Returning to Relevé

"Plié is the first thing you learn and the last thing you master." -Suzanne Farrell This has always been one of my favorite dance quotes, because its so true. Throughout my dance training, teachers have always emphasized how important a good plié is. When I was teaching, I really made an effort to pass that advice on to my own students, though I don't think I really realized how far reaching it is. I'm currently struggling with an uneven plié and its making my life difficult. The flexibility of my right ankle (that'd be the Ankle of Doom ) still needs work. I can't get the same deep plié I can get on the other side. Landing jumps doesn't have the same squishy feel, and in pointe class recently, I struggled doing a simple tendu fondu to sous-sus en pointe (which requires a bit of a spring)--it was such a mess! I felt like I just could NOT push off the floor enough. Not to mention my complete inability to get off the floor for petit allegro. It's b...

Good news, everyone! Despite my complete lack of blogging (merp), I have actually been dancing. I've even performed in my home studio's winter and spring shows! Back in January I did a pointe assessment with my dance PT and managed to pass. She's been having me do relevés in pointe shoes on a reformer (and later at a barre) as part of my PT for awhile now, but it was still surprising to get the official "OK." That being said, I wasn't taking enough classes at the time (we're required to take three technique classes each week to do pointe), so I've been slowly adding to my class load, and only started doing pointe in class this month. The ankle is not 100%--it still gets quite grumpy from time to time, but its definitely better. It's been a very (painfully) slow process for sure. Anyway: the pointe shoe saga continues, more or less. When I started doing pointe as part of PT, I went and got a fitting, and was put into a Capezio Aria. T...

At the end of May I saw my surgeon for my last post-op appointment (following an episode of peroneal tendinitis, because of course). Near the end of the appointment, he told me I could start dialing things back to normal, and that I was good to go (though I would get some pain at the ligament reconstruction site for awhile yet). I forget how it came up, but I remember him mentioning the athletes he works with and how, because I'm a dancer, he has placed me in that category. My response was, "I don't feel like an athlete!" Then, you guys, I got a pep talk. He told me to focus on the things I CAN do, not the things I can't. Everything will come back in time. Even little steps are steps. He reminded me that I'm not just recovering from surgery, I'm also recovering from all the stuff that came BEFORE. When I thanked him for the pep talk at the end of the appointment, he said, "I give a few a day." Ha! He's right, of course. I started ...

Things have been crazy busy, so I've been a blogging slacker. Updates! I started doing my own strength training circuit at home through August, and was pretty good about sticking with it. I did both arm and legs exercises every other day throughout the month and definitely saw and felt some improvement. Now I just have to keep up with it because I've been a slacker so far into September. No surprises there, really. My stupid ankle is bothering me again, so now I'm seeing a PT (who is a former dancer, yay!) To the shock of no one, she told me that I have tight calves. What was surprising was that I have weak calves (for a dancer), and likely some muscle imbalance. We'll be working on that, and also checking my pelvis for any other imbalances. My first homework assignment is to stretch my poor calves every day (especially after class). Good times. The Pointe Shoe Saga also continues, because I dislike the Airess. I have two major problems with them: I can...

I mentioned back in May that my Grishko Novas had started giving me problems because they were twisting (especially on my left foot). I changed my elastics (used something heavier and criss-crossed them) and that helped some, but not completely. My AD thought I might want to try something with a higher wing. So, when I went on a family vacation at the end of May/beginning of June, I did my usual and looked up all the dance shops in the areas I'd be visiting and ended up being fitted at two. First, can I just express my annoyance that, when I called these shops looking for specific shoes, I was informed that yes, they carried them, only to get there and they had ONE pair that was not in my size? That doesn't count as carrying them, people! Capezio Airess Anyway, at the first shop the fitter was REALLY into the new Capezio Airess (in fact, I think the girl before me was trying them on too), and I was subsequently fit into the 1133 (tapered) model. I haven't tried a...

Our summer show was last night, and I finally feel like I can relax. The whole week was stressful, what with fretting over the little ones and getting ready myself (and trying to remember all my choreography). Luckily, things seemed to go pretty well for the bitties.  Me, however? Ugh. I messed up little things in both tap numbers I was in, though both jazz numbers went well. We had two pointe pieces, one more modern in flavor, and one classical (a variation from La Bayad ère). The modern piece went super well, but the classical piece? My strong suit? I totally botched it. There was one pirouette section in particular that I've always had a little trouble with because I don't get my weight forward enough, and last night I lost my balance a bit and had to fake the last turn. Ugh. I also messed up the beginning entrance, and a bit at the end I've never had trouble with before. I'm annoyed with myself because the last few times we did it in rehearsal it was actually go...

Sorry for the radio silence, y'all!  I've been pretty busy and haven't had a proper chance to sit down and blog, which of course means that I have a backlog of things to say (this is a little long). (Also, apologies for my liberal use of gifs.) Teaching Update Because of the whims of fate, I have suddenly found myself teaching three days a week! The teacher of the tiny pre-ballerinas got injured, so the AD took over and had me assist her teaching the class. After only 1-2 classes AD decided I was fine on my own and let me take over--eep! On top of teaching them three days a week (there are 3 different classes--so many precious tiny ballerinas!), I have also had to come up with new dances for each class to do for the spring recital. I have no experience choreographing whatsoever, so that has been a bit of a learning curve. Luckily, this is the 3-5 year olds, so the steps are very simple, and they're cute no matter what they do. Class/Rehearsals As for us "b...

