NYCB Workout Review

I’m totally late to this party, but finally got the two discs of the New York City Ballet Workout from Netflix. I had been tempted to buy these from Amazon before, but I’ve gotten a fair number of “ballet-inspired” workouts in the past that left me anything but inspired, so I figured I’d rather give it a test run before I committed to buying it.

I’m still not sure whether I’ll add this to my collection, but the dancer in me likes these slightly more than the Bar Method, Tracy Anderson, or Ballet Beautiful. Maybe simply because these aren’t workouts to just make you look dancer-ish, but are supposedly based on real exercises that NYCBers do (or did… these were filmed over 10 years ago now!).

The two workouts are pretty similar: some warmups (think port de bras, pliés, slow balancés, etc.), core strengthening (abs, back, and push-ups), some floor barre, a bit of center barre (tendus, dégagés, grand battements, etc.), a bit of jumping.

I wouldn’t call it hard-core. I did work up a minor sweat, but I’ve got some kundalini yoga DVDs that leave me feeling far more drenched. However, I think it might be a worthwhile home DVD set for us dancers who might want to add a little something in on our days outside the studio. I especially liked the core strengthening and floor barre stuff. I’ve always wished I could take a floor barre class… the little bit I’ve experienced has given me a lot to think about in terms of how I approach exercises and which muscles I’m engaging. So I appreciated that. And it seemed to offer good cross-training to enhance what we do in class. Not a total substitute for ballet class and not a total substitute for a stretch and strengthen class, but close.

For the non-dancer, I don’t think the exercises here are so far out there that someone unfamiliar with ballet couldn’t pick it up after going through it a few times. There are some unfamiliar terms and they don’t go over the mechanics, but if someone was thinking of wanting to try ballet this might be a good way to practice a few things in the safety of the home before venturing into a studio. Nothing is too technically complex and a lot is done in parallel position. It might be frustrating the first couple times through, though. The filming, especially in the core and floor barre, used a lot of dark lighting so you couldn’t always see clearly what the dancers were demonstrating. And Peter Martins, though I love listening to his voice, does not explain things exactly as they’re happening.

The bonus materials were kind of fun on these… there were behind-the-scenes segments and interviews with the dancers featured in the workouts. If you’re a balletophile like me, you’re always curious to see what a day in the life is like. They are getting a bit dated now, though. The first one is copyrighted 2001, the second 2003, but still fun. Most of the dancers featured were in the corps de ballet at the time, so I’m curious to see how their careers ended up.

I wish there were more ballet workouts like this. It was more lively than some I’ve tried and definitely gave me the chance to work on some ballet-specific stuff in a space where I had time to really think about my turnout, abs, etc. I may add this to my collection, but even if I don’t it’s given me some ideas for things I can work on outside the studio.

Out of alignment

The topic of today’s post is only peripherally dance-related.

To segue into it, I’ll mention a thread I ran across in one of the adult ballet student forums on BT4D. An adult beginner was asking if she (and other ballet dancers who started as adults) were doomed to look “amateurish” forever. Which sparked some ever-helpful, “Well, honey, there’s a reason why the pros are pros and the non-pros are… not” along with a fair sprinkling of, “Give it time.”

But I understood what the poster was getting at… the presentation. There are those people (not necessarily pros) who manage to coordinate everything with the music and look stunning. And then there are those who study for years upon years and only persist in looking awkward.

Some commenters on the thread started bringing up how so much of presentation is phrasing and port de bras and epaulment which was accompanied by a good railing on teachers who do not teach enough of this stuff in adult classes.

Basically, the overarching theme of this part of the thread was how much of “looking like a dancer” boils down to what you’re doing with your upper body. You can have killer arches, extensions to the top of Mt. Everest, and be able to whip out 32 fouettés like it ain’t no thang, but if you don’t sell the dance with your arms and your face then it’s just gymnastics. Similarly, your feet can go entirely wrong, but if your upper body is dancing people don’t notice the foibles so much (I’m majorly paraphrasing here).

And I wholly agree with this. I’ve really been concentrating on trying to dance every class. You know, practicing the tilt of the head at the barre, selling my tombé-pas-de-bourrées to whoever might be watching, etc. For the most part I feel pretty good about that stuff. It’s the thing a bit farther north that sometimes trips me up.

The face.

Now I could write a whole post about appropriate facial expressions based on stuff I’ve seen over the years, but my focus here is on the expression of joy: the good old Smile.

