I went to a new adult class tonight in a studio I never attended before. It wasn’t bad, there was only 4 of us so I got heaps of corrections, like keeping my leg turned out, or to keep pushing my ankle forward. Made me wonder about my other classes… why did no one else mention this earlier? What else am I doing wrong that I don’t know about??

Anyways, when the class started it was just me and this unfriendly looking girl, who I smiled at and asked her about the attendance numbers of the class. She wasn’t in a talkative mood it seemed. The others were late, so we began, just me and this girl (who turned out to be the best in the class – she wore demi pointes too.. no slippers for her.).

I was quite nervous at first because I was trying to make a good impression (I told the teacher I was grade 5 level so I felt I needed to perform ‘to standard’) and I think because I was nervous to get the steps right as I was messing up my steps a bit. The other thing I noticed was I found it difficult to even remember the steps because I was quite mentally tired from the day  and so I couldn’t concentrate. I couldn’t even balance on my two feet in revelé, when I usually can manage it.

Another strange thing was I was sweating like no tomorrow. Like seriously, beads of sweat all over my back and dripping off my forehead – I don’t remember sweating that much in a ballet class before.. maybe it was too warm or something. Either way, couldn’t concentrate.. couldn’t balance and found it more tiring than usual to jump. It was quite depressing by the end. But I guess we all have days like that. Got to give yourself a break sometimes… I just wish it wasn’t the first class with this new teacher who I knew was assessing what I could manage.

But all in all, the teacher was very helpful and friendly. I like that this class is small so we do get individual attention, and she does correct both verbally and manually. She made me realize I really need to work on my strength to maintain my turn out. At the end of the class I asked her what I could do that would help and she said straddle splits as it would help elongate the inner thigh muscles, so got some homework cut out for me.

Gotta work on that turn out! turn out! turn out!

I admit, much to my defeat, I am no spring chicken anymore.

The other night I remembered one of my ballet teachers mention something during our pliés that we should try to revelé about 90 degrees in our grande pliés in 3rd. That night I went home to try, and as I went down into a grande plié I pushed the arch in my revelé to try get higher. Thats when I felt a shooting pain in my knees. Err.. Maybe I heard her … wrong?

I went to do some research about this forced revelé and in Gretchen Warrens book Classical Ballet Technique in the plié section she specifically says, ‘Do not force the revelé’. Whoops. Maybe she mean just in revelé in general? Darn it, I knew I should of been paying attention!

That was 3 days ago, and my knees are feeling a bit achey since then.. but so far seems to be feeling less weird day by day.

Thats not the only ‘injury’ I have sustained so far in my pursuit of ballet… the other lesson I learnt was not to stretch too much until after I have warmed up adequately. I realized that after over doing the straddle split stretch and then the next day something in my butt started hurting like something bad (where the leg joins the rest of the body). I must of tore a muscle –  it took a good few weeks till it went away.

I’m realising how important it is to look after your body, especially when you are using it a lot more than you are used to. I don’t try to stretch too much before class now (even though all the little girls are pushing their legs in between the wall and the barre poles – ?!?) but after class I try to stay back to do my splits and leg stretches. I am also popping multivitamins and  glucosamine tablets for my joints, so hopefully I will see some improvement in my creaky knees!

So living in Asia means for the average student that any form of study is SERIOUS study. The same none the less goes for ballet schools here as well.

The one (of the 3) I happen to attend is one of the most prestigious in my city. I like to call it the Fancy Pants School of Ballet. I initially started to attend mainly because I was looking for an adult classes near my house and this was one of them. Now I have signed up for Grade 5 RAD there too, which I am very grateful for that they were even willing to accept an adult beginner into their classes (I somehow thought that maybe they wouldn’t… with it being so fancy and all).

Other than the fact the school is well known there are some other characteristics that make it quite fancy that I didn’t notice before when I was in the adult open class. You see, the adult ballet class we are allowed to wear any leotard with a skirt – I have yet to see anyone wear leggings, tshirts or shorts so I am guessing lose baggy clothing is probably not allowed (compared to another school I got to catering mainly for adults where people come in with all sorts of clothing.)

We file into class and for the first 5 mins gas bag with our teacher a bit before she sends us to the barre to start our plies. Shes quite a funny woman and there is a bit of amusing banter between us students and her in class. Student: “you want us to do how many sissones?? GAGH!”

