The Last Hump Day

(I got my letter from CCDC yesterday.  I forgot to mention it.  Thank you so much!  It meant a lot.)

Today started out with an early technique class with Mr. Lyons.  It was also the first day that parents and friends were allowed to observe.  Class went fairly well.  I got a correction on my usage of my upper body; he wanted less movement since if we were to do that specific exercise quicker, I wouldn’t have time for it.  Aother correction I got during class is to keep my body further forward and above my hips.  I like how we get corrections in his classes.

After technique class, we had Forsythe class.  Today we worked on keeping one position and then moving around it and displacing it.  We also worked with inverting and ‘re-creating’ certain ballet movements and postions.  Our last exercise for today’s class involved attempting to do ballet behind ourselves.  This included keeping our arms in classical ballet positions behind our backs.

Our last class today was batterie/variations with Mr. Maynard.  We did the variation from Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux (I think).  I’m pretty sure that I liked it.  For the most part, it’s fun.  The most difficult portion of the variation is the very end which has three double tours and a pirrouette.  I’m actually getting to the point where I’m not really sad/angry/annoyed that there are so many tours in variations.  I’m getting much more comfortable with them.  I have no idea how mine look, but I’m happy that I feel better about them.

After classes finished, we had a ‘Meet the Artist’ seminar with Sarah Van Patten and Ruben Martin.  They seemed fairly interesting.  Most noteworthy was how Van Patten danced with the Royal Danish Ballet for a few years… and later at age 17 became a soloist with San Francisco Ballet.  They showed a few videos that were okay.  They included portions of Giselle and Fancy Free among others.

I am currently learning how to solve a Rubik’s Cube.  Go me!