Summer Classes, Week Three

Last night was the best baby class we’ve had so far.

There were seven of them, mostly younger, and they seemed to soak up every single move and direction. It was impressive. It’s only been two full weeks and I’m already seeing improvement in them. They’re grasping the concepts and trying hard.

Of course, towards the end, they start getting atsy. And there are the few that have a hard time focusing, but even they were doing better than usual.
Having Abarrane has proved vital, once again, helping me keep the wild ones in line and helping with crying little ones. This would be a completely different story if she wasn’t there with me.

I tried breaking in my shoes before class, which made my feet really angry. I haven’t done pointe since recital, largely to help give my right Achilles some rest, and my feet protested. It seemed that everything was harder–the end of the shank dug into my heel, the box seemed to pound my toes, the top of the box was hard even after stepping on it repetitively, and trying to balance put such pressure on my toes like I’d never felt before. I tried to pay careful attention to the details of where I was feeling pain so I can ask about it when I try on pointe shoes the next time. (Hopefully this summer.) If it’s normal, I need to learn to just push through. If it’s not, I need to find a solution. Why are my feet so difficult to find shoes for?

We had two new girls in class yesterday (Shoutout.) It was their very first ballet class, sort of as a bucket list, always wanted to so why not now sort of thing. I’m not gonna lie, I was impressed with how well they followed along. It was all completely new to them and they dove right in and actually did really well. Had they not told me it was their first class, I wouldn’t have guessed it. Plus they took direction really well. Poor things got shoved so much information at once and just soaked it up and went with it. My friend Sara and I told them about ballet apps and dictionaries and YouTube channels that helped us (ABT’s online dictionary, the app Ballet Lite, and the YouTube channel Ballerinas By Night, specifically.) The dictionary has a few videos to show you what the word is, and the YouTube channel is specific to the adult dancer.
They seemed to really like class, which made me really happy. I was so afraid I was getting too excited and would implement false expectations and then they’d hate class, haha! But they really did great and said they’d be back, so I really hope they do come back!

Overall, it was a good class day. I need to work on my ankle strength while still being aware of my Achilles. I wish I had more time to dedicate solely to learning and improving and researching, but that’s okay. I’m grateful to be where I am.