As I learnt from the Fancy Pants student handbook, the graded classes aren’t going to be so ‘laidback’ as I was used to. Firstly we need to wear an official regulation Fancy Pants School of Ballet uniform complete with belt, pink bow in the hair (seriously.), and sew ribbons into my ballet flats (yep no elastics to hold on those babies to my feet.). Also the baby pink wrap jumper is optional on colder days. Delightful.

Secondly, we as Fancy Pants students are required to curtsy to all staff on sight and upon leaving. Er, …does that include the janitors? How about the receptionist, do I have to curtsy at her too? I guess I am going to find out.  Thirdly, students are required to be well behaved at all times, and any student who shows poor attitude, bad conduct or poor attendance may be dismissed or suspended from the school. Yikes, I better watch myself.

I can understand how they are trying to have structure, nurture discipline and behavior, especially in kids –  but it does kinda weird me out a bit being the only adult (at least twice their age) in a mostly preteen class. Well, I guess on the bright side the uniform will help me fit in a bit better in class, other than I have boobs they don’t.

I’m going to try and keep my adult classes in my schedule so I still feel somewhat normal and adult like. Oh, the things I put myself through!

I haven’t felt butterflies in my stomach like I did this morning in a long time. The whole endeavor itself wasn’t as bad as I thought. I walked in and tried to be nonchalant about it (like, I do this all the time.) with the receptionist. “oh so I am here for a  grade 5 trial.. which studio is it?”

I went about 30 mins early so I could start stretching. The nerves started to come back when I saw the 11-14 year olds waiting for the same class and stretching their legs into a full straddle split in between the barre and the wall. It didn’t help either with them staring at me mainly because I looked older and I was not wearing a uniform leotard.. I think they thought I was a trained returning ballet dancer and they were waiting for me to WOW them with my awesome technique. They soon realized in class how non existent that was! I was thankful when class started and we filed in so I didn’t have to sit there awkwardly for another moment among 20 prepubescent girls.

The teacher was a firm lipped but friendly heavily pregnant woman. All the girls came in and lay on their fronts and did the frog while I stood there awkwardly not sure if I should plant myself on the floor as well or not. I chose not. The receptionist came in and said something to the teacher and pointed at me. I sheepishly waved and then with that I lopped onto the floor with the little ones in froggy pose.

She couldn’t show us the steps so she had a little boy in the class, who I think was about 11 y.o.  to show us the steps. Its quite humbling having an 11 year old show you how to do something and you still can’t do it right. The barre wasn’t too bad, I knew all the steps and I was able to follow along without having to follow the student infront of me too much. Actually halfway through the barre I was feeling pretty confidant.  Easy stuff.

We then moved to center and thats when I started feeling a little less confidant. Tendus, tourné and balancé en croix .. ok got it after a few tries. Jumps with turns.. hmm almost. Feet getting mixed up. Balancé across the room… totally lost. Actually quite embarrassingly lost. I basically just walked/skipped sheepishly trailing behind the 4 girls who could do it. Some of those kids looked quite mind blown how someone could not know how to do it. Geez.

The class finally ended and we all lined up to collect our handbooks. I awaited my verdict.. did I get in? Come on I wanted to know! Actually, I wasn’t expecting to find out till I saw my open ballet class teacher the following week, but as it came up to me I thanked her and she said to me “I think I will keep you in grade 5 but you have a lot of work to do, grade 4 may be a bit too easy but thats where you learn balancé – but I trust you being an adult you will practice in your own time.” Yes ma’am!! ……But I was trying to keep my cool so I just said, “ok, thanks for your time.”

I left the studio and burst into a YAY!!!

Yup, grade 5 baby!

I AM SO EXCITED!!

I am doing my grade 5 trial class on Sunday! After doing a adult open class for a few months I was wondering what level I would be in in the RAD syllabus, but apparently my teacher thinks I could go for grade 5. The fact that she thinks I am even capable of that, that in itself is exciting!

Ok, so I may not get into grade 5 if I try it and the teacher in that class thinks I am struggling in it, but at least she will recommend the grade level (perhaps grade 4?) I would be more suited in. Which is fine by me, I just want to be able to do the graded classes and go to more than 1 classs a week in the same school. (I am currently attending more than 1 school).

Well lets see how it goes on Sunday – I hope I can get in!!

After a 2 year hiatus from ballet, I started classes again and I feel like I am going to burst from the seams from utter pure joy. Half of the time I am flailing around like a drunken sailor with 2 left feet … its hard for my 29 year old brain to pick up the steps quickly, but I love it so much I don’t care! I tell myself I will get better eventually … hey, we all have to start somewhere right?