The Happenings of Thursday and Friday

This week has sped by! Here is what happened during the past two days:

In modern class on Thursday, I had a little bit of catching up to do (as I was still on vacation on Thursday of last week). I learned some more tricky combinations (to some extremely over-dramatic Beethoven) which I was able to accomplish rather quickly– yay! We also began our Christmas Dance! My, oh my, have I not explained this yet?

Each class (within a certain age group) starts to choreograph a dance toward mid-October to present to all the parents in December (the week before break). We throw together some costumes and dance our hearts out– so fun! It is truly one of the best parts of the holiday season. So far, we have only started the modern dance. I believe Miss Sara plans to start the ballet dance after Cecchetti Exams. As for pointe, we are not allowed to complete enough moves to create an entire dance yet, so we are having our parents come to watch our regular class instead.

Yesterday was another long Friday (made longer by 15 minutes). I had a wonderful time! My mom sat in on the end of ballet class and the beginning of pointe, as it is Parent Observation Week at my studio. The video above is something that she took during ballet while my amazing dance-sisters and I practiced single, double and triple pirouettes. I (located in the far corner of the room) complete three perfect triples in this video! Whoo-hoo! Beautiful job to (from far back to front) Stephanie, Anna, Mary, Emma, Allison and Jamie!

In pointe, I got my first two blisters on my second toes… ouch! Despite my pain, my toes are toughening up and I know now where I will need to use tape for class. Of course, to get blisters, you have to work. I did some releves in parallel (I got all the way over my arches on these!), releves in First Position, echappes, marches across the barre, and… drum roll please… CHAINES TURNS! Yes, we did our first turns, with our hands on our hips, across the floor. It was kind of difficult (as my feet are not totally stretched out yet), but I’m working on it. Basically, if I keep my feet closer together, they will come out perfectly.

Rehearsal tomorrow! I might shop for the rest of my required performance items afterwards. Nutcracker Post coming soon!