Smiling has long been challenging for me. It’s not that I’m unhappy, I just don’t feel the need to smile unless there’s a good reason to. Case in point… first grade school picture. Captured me with my mouth slightly open looking sort of dazed, sort of pissed off, sort of bemused. I still distinctly remember the situation. The photographer had tried the typical 6-year-old stuff on me, asking me to say something silly to get me to smile. Specifically: “Say, ‘Miss Piggy!’” To which I replied, “No.” I wasn’t trying to be snarky, I just thought it was an odd demand. We weren’t talking about Miss Piggy; why should I just randomly say her name… it was embarassing and I couldn’t believe he would make such a ridiculous request.

That was me.

I had my silly moments, but smiling for the sake of smiling was kind of lost on me.

Imagine my horror when, at age 8, I made my big stage debut in my very first dance recital. Teachers, backstage parents, other students all eagerly said, “Don’t forget to smile!” But… why? I had to remember the steps (especially seeing as most of my classmates weren’t likely to), which required Concentration and thus I had to be Serious. What is this smiling nonsense?

I did eventually grow up enough to realize there are occasions one must channel some joy (which may or may not be actually present) for the sake of appearances whether in photos or onstage or meeting a potential future boss or whatnot.

But while I figured this out I stumbled across another issue… adult teeth. In a not-particularly-large jaw.

It’s true. I’m a bit of a snaggle-tooth.

Nothing grave. Children don’t run screaming when I smile at them. I’ve had dates (and relationships). My friends tell me they don’t notice the crookedness, or they’ll tell me that they think it’s cute and gives me character (which, on good days, I don’t entirely disagree with).

But for around two decades it’s bothered me to some degree. Any time someone wants to get pictures it’s on my mind. I try to turn so that the camera will capture my “good side” and give either the closed-lip smile or bear minimal teeth. Candids are my nemesis.

Since resuming dance a couple years ago and doing performances that’s brought another aspect to my smile reticence. I need to smile on stage for a lot of my pieces. But I can’t help but feel shy, not knowing how much of the crookedness is showing.

Now one side of me says, jeez, Rori, no one cares. Let it go. But the other side says, hey, if it bothers you, fix it! I’m reaching the point of saying: it’s time.

My goal isn’t to conform to society’s arbitrary vision of beauty; I’m just tired of expending excessive mental energy worrying about my mouth. I want to smile when I feel like smiling and not feel self-conscious about it. I want to look at photos of me and focus on what’s going on in the picture rather than how much tooth is showing.

There’s a lot of stuff I can’t correct. But slightly crowded teeth… that’s pretty easy.

So earlier this week I trotted off to chat to one of the dentists in the office I go to. Her assistant talked to me for a bit and is going through treatment herself, which somehow made me feel more comfortable. Then the dentist herself came in and took a look-see. She assured me I could keep all my teeth (one of my pre-reqs… I had the wisdom teeth extracted a few years ago and those were the only chompers I was willing to part with) and said that mine was actually a very straightforward case. Which I kind of figured, but was good to hear. She estimated 8-10 months in treatment aligners, 6 months of wearing a retainer full-time, and a few years of wearing retainers to bed (or possibly getting a permanent retainer installed… not sure how I feel about that). The cost was higher than I would like (okay, anything higher than “free” is higher than I would like), but was in the range I expected.

I fully acknowledge that this is an issue of vanity. My oral health is not really impacted (though I do have a crack in my front tooth that overlaps from whacking it with the mouthpiece of my French horn one too many times). And hell, if we’re talking about vanity, I just saw something a couple weeks ago about a new trend in Japan where girls are having veneers put on their canines to create an illusion of crookedness because it’s “cute.” So who knows, maybe if I just hung on for a few more years my current grin would put me at the height of fashion.

I haven’t 100% decided yet, but I’m strongly leaning towards getting the aligners. It would be nice to put this issue to rest and not spend such a ridiculous amount of energy thinking about my damned teeth. Oh, and the dentist told me that she’s having a special day at the beginning of May, and if I start treatment that day (which I think means getting the dreaded impressions and photos and such) she knocks $500 off the cost and throws in a free whitening treatment. So… that might be enough to get me to commit. Though if I have to wait that long anyway I think I’ll go get a second opinion (and cost estimate) from a local, highly-experienced orthodontist.

We shall see. I’m not looking to turn this into an orthodontic blog (hence the reason I didn’t put the name of the treatment anywhere in this post), but it was something I wanted to discuss… especially since dance has played a role in pushing me over the edge of apathy to actually do something about this. If anyone happens to have experience with this topic and they want to share I’d be happy to hear them!

