Everything hurts...
...at least it did last week when I went to ballet. I've been out for 2 and a half years and going back after such a long time isn't easy.
Contrary to my expectations, however, I did rather well on my first day back. True, everything was out of place and even standing properly with feet turned out seemed unnatural. But I was not out of my breath (as I was last year when I went back for two lessons then almost decided on quitting entirely) though admittedly, I was sweating almost to the point of indecency. The enchainments (a proper word for a dancing/ballet combination) were rather more complicated than what I was used to, with lots of turns at the barre, but that is good, because it will motivate me to improve and advance even further once I've got used to the posture and control over my legs (again). And it will, hopefully, enable me to finally master the tricky art of controlled pirouettes. It is not the turning, that I find difficult, rather it is the stopping and coming out of a turn that is wretched. (Also, the en dehors pirouettes with left supporting leg are driving me mad, because I start hopping around - to try to regain my balance - instead of turning. I would assume it is hillarious to watch, but really difficult to stop doing it, especially as the alternative would be to fall.)
Still, there is ample space for improvement. Firstly, the posture nedds to become second nature again; some more aplomb wouldn't hurt, either. Then I will need to work on my extensions, which were once beautiful and high, but now getting the leg up seems to be rather more difficult than I remember it to be and the extensions are not quite as high; if I manage to bring the leg as high I throw myself off balance and then end up messing the combination entirely.
I need to constantly remind myself to pull out of the legs. When I tire (and that is amazingly quickly) I end up sitting into my hips and then rond de jambes en dedans are a nightmare, especially if you want to maintain the right accent in the movement. Because of this the centre combinations are a nightmare. I still do not have the strength (or I might be slacking off, depending on your view of the situation) to complete a centre combination with control over my body. The moment I'm away from the barre (amazing, actually, just how much you can cheat at the barre!) and there is a en l'air combination, I'm as lost as (probably) you are reading this post.
Anyway, the point is to remain hopeful and maintain a positive approach. And then perhaps some day I will be able to write a post about ballet with less French in it.
P.S. Here and here are some nice examples of ballet combinations and a dictionary.
6 Comments:
I would like to add ... but add to what? There is yet nothing here to add to, so maybe start, yes start ... I would like to open these comments with my association.
First I put everything that one can do under the term of knowledge, - whether one: implementing an algorithm in some computer language, making bread, working out on a math assignment, stretching his neck, or dancing ballet. This must also be understood on multiple levels: remembering the syntax of the computer language doesn't help you if you don't understand the algorithm; knowing the recipe while not handling the oven right may not result in a bread well baked; remembering the math formulae but having got rusty in arithmetic won't get you anywhere; remembering the stretches but being out of touch with yourself may result in a harmful stretch; and something along the lines of your post concerning dancing ballet.
I see knowledge as a complex phenomena, a grand interplay of practice and theory.
Then I learnt this sad truth: Slowly mastered, but quickly lost.
That opens a number of questions for me, but for example, I think it is worth to master back a lost, once beloved knowledge. Even though that would mean a lot more work than at the first time. It is also romantic.
I don't agree... it will take time, but not more time than it did the first time. (If I keep going for six more years I'll be much more advanced than I was before I quit.) I think I'll come into the usual swing of things before many months have passed.
All knowledge also isn't necessarily the combination of practice and theory. I've had very little practice in biochemistry, yet I know tons of theory and would still call my knowledge solid.
Hmm, may my reasoning about more work be true or false, mastering back that beloved thing holds even more now ... But didn't you also thought of the harder part, namely when one is discovering some beautiful thing anew, everything is simpler because of the awe of the new, and when he is re-discovering it, it can get dull and it can stop him down a bit.
Well, isn't this just a bit too deep philosophy for me, but I believe it can be easily resolved, by trying it out of course. The luck is on the side of the brave, and so on.
And so on.
I can't speak for everyone, of course, but ballet is such an integral part of me that I could never find it boring. I suppose if I was injured and dancing became very painful, then this could change. But with things I really like doing (like reading) I cannot imagine going back and not finding it (at least) as much fun as it was when I left it.
Fairly put
and cute.
Nice to read you're 'back in business' again .)
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