Ballet, Ballet, Ballet…

Had the second ballet class of term this morning, and although I was slightly more familiar with being at the bar again, I know I have a lot of work to do.

We seemed to spend more time at the bar today than last week, I was actually pleased as I really enjoy working at the bar and can really feel my body working. After last week’s lesson I had really sore feet and ankles the next day and I think tomorrow they’ll be even worse. I have to keep working them just as hard to strengthen them again. As I am rather inexperienced with ballet I find it really difficult to pick up the more advanced exorcizes quickly, to help me with this I am going to go over the bar work in my spare time and before and after lessons. The more I practice, the more familiar I will be with the movements and can concentrate on myself rather than looking around to check if I have the steps right.

In the images above at the bar I really need to think about keeping my hips and shoulders square, my torso is on top of my legs and not spiraling at all. Being aware of my turnout from the backs of my thighs so I don't sink into my legs causing my hips to go off from square. My focus is key in these images and I must remember that my head facing gives the idea of facing out rather than twisting my torso and my right shoulder coming back.

As we came away from the bar and we worked on our pirouettes, adagio and jumps I felt like I was still working really hard, using my breath and focus to really get into the movement. When we moved on to travelling sequences though, I got very frustrated with myself. I know that I have done all of the steps before, but to perform them in sequence I become very confused. Glissade, sissonne, assembles…to do these separately and to explain I’d feel quite confident I would get them write and perform them well. In class though when we are asked to travel across the room my coordination is shot and I become really confused. As I try to work the pattern out I can become even more frustrated, stumble and not perform full out. To better approach the last part of the class I need to attack the movement as I would in any other class, despite the fear I’m going to do it wrong. To do the steps wrong with conviction is better than holding back and getting the steps right. The only way I am going to familiarize myself with them is to keep practicing!