Returning to Relevé

At the beginning of June, I traveled to Salt Lake City for the  artÉmotion Adult Ballet Summer Intensive , and it was THE BEST THING EVER. The classes were amazing, the teachers were amazing, the other dancers were amazing...I could go on and on. Plus Salt Lake City had some pretty amazing weather (sunny and hot all week, which I love). To sum up (I'll go into greater detail below), I HIGHLY recommend it and would do it again. In a heartbeat. With exclamation points!!  Side note: my ankle did fine, and I wasn't nearly as sore as I expected. More details on the program below for those that are curious.

Good News: I'm still taking dance class. Bad News: As suspected, I've had to cut back on classes. I was originally attempting to take three ballet classes and one tap class but apparently this was TOO MUCH for the ankle to deal with (grumble), so I've had to cut back to just two ballet classes for the time being. I'm still getting tight in my peroneals/calf, and the PT also thinks that I still have some scar tissue from surgery to work out, but I feel like we're finally making a little progress again, though it was very much "two steps forward, one step back," for a bit. Definitely feel like I had to rewind and start over, but at least I'm still dancing. My PT has been working closely with the artistic director of another ballet school in town regarding dance medicine and injury prevention, and she suggested I try taking class with that AD because she would be able to really keep an eye on my shenanigans. I met with the AD yesterday, and it was ...

It's funny how often I get frustrated with something, come and complain/vent about it on this blog (which is its own sort of therapy), and then a day or two later the universe is like, "Girl, chill. Have some encouragement." We shared class with the kiddos again the other day, and when we do center together we split into groups of "kids" and "adults." The teacher gives each group a different combo, they perform it, and then we switch places. We had switched so that it was the adults turn, and the teacher said to the little ones, "When you're waiting your turn, watch Miss Glorie [me]. Watch her upper body--she moves exactly the way a classical dancer is supposed to move. I never have to correct her." I was humbled, and flabbergasted, and thanked her profusely for such a compliment. She danced with BOLSHOI, you guys. Handpicked from when she was young. I don't think I could receive a higher compliment, really. (I still like correcti...

Does anyone else LOVE corrections? Well, it turns out that I really do. I've been getting increasingly frustrated over the last couple of months because the current teacher of the advanced class, while complimentary of my dancing, does not give me corrections (and Lord knows I'm not perfect). She'll sometimes give other adults corrections, but mostly she leaves us alone and concentrates her efforts on the teens/kids. Which makes a certain level of sense. I mean...she can't train any of us adults towards a goal like YAGP, or for auditioning to be in a professional ballet company. But that doesn't mean we don't want to be better dancers. In addition, she's been obsessed with choreographing a piece for the summer show so we haven't been doing much center work. We've also been sharing the class with kids, because attendance has been sparse. Barre and anything we do in center is fairly simple. Personally, I like having something to focus on, somethi...

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...

Our pointe teacher is leaving; today is her last day. I am super bummed because she is amazing and fabulous. Even though I was often the lone adult dancing with the teens, she always made sure to treat me the same--give me corrections, compliments, encouragement. She was amazing and I'm sad she's leaving us. She was both really technical (which I like), and lots of fun (the class has several inside jokes now). That's been one of the things I've noticed about my school, and I'm not sure how common it is elsewhere, but it really does seem like teachers come and go fairly often. I wonder if its common in the dance world? I guess its a symptom of dance teachers also having other jobs/lives, so I can't imagine its completely uncommon. Just a total bummer when one of your favorites has to leave.