Dance-olutions 2013

Intention has been set for 2013! Let’s see how the universe pulls through on this one. It’s done remarkably well on those I set in 2011 and 2012 and hopefully will keep sending fuel for those, as well!

Last year’s intention to reverse my career’s downward spiral worked fabulously. With a bit of patience I landed in a great workplace. I’m in a department full of fun people who have been incredibly welcoming, managed by a boss who gives a great balance of autonomy and support, working with people in other parts of the organization who challenge me (in good ways) and seem genuinely appreciative of my work. I’d love to eventually explore other options in the organization, but for now I’m happy to see where the coming year takes me in my existing job… it promises to bring some interesting learning opportunities! Hurrah!

And of course my original intention I set once I decided resolutions were for the birds was that of getting more dance in my life and I am still reaping the rewards of that one, hopefully to continue in 2013.

Of course, intentions are helped by action, and I’ve been thinking about what actions I want to take to keep my dancing life vibrant. No matter how much one loves dance, after a while it can begin to feel a bit stagnant. I’ve been suffering from that feeling lately and I need to shake things up a bit in order to progress and keep it fun!

Number one on the list — cross training

Since I returned to ballet a little over two years ago I’ve really not done anything non-dance related in terms of exercise. I’ve considered the hip-hop and lyrical classes as my “cross-training” which counts in some ways (it’s certainly a different type of movement and engages other muscles). I guess I kind of decided that if I wanted to get better at ballet, the best thing to do was more ballet. And I made progress. But I’ve hit a plateau and realize I might need to do some work outside the studio in order to build the strength and flexibility I desire.

Over the holiday break boredom prompted me to dig out some of my dusty kundalini yoga DVDs. The after-effects were different than those I felt with dance. My abs were sore in different places, I felt it in my shoulders and back, and even the inner thighs. I felt more centered and balanced and thought, gee, I wonder if making this a more regular part of my routine might actually help with some of the things I’ve been struggling with in ballet… finding my core in turns, improving flexibility in my hips and getting a better turnout range, building the strength to extend higher.

Similarly, I’d be interested to see what other cross-training I could add in to my schedule. I’ve taken basic pilates before… a little TOO basic… but I liked it nonetheless and would love to get some of that into my schedule. I’ve heard of gyrotonics and would love to try that. Et cetera. I’m going to keep my eyes open to see if there are any classes I might be able to take either through the little gym at work or the local Y or whatnot.

Along with non-dance classes, I’m resolving to take more dance classes… elsewhere. This is kind of a tough one, because there’s a part of you that feels going somewhere else is like cheating on your spouse. Let’s face it, you’re pretty much looking to see if there is greener grass in some other studio. But realistically, just as your strength and flexibility plateaus at some point, your learning curve plateaus, as well. For the first year or so back to ballet I was relearning so much of what I had known previously, digging knowledge out of the recesses of my brain and convincing my body to do it. Then the year after that was focusing on improvement of that stuff. And there’s still plenty of improvement that can be made. But you begin to learn the patterns of the instructors and sometimes… I hate to say it… you begin to zone out. Everything becomes routine and you start to coast. Sometimes a little bad attitude starts to creep in. Sometimes you just don’t feel excited at the prospect of going to class.

And that’s when you need to shake it up a little.

The other part of this ties back to the whole job thing above. I’m no longer marooned in no-man’s-land… 4 or 5 days a week I’m commuting to this place that has tons of options for adult dance students. I’ve been saying since I started this job that “one of these days” I’m going to take advantage of my proximity to these studios. But day in and day out I find some reason not to. Fancy-pants ballet school’s classes are “too late.” Others are the next town over and it seems like such a hassle to have to switch trains or (gasp!) take a bus. Basically it’s just a combination of laziness and the fear of trying something new. Which is dumb. No more dumb. I don’t have to commit to being a regular student at any of these places, but maybe I’ll set a goal of a class a month somewhere other than my own studio and see where that takes me.

So that’s my 2013 dance plan. Nothing crazy or revolutionary, but hopefully enough to keep me feeling inspired.

Would love to read what your dance plans are for the year… and if you didn’t happen to see it, check out my New Year’s giveaway!

New Year, New You Giveaway!!!!

Welcome to 2013, all! Hope you had fabulous celebrations, took time to count the blessings that came your way in 2012, and are looking forward to the adventures the new year will bring.

