Today in class we had a different instructor– and he did something interesting. At the beginning of class, we spent 20 minutes doing some stretching and floor barre that felt really nice. What really struck me about it though was the music. For once it wasn’t boring ballet piano music (because my goodness am I tired of THAT!). It was a variety of orchestral, asian-influenced music along with some slower songs that were extremely slow, emotional, but powerful. There was something about it that really gave me that bit of… whatever I needed. Even though we returned to ballet piano music afterward, I still felt more energized than normal.

How about you? Does the music used in class affect you strongly? What is your favorite type of music to hear in ballet class?

That looks so easy, right? RIGHT? I don’t get it. Assemblés took forever to master (and I use that term loosely). Now my brain is like, “Um, you said an assemblé, right? Right? That’s what you SAID, right– cuz I can’t do this other thing. It’s DIFFERENT and backward and WHAT IS THIS I DON’T EVEN…” when I do brisés .

In the meantime, since my post on extension, I’ve totally been stretching everyday, and I’m starting to make some flexibility progress. I’m pretty flexible as it is, but I wanted to work on it some more. I’ve also been doing my extension exercises and they’ve been… going. That progress is going to be quite slow, I can already tell.

A delightful pastel piece by “Barbymae” on Wet Canvas.

So last week I couldn’t go to class because of scheduling issues with Neighborina. We went this morning, and let me tell you– it was one of my worst classes in a long time. I was just straight up TIRED. My body was not responding the way I wanted it to. All of my strength was gone, my legs were heavier than usual, and even though the combinations were moderately challenging, my body just glared at me and said, “Whatever. I’m not doing this! Not even the easy stuff!” I couldn’t keep track of the combinations, and all of my usual strength and pep was completely absent. I just sweated and winced and struggled. I doubt anyone in that room would have believed that I’ve been dancing for a long as I have. What the hay?!

I figure it’s partly to do with missing a week of class. I think it’s also because overall my lifestyle has changed since I’ve moved here to Burbank. I’m not walking everywhere all the time, and I have access to all sorts of junk food that I didn’t used to. I’ve started feeling icky (um, and gaining weight too). I’ve been consumed with finishing my graduate thesis, and not doing things the way I usually do them. Graduate school– ruining lives since the dawn of time!

I can’t do too much about it until my thesis is over (May 7th! D-Day approaches!!), but in the meantime I’ve decided that this is no good and I need to put the brakes on my habits. I’ve also got a new 1.6 mile walking track picked out, and I’m gonna start doing it every day because walking was my main source of fitness in San Francisco. I gotta get my strength back! Encouraging comments always appreciated!

I was watching videos on Youtube (because you know how that goes– one cute cat video turns into a five hour marathon…), and Youtube suggested this video for me. Whoa. Just whoa. This dancer, Isabelle Ciaravola, is gorgeous and graceful. The video of her dancing is amazing, but the thing that grabbed my attention the most was her arches! Those feet point at what looks like 90 degrees! Do you SEE those roll throughs to relevé? She must have the softest shanks and the strongest feet in the world. They articulate as if they have about… 5 more joints in them than the rest of us.

My own feet point acceptably straight– my left moreso than my right. I can get over my box en pointe almost consistently, while my right side is stubborn. I definitely don’t have the desired “banana feet.” How far do YOUR feet point?

The world’s first ballet inspired by tweets from the web is now also viewable on the web! The Diablo Ballet has put their delightful dance “Flight of the Dodo” on Youtube for all the world to see. Two of my tweet suggestions were chosen, and I flew up to San Francisco to see the premiere live. I hope that everyone else enjoys it as much as I did!

If you’re interested, the video of the entire evening’s repetoire is out, too! It includes the Q&A at the end, and I’m part of it! I show up right around the 1 hour mark, where I tell them my thoughts on how the web ballet turned out. It’s so embarrassing to see myself on video!

This girl ain’t me. I can hardly hit 90 degrees on a good day.

It doesn’t help when the instructor points at you and says, “At least 90 degrees, please.” I winced and smiled apologetically, and then my leg twitched in an attempt to go higher. I was à la seconde, and my leg just wasn’t getting above 50 degrees. “Higher!” she requests, and my leg barks back “Oh no, really, I couldn’t. No I mean really. I couldn’t.” I apologized for my leg’s bad manners, of course.

