Surprise Wednesday Class

In a nutshell…

Got out of lab early so I raced on over to Evening Studio. Since I knew the first day of lab we usually do very little, I had packed a pair of tights, leotard and shoes in case I had time to make it to class.  Well, traffic sucked (even though it’s all of 8 blocks – I think I could have sprinted there faster…) so while I did make it to class, I didn’t have time to change into ballet gear. Luckily, I had my clothes from Pilates class on me as well, so I didn’t have to take class in jeans.

And it felt so strange! I realized during the first barre combination (that I got to participate in) that I hadn’t taken class without my leotard and tights ever. Practice at home, sure, but class felt so odd.  I couldn’t see in the mirror if my body was aligned properly or anything.  And – TMI alert – ever since that first time I took class without undies (using the tights as the undies) I kind of got used to it.  All the extra fabric was so getting on my nerves – and unlike practicing at home, you can’t really adjust your clothes in a roomful of people. At least I can’t…

However, I am completely positive that it would have taken too long to change into my leotard and tights, as opposed to throwing on a pair of yoga pants.  I considered it briefly, looked at my footed tights (I was already wearing socks), considered the somewhat sweaty state of my upper back (it was hot today!), and decided there was nothing that sounded more unnappealing than trying to squeeze into a leotard and tights in a hurry.          Whenever I try to do things in a hurry I always manage to take even longer!  As it was, I missed the first combination (plies), so as E Teacher was explaining the next combination I was sort of plieing lyself warm.

This is one of the times when I’m glad for the extremely laid back atmosphere at Evening Studio; not only did E Teacher not mind my late arrival, but also I fit right in as not one person wore a leotard.  Still though, I missed my ballet attire, and felt like a mess. Much respect to people who can feel balletish while wearing other clothing, but I think I need to dress the part.  For some reason though, at home it’s ok and I have no problem feeling balletish. Weird (actually though, I have a theory. But it is just too out there so I will be keeping this one to myself for now. It’d be a really long and convoluted blog post though…) …

Class went well though. We had time for frappes at the barre.  We did the tendu, plie, passe relelve combination and it could be my imagination but I think I went up into the first passe releve a little straighter and qucker than usual. We did the 3 glissades to the right, pas de bourree, 3 glissades to the left, pas de bourre, repeat combination again which was fun.  We did the jete prep (step, leap, arabesque arms) and then a faster version of it that I really enjoyed.

And that was it. I was pretty glad I could make it.

Oh, and I had a chance to extensively youtube pas de basque. It looks to me like it’s part rond de jambe, glissade and chasse, but all rolled into one. Like half a rond de jambe, jump from what had been the supporting foot to the other as if it were a glissade, then chasse on through it. Well, at least that’s how it looked to my unsophisticated eyes, lol.