In a weird but wonderful twist of the universe, we had a (former) professional dancer drop into the adult class at my dance school earlier this week. If that wasn't amazing enough, it turns out her new career is as a physical therapist! My AD asked her if she would be willing to look at my foot, and she was gracious enough to give me a little exam before attending class (awesome!) She told me that my symptoms were very similar for having an os trigonum, which can be hard to detect (I told her my podiatrist had checked for that and nothing had shown up on my x-ray, but I guess sometimes they can be super hard to see). All the balancing! Alternatively (and equally as likely) it may be the result of my tight calves in conjunction with my having had previous ankle sprains to that ankle many moons ago. Because of the sprains,  I've lost stability in my ankle and now my peroneal muscles are overcompensating when I do all my balancing/pointe work. Makes sense to me! She ga...

My stupid ankle/foot is bothering me again. It feels very similar to the problem I was having over the summer, so I saw the foot doc again. This time he thinks it might actually be my sural nerve, but I don't really feel like that's it because I don't get any weird tingling or numbness. It's more of an ache/pinching feeling? Sigh. However, because it seems like my calves are forever tight (I had problems with shin splints early on), I asked if tightness in my calf could cause problems in my ankle and he said yes--tight calf muscles can restrict ankle mobility(!) so that's also a big possibility (yay relevé!)  Time to break out all my self massage tools and see if that helps. And maybe one of these fancy calf stretching deals: (They had me use one during my PT recovery for my knee injury a few years ago and it was the best thing ever). In any event, whatever this is seems to be pointe related. I've come to this conclusion because during the ...

As previously reported, I am a right/clockwise turner , so you can imagine my surprise the other day in pointe class when I managed a lovely pirouette to the left, but barely turned at all to the right. I don't...what? I don't even know. My problem on the right is that I just don't seem to GO anywhere--it's like I lose all my momentum. I suspect that I'm springing up onto pointe too much on the right side, but I'll have to ask my teacher about it. SO WEIRD.

I'm trying yet another new pair of pointe shoes, this pair recommended to me by a shoe mistress from a professional ballet company. They're a Freed Wing Block, size 5.0 XX. Wing Blocks have hardcore shanks, and one of my issues with the RPs (according to the shoe mistress) was that they weren't conforming to my arch properly, and were restricting my technique. She recommended that if I wanted to try the Freeds, I should 3/4 the shank, and suggested I practice on some old pairs to work out exactly where it should hit my foot. Cutting shanks is not an easy-peasy chore, let me tell you. I experimented on several different pairs (two different old pairs of Blochs, and the RPs) and it was sort of fascinating how different the shanks were in each pair. The Bloch Heritage shank, cut and beveled Alas, those shanks did not prepare me for the Wing Block shank. While I was able to cut ALL of the aforementioned pairs with a Stanley utility knife, that knife (and my fancy Bok...

So, apparently my search for the perfect pointe shoe ISN'T over . As I mentioned in my last post, I recently got a bruised toenail from the RP Entrada Pros. I've also started getting some cramping along the outside of my foot, under my smaller toes. That can't be good, right? I'm back on the hunt. The next shoe victim looks like it might be a Freed.  Will the Freed suffice? Are my feet too sensitive? Am I too old for this nonsense? (Maybe, possibly, probably). We shall see.

I've been meaning to update y'all on the crazy that is my dance life right now (maybe even with pictures!) but I haven't had much of a chance to sit down, or to take said pictures. Rehearsals are going well, though are exhausting as per usual. Because we're doing a musical, rather than a ballet, a lot of the dances are in character shoes (with a 1.5 inch heel), and that is its own special sort of torture. However, if the title of my post is any indication, that's not what I really came to post about. I am completely and totally frustrated by pointe at the moment. After my original foot problem , I eased back up onto pointe and was starting to do full classes in them (re-conditioning ones feet to pointe shoes is no fun. Especially when one is still sporting a super awesome bruised toenail on one foot). Then, of course, my luck went downhill. Two weeks ago, I started getting some pain in the Achilles area of my OTHER foot. Saw the doc, and it seems to be a diffe...

I don't want to jinx anything, but I think I may have found THE PAIR. While I was in Colorado, I made an appointment to get a proper pointe shoe fitting since my local shop is so lacking.  I had gotten a recommendation for Assemblé Dancewear in Castle Rock, and Noel (one of the owners) had a great reputation for fittings, so I decided to give it a try.  I was super impressed and pleased with my experience!  Noel really knew his stuff, and even taught me some things about pointe shoes I didn't know (and should have, since I've been on pointe for so long! I felt a little ashamed.) The first thing Noel did was to examine my feet thoroughly, testing my flexibility and strength with his hands.  Next, he looked at my old shoes (the Bloch Heritage) and examined the wear patterns on them (he was pleased it was even. Yay me!)  We discussed what padding I was using (way too much, in both our opinions), and problems (my lovely bruised toe nail because of the sinking)...

I'm putting this behind a cut because it will be nice and long, and for those that are just cruising through, you won't have to read a mountain of text!

My body has decided to go on strike.  I've been having some pain/aches around my ankle and heel, but its another thing that comes and goes depending on its mood (I assume).  It's only my right foot, which I had sprained (twice) over 10 years ago, so I originally thought maybe it was just not as strong and needed time to get used to all my dancing and pointe again. It has continued, so I started thinking maybe my never-ending point shoe saga was to blame--and I'm sure isn't helping things. So, since we're on a break from classes (during which I fully intend on just RESTING for once), I made an appointment with a foot/ankle specialist to get it checked out, just to be safe, especially since after break I'm going to that SI. Good news: not my Achilles.  Also not an os trigonum issue (whew).  Bad news: I have some inflammation/tendonitis in my flexor hallucis longus tendon* . (yea, trying saying that fast...or at all). Its the tendon that runs from your ...