New post likely to come regarding my own dance plans for the year, but before I get into the mememememe, how about something for youyouyouyouyou!?

I’ve got a couple prizes for people looking to make some positive changes in the new year!

First up is a copy of The Pointe Book by Janice Barringer and Sarah Schlesinger. I just discovered a 3rd edition of this book was published recently and the one I’m giving away (alas!) is the 2nd edition, but while some of the info about specific pointe shoe brands/models is a bit dated, this book is still chock-full of great info for anyone hoping to be en pointe in the new year or beyond — history of pointe, anatomy of a shoe, care and keeping of shoes, injury prevention, and more!

Then we’ve got two DVDs from The Bar Method — Beginner’s Workout and Dancer’s Body Advanced Workout. If you’re not familiar with barre-based workouts, or the Bar Method in particular, it’s a form of exercise that focuses on isometric movements, basically tiny movements that make a big difference in muscle structure. It’s based on the Lotte Berk method (Lotte Berk was a former dancer who came up with exercises to recover from an injury) and incorporates pilates and yoga. I found out about them probably 10 years ago and found that the DVDs really do make a huge and quick difference in the shape of your body. You do NOT need a barre to do the exercises; a tall chair or counter-top works just fine. The only other things you may need are things you likely have in the house already: a mat (a carpeted surface is sufficient), a strap (yoga strap is great, but bathrobe belts or towels work, too!), and light free-weights (or canned food!).

The DVDs can come as a set or individually (if you happen to only be interested in one of them!). Oh, and unlike my last giveaway, these discs claim to be compatible with all DVD players and don’t list a region, so I assume you can view them wherever you are in the world… fingers crossed.

To enter, please leave me a comment (be sure you’re logged in so that I can access your e-mail address from your profile!) with the following:

1. Which prize(s) are you interested in?
2. What was the highlight of 2012 in your dance world (can be a personal achievement or a performance you saw or something you read or… anything!)?
3. What are you hoping to achieve dancer-wise in 2013 (again, can be personal or not, whatever you want!)?

I’ll keep the giveaway open until the Sunday, January 13th, and will select the winners at that time.

Good luck to all and best wishes for a happy, healthy, well-balanced, flexible, joyful, and strong 2013!

Exciting News from the Sick Bed

Ughhh…

While the Nutcracker crud stayed mild enough for me to get through our final show, it did not hold back its wrath afterwards.

I’m now three days into an unintended sick leave from work. Monday the relentless runny nose kicked in along with the violent sneezing. I would take long naps and feel okay, but as soon as I got up it’s as if someone turned on a faucet in my head.

To add insult to injury, I made myself a nice hot bowl of oatmeal Monday morning only to find out that my milk had gone chunky (which I discovered only after dousing my oatmeal in it). If I wasn’t feeling great beforehand, that certainly didn’t help! Gag. And… no oatmeal. Or milk for my tea. Whine, cry.

Tuesday morning I awoke convinced that, while I was sleeping, a small army of elves entered my room and bashed my face with a bunch of tiny sledgehammers. My teeth hurt. My forehead hurt. My ears hurt.

I briefly considered throwing a tantrum, but when your only audience is a couple of unsympathetic cats, there’s really no benefit.

So instead I zoned out on the couch watching Sesame Street and similar programs. Eventually dragged myself to the grocery store to buy fresh milk and OJ and zinc lozenges (don’t take the zinc with the OJ, btw!) and boxed macaroni and cheese and lotiony tissues. The typical sickie shopping cart contents.

Probably a bit late in the game to try the zinc thing, but I’ll give it a go anyway.

This morning I awoke thinking, aha, the faucet has stopped, I am better! The thermometer said, “How ’bout a low-grade fever?” Screw you, stupid thermometer. At this point I’m so bored I’m actually working from home because I need something to do other than sleep.

Anyway, the subject of this post was that there was exciting news in the midst of all this germiness!

While I was bumbling around the house on Monday trying to figure out what I could eat from my Mother Hubbard’s cupboards I heard a thunk at the front door. I opened the door to find a box which, when opened, revealed this:

My custom Freed order! Eek!

I placed the order back in October sometime. Nothing major, mostly just stocks with the sides cut down, elastic drawstring, extra piece over the tip (hopefully will make the platform last longer?), light paste on the wings.