I know that extension is a tricky beast. It uses your quads and your turnout muscles– pushing your leg into the air by rotating it from underneath is not really an easy thing to understand, much less actually do. The instructor came over and held my leg, poking at my hip and tell me to relax my hip joint and push from underneath. I did it, she smiles, and then lets go of my leg, expecting it to magically stay in place. Aaaaaaaand of course my leg just slowly sinks right back down to where it was, giving her the side-eye like no one’s business. (Why does my leg have eyes? And for that matter, why is it talking? Just roll with me here.) I should get leg warmers with this face printed on them: ಠ_ಠ

It’s like I was born with cement blocks tied to my feet. LIFTliftliftliftliftandnowsinkingsinkingsinking… fail. Maybe it’s time to make a concerted effort to improve my extension instead of just hiding in the back of the room and quietly reprimanding my 300 lbs appendages for not doing what I ask them to. Hm!

Hooray! I finally have a new leotard

The first studio that I tried is sorta close to me, but there weren’t any bus lines going directly there. That means I’d have to bum a ride from someone each time or walk about 40 minutes, and either option would get old quickly. The studio itself was AWESOME– super luxurious dressing rooms, great dance floors, the price was right, and they had a friendly staff. The lockers were free to use, and they had showers, hair dryers, moisturizer, the WORKS. The ballet instructor wasn’t someone that I jived with, though. She was a delicate, delightful dancer. However, she seemed more interested in showing off her “I still got it!” skills than actually teaching her students. If we didn’t understand something, she didn’t really break it down or explain the technique behind it. Also the label of “Beginner” class was completely incorrect. She had long, complicated combinations that no truly beginner level dancer could handle. I asked her about it after class, and she told me that all of her classes are pretty much the same level. Hu-what? How does that even work? She was the only instructor available too, so I decided that perhaps I’d try out some other places.

The next place I wanted to try was really exciting because it was within walking distance from my house. It was a Russian style school (and I’ve mostly studied ABT style), but I didn’t want to let that deter me since I already had limited choices. I walked in to get more information, and was immediately put off. The front desk girl was friendly enough, and the sign said they had “adult” classes, but it wasn’t the normal adult type of school I was used to. Drop-in classes were $20 a pop (WHOA), and in order to bring the price down to a slightly more manageable $17, I had to enroll in a weird payment program that included a once-a-week schedule that didn’t allow for makeups if you missed a class. Well that just stinks. Not to mention there was a color-coded leotard dress code (!), and you had to take a placement class to be put into the proper level (!!!!). That translates to: I’d end up in a class with 12 year olds. NO THANK YOU.

Finally, I lucked out. Turns out my new downstairs neighbor used to be a dancer, and was looking into going back to classes. She mentioned a studio that I’d spotted, but was over in North Hollywood, so it was beyond my reach. The price was right, and they have ballet classes at our level every morning. So Neighborina and I went to check it out, and lo and behold– EXACTLY what I was looking for!! I’ve gone about three times now and had two different teachers. The studio floors are a bit icky in some places and the classes are typically crowded, but the vibe is laid back and the instructors are focused on teaching. I also investigated, and there is a bus line that runs directly from my house to the studio, so that’s a nice perk too. I forsee it becoming a problem when I get a job– their ballet classes are only in the morning, and a work schedule would conflict with that. For now, however, it seems to be working just fine!

I was truly spoiled rotten up in San Francisco. I hope to be able to explore more studios in the area once I get a job and therefore a car.

The Diablo Ballet is a wonderful company. They’re small, exceptionally talented, and very friendly. I was amazed at what a big deal they made about me coming up to see the performance. I was greeted enthusiastically and made to feel like an honored guest. I met with their marketing director, Dan Meagher, one of the dancers, Mayo Sugano, and even the choreographer himself, Robert Dekkers. I was also invited to take part in a taped interview for the local news channel– that was definitely not something I was expecting! All in all I felt so involved and appreciated– way to make a girl’s happiness soar!

