet and cut back on the sweets. Somewhat successful there. I love sweet food I have had a cookie every day and Friday (today) I let myself have whatever I want. Fridays are happy Fridays

Let’s see if I can keep this up. I’m hoping to see my stamina increase in ballet class and hopefully I will be able to complete a full set of glissades without gasping for breath and doing crazy flapping legs on the last set.

The whole left side of my body seems to be pretty tight and tense. I am not sure why, she suspects it might be an accident I have had previously as it feels old (the ligaments are thick over time from rubbing against the tight muscles). We are now working upwards with parts of my back and arms which show signs of bad posture and tight muscles. She has been very helpful in giving my advice on posture and hip placement in my ballet so that I am using the correct muscles to prevent injury. She also recommended me to use the Acuball.

Now, these little babies are my new best friend. I use them to loosen up my tight muscles – for me mainly my hip and shoulder areas, and after about 30mins I am feeling a lot looser and those painful areas are relieved. Its also helped my feet flexibility. I use the small one on my feet, especially my left foot as it is very straight and can’t seem to point it very well. After I have spent some time stepping on the ball it opens up the muscles I can see the curve in my feet improve, pretty nifty if I do say so myself. I was so impressed the first time I did it.

The balls aren’t very cheap for what it is, a knobbly ball.. they cost me a good $250HKD (about $31USD) but at least they do what they say they do. I know other dancers who use tennis balls, or laundry balls to loosen up the muscles which seem to work just as well (and a lot cheaper) so that would be another option as well.

Here are some before (left photo) and after (right photo) shots from using the small acuball:

The before shot is a little at an angle than the after shot but you can see it especially where the toe knuckles bend over that they are sitting down lower than my ankle than before – well in my case inline with my ankle, rather than slightly above it. Darn these straight feet! My point also looks stronger and it feels stronger too! So there you have it

On the upside, I am feeling my turnout very slightly improve and I am I no longer getting as bad sciatica in my knee/calf area as before. Plus I am getting sorted out some hidden problems I didn’t realize and have lived with for a long time, such as unleveled hips, an unmobile sacroiliac joint (maybe from a car accident eons ago) and very tight hamstring muscle that I am guessing is from overstretching and injuring it (thus, making other muscles around it spasm and overwork.)

Physio had told me to take a week off ballet to rest the muscles, which was a bit sad, but was timely as I had a bit to do at work. I also realized I eat a lot more when I am not dancing. Must be out of boredom or something.. the other night I polished off half a large block of rocky road (mmmMMmm) and was about to start digging into a bag of cookies, till Mr. Cat snatched them from my hands! Oh wells.. I’m blaming the cold weather.

I’m back this week to classes (yays!) and I have worked up to 5 classes a week, doing grade 4, grade 5 and starting intermediate foundation (mondays my first day.. see how it goes..), just got to take it easy on the stretching apparently.

Can’t wait to get back into it!

I told her what was the problem with my heels and my knee and then went on to tell her how I find it hard to turn out my left leg. She immediately asked me to tendu and she saw how my left leg the movement is really limited.

She did a variety of tests measuring my hip and leg lengths and also manipulated the movement in my hip sockets. She asked me to lay on my front as she pressed down on different muscles around my hips and I noticed how my left side muscles were really tight and sore compared to the right. Then she gave me the verdict: the left side of my pelvis is higher than my right side and it is leaning more forward than the right side.

She asked me if I had any falls or accidents, but the only thing I remember is being in a car accident when I was 16.. a very long time ago, but something like this would of been caused by a fall of some sort. She said that since my pelvis is tilted forward it blocks the turn out of the leg which is why I have been noticing the problem.

She was like a miracle worker. She did some massage on the really tight muscles, boy did it hurt!! But afterwards, wow, I noticed immediately that the movement had increased in my turn out! Still not perfect, but improvement none the less!

I have my next appointment next week to see how long the treatment will last, but she said that it is a fixable condition. Yay!

I have been wondering for a while about this bad left leg turnout, I know it can turn out more because my teacher can manipulate it manually to point in the right direction, but on my own it doesn’t seem to want to listen. At first I thought I just had weaker muscles, but then one day during an attitude stretch at the barre I noticed my hamstring was really pulling and making a clicking/flicking noise as I tried to lean down onto it. It was really uncomfortable!

So I’ve been trying to stretch it out a bit on the barre, and I am noticing I can turn that leg out more by the end of the class than at the start. So for some reason its just a really tight muscle. I’m looking forward to getting some advice and stretches to help this problem tomorrow. Lets see how it goes!

I will be performing in our February ballet production of Aladdin! So excited! Its been about a month of uncertainty as I was actually supposed to go on a conference for work on that date, but as it turns out they found a replacement for me so, Yay!

So this year the production is Aladdin and the other adult dancers and I will be ‘guests’ in the royal palace scene and we do a waltz. We have learnt a few of the sequences already and its quite elegant with lace fans and floaty dresses!