I wasn’t really in a mood to wear pointe shoes, but I did slip them on for a minute. I’m not sure if I like how much the sides are cut down… it’s supposed to make the foot look nicer, but I don’t think it does anything for mine. Then again, it’s hard to judge without the elastics and ribbons and without breaking the shank in, so we shall see.

But, dear reader, it is so exciting to get a pair of shoes that you know were made just for you!!! I had to take a picture of the sole… my thumb is covering my last name. My name! On my shoes!

So thrilling! Can’t wait to give these shoes a try and see how they work for me! I’ll be updating for sure.

In the meantime, wishing all of my readers good health!

Oops, I did it again…

Behold…

It started as a tiny pinpoint of a speck that may or may not be a bruise.

Then a few weeks later it turned into a slightly larger, still innocuous, but definite bruise.

And now it’s progressed to taking up nearly my entire nail.

Why do you hate me, right big toe? Why?

The Nutcracker Crud

Unfortunately with all the togetherness of rehearsals and such comes the sharing of the germs.

Especially with all the little kids involved.

The crud is going around.

I woke up yesterday, the day of our first two performances of the weekend, with that immediate feeling of… uh-oh.

The sneezing and runny nose is not uncommon for me in the morning, so I hoped it was just a bad case of the normal allergies. Took some allergy meds.

Then heard my GI tract making some exciting noises. Not the “feed me!” kind of exciting.

So… this is the kind of day we’re going to have.

Got to the theatre and found I was far from alone. One kid spent a good portion of her evening in the ER with respiratory symptoms. Many others were complaining of sore throats, post-nasal drip, and the like.

It’s amazing what you can will yourself to do in the moment. I was able to put aside my roiling stomach for most of the day. I managed to keep my coughing jags off-stage. And all the other dancers did, too. They might have had people holding rescue inhalers for them to grab the moment they got off stage, but they soldiered through.

Afterwards, though…

I saw Mother Ginger practically dragging a gingerbread cookie behind her after the final curtain call to the stage restroom… the cookie was ready to toss hers. After the show we apparently had two vomit incidents in both stairwells leading from the dressing area up to the main lobby.

I’m thankful that adults usually have a bit more control over their GI tracts and I was able to keep mine from causing any incidents. There were moments I worried, though.

I got home, washed off my makeup, untaped my bruised and blistered feet, and limped straight into bed.

Only to wake up today feeling… worse. Ugh. Now I feel shaky and headache-y and my throat is on fire and my GI tract is still voicing complaints. No fever, though. That’s something.

One more show to go…

I forced myself to go back to bed shortly after getting up. I had the time and figured maybe an extra hour of tossing and turning would make me feel better. It worked… sort of.

I’ve got some hot beverages over my burning throat and a steamy shower in my immediate future.

Just one more matinee performance to will myself through, then I can collapse into bed. If the fog in my brain can subside for just a few hours I’ll be happy.

Fingers crossed that we all make it through this afternoon without any major incidents.

Boot camp!

Had the first day of Nut rehearsals for the year.

Or, as one of my fellow dancers put it: Nutcracker Boot Camp!

Yep, I’d say that description was entirely apt:

Beforehand you experience elation at being picked and excitement for the adventure that will soon ensue.

You’re nervous about the unknown, but there’s that irrational side that says, “It can’t really be that hard, can it? All those people who complain about how hard it is, well, I am of much hardier stock than they, and I will be juuuust fiiiine.”

Of course you know deep down that you’re being delusional; I argue that such delusions are necessary. Keeps you from throwing in the towel before you even begin.

So you show up for that first day thinking, “Okay, here’s my chance to prove myself. I’m going to show them all they made the right choice in picking me. It’s gonna be juuuust fiiiine.”

Then someone gets up in your face and yells, “Drop and give me 20!!!”

Okay, that didn’t really happen.

But it is mentally and physically exhausting.

Mentally because you’re trying to remember all this new choreography. In class you only have to remember a sequence for a short amount of time and once it’s done you can purge it from your memory and move on to the next thing. Plus, you can rely on the power of the many. If you forget a section, well, you just take a quick look at your peers in front of you or in the mirror and get back on track. Performance pieces don’t allow you to act like a sheep, though. You’ve got to know your own part. No cheating!

Physically because, well, it’s a lot of dancing. Instead of relatively short combinations you’ve got anywhere from 90 seconds to 6 minutes of nearly continuous dancing. And the pieces I’m in aren’t the “stand still and flap your arms about while gazing beatifically at the audience” either. It’s jump, turn, waltz, saute, contretemps, rinse, repeat. Which is cool… The first time you do it. Then still kind of cool the second time. Then you notice that your entire body has taken to trembling, your ankles threaten to collapse, and the blood is pounding in your ears.