The ballet itself was absolutely stunning. It was light-hearted, poked fun at itself, and then took a right turn into dark and twisted territory. The idea of being isolated from your species and essentially tortured in the name of science was as heart-wrenching as the movements of the gender-bending “Dodo birds” was funny. To juxtapose the two, and in such a short performance, was jarring in a thought-provoking and constructive way. The costumes were absolutely perfect: little painted mustaches on the “explorers” (the female dancers), and frilly tutus and turquoise scarves on the “birds” (the males). To my boyfriend I said, “Gee, in another life where I am a ballet choreographer, this is just how I would’ve done this piece.”

The other pieces in the set were gorgeous too– “The Blue Boy,” “La Covacha,” and “Pas de deux from Sinuosity” were all fun or gorgeous in their own way. Outside of the “Flight of the Dodo” web ballet, “Sinuosity” was my favorite because I’m a particular fan of pas de deux. It evoked an underwater feel from the dynamic posing and fluid movements– plus was graced with the extreme power and grace of Mayo Sugano, who quickly became one of my favorites.

Overall the entire trip more than exceeded my expectations. To be able to take part in something like this was mind-blowing as an “adult beginner.” Those of us who begin our dance educations later in life are almost never taken seriously, and we never expect to do much performing or choreography work. As an illustrator, I deal with mostly visual arts. Ballet is a way for me to express my creative energy in a physical way, and I take it very seriously as a hobby– but it something that doesn’t get to be expressed terribly often. This was a great chance for me to feel included in something real, and I’m very thankful that the Diablo Ballet reached out and did such an awesome project.

@MangoJMango: The story of the Dodo Bird, birds who can’t fly and became extinct.
@BlondieBallet: Feel of piece: Deliberately ironic.
Susan Weber: Include at least one moment that you hope the audience will find hideously ugly… another evoking awesome beauty… investigate their similarities and differences.
Leslie Udland: Setting: Insane asylum.
Cheyenne Rosenfeld: Initiate movement from shoulder blades.
@JoieArt: Other ideas: The color turquoise.
A hand-written suggestion by 10-year old Mia Fuerte:
“I would love for the dance to be in the safari. The boys will be animals and the girls will be explorers.”

I’m especially fond of the little girl’s written request. I really am enjoying the way that the choreographer, Robert Dekkers, brought the seemingly random suggestions from social media together to form a cohesive idea. Now that takes some skill! Check out the first few days of rehearsal on Youtube:

If you’d like to see the official Diablo Ballet page on the ballet, please click here. Also, my wonderful dance instructor from San Francisco, Carla Escoda of Ballet to the People, wrote a great article on it for the Huffington Post– check it out! I’m very excited to see the performance on Friday!! Thank you, Diablo Ballet, for putting together such a fun event!

*Both Twitter accounts @Blondieballet and @JoieArt are mine– one is my main personal account and one is just for ballet. I would’ve sent all my suggestions through my ballet Twitter, but had a TweetDeck failure that sent it from both.

This is a pretty cool concept– Diablo Ballet is using the magic of the internet to help craft the world’s first Web Ballet!

The Web Ballet will be the first dance work developed from suggestions made on the internet,
and will premiere this March. You can participate from anywhere and be involved in the creation of art! Here’s how:

The Web Ballet will be based on the choreographic ideas of individuals all around the world, submitted to Diablo Ballet’s Twitter Page (@Diablo Ballet), and peformed on March 1st and 2nd
in the San Francisco Bay Area. Beginning January 8th, people may use the Twitter hash tag #DiabloWebBallet to suggest:

• Emotion of the dancers (happy, sad, etc)
• Mood of the entire work (intense, lighthearted)
• Dance moves (turning, jumping, specific steps)
• Other ideas

Please create a separate tweet for each suggestion – thank you!

Here are my own ideas that I just submitted:

@diabloballet Emotion of dancers: Wistful #DiabloWebBallet

— Blondie (@BlondieBallet) February 7, 2013

@diabloballet Feel of piece: Deliberately ironic #DiabloWebBallet

— Blondie (@BlondieBallet) February 7, 2013

@diabloballet Emotion of dancers: Wistful #DiabloWebBallet

— Blondie (@BlondieBallet) February 7, 2013

You can even help vote on what piece of music to use (check out their Youtube page) If your suggestion is chosen, you might get tickets to see the show, and an autographed photo of the work! For the rest of the details, go check out their page!