This is like one of my ballet goals to perform, so I am so excited my teacher thinks I can do it and to be a part of the production. Uber excited!!

And what I want to know is, why does it seem like I am the only one sweating? While I am breaking out in beads of sweat, pit marks on my strawberry pink leotard, those girls don’t break out in a inch of sweat – those lucky prepubescent girls. Wait till puberty hits.

I can tell you its just as freaky for me as it is for them, but I love dancing so much I am willing to put my ego aside for an hour or two. It is a very humbling experience to have an 11 year old show you how to do the steps, and especially when I still get the steps mixed up.

Today I had a 2 hour class, grade 4 then grade 5. It was a lot of fun, and I felt that doing the grade 4 class filled in a lot of technical gaps I was having in grade 5. The grade 5 girls are pretty used to me being there now I think. They still don’t talk to me, much preferring to giggle amongst themselves but at least they don’t act like I have some B.O. problem by standing as far away from me at the barre as possible (like the grade 4s)!

Other than that, I find that being in class I don’t really have time to think much about the dynamics of it. I spend so much time trying to concentrate and remember the steps that sometimes I forget I am even in a class of little people. My teacher also gives me heaps of corrections, and doesn’t just focus on the small ones who may be able to go professional, which is fantastic.

I have to say though, those little girls still kick my butt every time.

This week I just had my 20th ballet class.. only 20?! Previous to ballet I was not really doing any exercise. Occasionally I would go to the gym and do the treadmill.

So from sitting at my desk job to going to ballet classes, heres an update on my progress..

1. Strength.. I definitely feel like I have a stronger body. Even walking up flights of stairs at work don’t seem as painful as it used to be. I am also noticing a tiny tiny bit of muscle tone on my stomach.. meaning in some light I can see a glimmering of a 6 pack. Only if the lighting is right though.
2. Posture… definitely feel my posture has improved.. standing straighter in general and I have had little back pain/cramps from hunching over my desk at work. Must be a combination of better posture and stronger muscles.
3. Feet… I think my pointed feet arch a bit more and are a bit more stronger. I noticed this especially after doing the theraband exercises for a while too. Still a pretty straight foot though.
4. Flexibility .. the most significant improvement! Not quite all the way down in my splits, but lower than before. Straddle is about 145 degrees, but again wider than before. I can bend over and palm the floor, which when I started I could just touch the floor.
5. Turnout has increased by.. perhaps a few degrees. I haven’t really been diligent in doing froggy or butterfly pose, but I guess just using my turnout has helped increase it ever so slightly. My turnout is still pretty terrible though.. I am always getting told to turnout more and my left leg is especially bad at this.
6. Balance… I have good days and bad days on this.. but definitely from the first day there has been some improvement. On days I am pretty tired I find it so hard to balance and I am tipping all over the place, other days I can do a strong revelé balance. I think again using the theraband  on my feet has strengthened for demipoint which has helped with the balancing. Still struggling with transferring weight from one leg to the other especially in the center.
7. Memory… still pretty bad. I think my bad memory is the bane of my ballet classes. I find it so soo hard to remember all the steps in class, I really have to do it at least 5 times before I can get it somewhat correct. The good thing about RAD though, is the exercises are set so I am noticing we do a lot of the same center work, which is great for me because I can practice it at home and the repetition and familiarity of the steps really helps. It means sometimes I can focus on actually doing the steps correctly rather than kinda just marking the steps & trying to keep up with the music.
8. Pirouettes .. still struggle with this one, but every now and then (when the blue moons align) I can do a clean one.. which is a ton better than not being able to do one at all. Sometimes I still trip over my legs though if I fling myself too hard. It is quite a sight to behold.
9. Weight… uhm, I think I might of gained some weight.. well it is hard to say, I gained some weight after I got married, lost a little and then I started ballet it went back up again.. I am not quite sure yet if its because of muscle gain or if its my diet…

And thats one of the things I worry about. Teacher tells me that I am pretty strong and that perhaps next year I can be in the performance. Thats right, she said the P word. The P word is my goal for ballet, which is awesome she thinks I can do it, but with my memory thing and all…? What if I draw a total blank on stage? Argh!!

The thought kinda brings back nightmares of the time when I was in high school. I had been learning the flute and  two classmates and I were going to play ‘O little town of Bethlehem’ in our school chapel. As we stood to play, I lifted the windpipe to my mouth and…. nothing came out. I blanked. The conductor stared at me, motioning me to play and I just pretended to play the whole song. Like just pressing the buttons, click, click, click, but not blowing. It was so embarrassing. The conductor didn’t even bother to ask me what happened which made it even worse. That was the last time I played the flute.

And thats my worst fear for performing is drawing a mental blank or hesitating. It has happened to me on several occasions, and knowing I do this a bit in ballet class makes me wonder if I will ever be able to perform confidently.

I’m praying that practice will make perfect. Now if I can figure out some good ways to improve my recollection skills in class…