Sore. Very sore. It's from all of the intense stuff I've been doing. Surprisingly most of it is in my arms and upper back. And lower back. And hip flexors. And lowest part of the hamstring. Haha. Yeah, I'm sore. And tired - getting up 2 mornings in a row at 5 and 5:30AM, respectively, isn't the greatest for keeping clarity of mind. Mine felt like mush most of the day. However, I am willing to wake up to be driven early into the Path if I can, because taking the bus and everything else into the city could take a long time - I'm not exactly sure how long, but probably about an hour and a half or slightly more. Either way, I have to get up early!
Anyway, other than battling brain turning to mush (ugg!), my day was good. Ms. Kirkland gave us a class this morning - it's called Core Dynamics and we have it every morning. It focuses on alignment, correct positioning, strength, control, flexibility - all of the required components. It's definitely tough but good. Later we had a Rep class reviewing what we had learned for Paquita - both corps and soloist roles. The instructor had just finished teaching us the Mazurka portion when GK and Misha (her husband) came in. We all had to laugh as the teacher explained that we JUST all learned the very difficult choreography - basically, don't expect too much! They said that it was okay and that they'd be doing the observing thing a lot. GK couldn't resist tweaking some things and soon we found ourselves relearning the correct way of timing the steps to the music. (She's so light on her feet!) It is wonderful that she gives her time to stop by and demonstrate and generally correct something - both she and Misha are involved in everything - and the resulting atmosphere is a cohesive and comfortable (and productive) one.
And we had a dance history class - different from the ones that I've had. We started with Baroque (period) court dancing from a teacher who is an instructor of the style at the Julliard school's dance division. Everything he teachers he told us comes from original sources that he has researched - he doesn't make it up. He told us some interesting factoids of the 18th century and dance. Dance was extremely important - dances were published every year and your dancemaster would teach it to you. Classes were private and had an accompanying musician. Unlike a Hollywood movie portrayal, for example, when there were public dances there would be only one couple at a time - and everyone would watch. Therefore, it was really important to know your dancing in the day of court dance! (He told a story of a man who unsuccessfully danced at a court dance - it was recorded that he wasn't physically together, off the music, etc. He apologized and said he would come back the next day better, but nothing changed the next day, and he wasn't seen again at the event.) So it was very interesting to broaden horizons today in this class and try something similar to, and yet very different from ballet.
Not much else, I suppose... oh yes, the ballet teacher's purse was indeed stolen, and she has to spend two hours of her day tomorrow getting her drivers' license - when she should be teaching. Isn't it terrible?! "The wages of sin, Watson - the wages of sin!" - Sherlock Holmes
Well, time to go make sure my bag is ready for tomorrow, that I have my lunch, and that I can be fairly early to bed for the long day ahead. I find it amazing how my days go so fast. I am awakened by an alarm clock at somewhat ungodly early morning hours (though I admit, totally voluntarily!), do hair, makeup and breakfast in a semi-zombie fashion, get to public transportation and then dance. All of a sudden I'm walking home, have dinner shower, read emails/blog, and too soon, go to bed. Then it happens all over again. Strange, when you think about it all. Better than counting the hours and minutes, I guess! But anyway, more soon - especially on my daily schedule and interesting things like that!
5:30AM, here I come! (Well, dragging my feet...!)
Bunhead
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