“Let’s run it a few more times.”

Sure. Of course. Let’s do it.

There are times you really wonder what you managed to sign yourself up for. This seemed all well and good when you made the decision to audition. You misguidedly thought that getting in was the hard part. Then you realize that acceptance was just step one on the journey to being all that you can be. There’s still plenty more proving to be done here, plebe!

But wait… to whom are you proving yourself worthy? The judges decided, based on the evidence at hand, that you were suitable for this role. You’ve already done the proving to them. Now it’s up to you to prove to YOURSELF that you deserve to be here. The choreography isn’t holding you back. The tempo of the music isn’t holding you back. Your fellow dancers aren’t holding you back. The only thing between you and performing to the top of your ability is your own faith in yourself.

Not that namby-pamby, “Believe in yourself,” malarkey.

It takes hard work, mental and physical stamina, and just plain showing up.

But seriously.

It can be way too easy to discount yourself.

“I’m not strong enough.” “So-and-so is a better dancer than I.” “I’m getting too old to do this anymore.”

WHAAAA’?!

The people who chose you didn’t say, “You know who we should put in this role? The weak, old lady who isn’t very good.” That’s absurd! You didn’t audition for the Gong Show here!

That’s what I mean by “believe in yourself.” Doesn’t mean there won’t be blood, sweat (LOTS of sweat), and a few tears along the way. This is a growth process, after all. But if you give it your all (and by all I don’t just mean your brain and body… you need to get the emotions in there, too!) then you will find the joy that comes at the end when you are performing on stage. The joy that comes from realizing that you are living out not only your own dreams, but those of many others, maybe even sparking some dreams out there in the audience.

Keep on soldiering through!

It had to be “Y”ou

Ignoring the fact that I haven’t posted in forever and moving on to….

A milestone.

I bought the same pointe shoe twice in a row! Remarkable!

I actually liked a shoe enough to buy it again. Those Freeds I talked about a few months ago… yeah, turns out I really like them. Figures.

For one thing, they’re English shoes. And I’m English. Well, I mean, I’m American, but if you trace my ancestry back it pretty much lands squarely back on the island of Great Britain. While I might have some strange obsession with all things Russian (I blame Lois Lowry… I loved her Anastasia Krupnik stories as a kid and there was a whole thing about Anastasia’s fascination with the last tsar of Russia and the unaccounted-for daughter who shared her first name… I think that started me down the path), I, myself, am not Russian, and alas, this means my feet, too, are not Russian. Maybe that accounts for the fact that, try as I might, Russian shoes (whether Russian Pointe, Grishko, or “Russian-inspired” Blochs) just didn’t do it for me. English shoes did.

Then there’s this particular talent of mine… the talent for managing to fall in love with the most expensive version of something. Freeds aren’t the most expensive pointe shoe out there, I’m sure, but they certainly are spendier than a Sansha, Capezio, or Bloch. Then take into account that I’m buying a Freed “Classic” which is tied back to a particular maker. If you have found yourself attached to a particular maker (which I have: Y) then you can expect to pay a few extra bucks to insure you get shoes made by him and not some other bloke. Nothing against the other blokes, of course… just that if I get a shoe made by Y I know that it will be a tapered, light-weight shoe… whereas if I happened to get a pair made by ”B” I’d be in a square, heavy shoe. With however many makers there are and limited stockroom space in the dance stores, they might not have your maker on the shelf at a given time and if you want your shoe they want the extra bucks to make sure they don’t end up with dust-collecting stock on the shelves. Sigh.

Regardless, I’ve found a shoe that I enjoy. The journey to finding it seemed long and convoluted at times, but all in all, I’m glad I embraced the experience. If I’d stumbled upon the Freeds first thing out of the gate I think I would have constantly wondered if there was something better out there. Plus, I would have never learned as much about pointe shoes as I did. It’s been such an eye-opening experience and has sparked a whole new interest and passion and appreciation.

Here’s hoping to a long career for “Y” and many more happy dances in his shoes!

Cheers to new beginnings

Three things to celebrate today.

First off — and I know you have all been waiting with bated breath for this one — my toenail has finally fallen off! I promise, this paragraph will be the only gross one. But yeah, fell off just as hoped, in my sleep. The new nail underneath is pretty gnarly-looking. About halfway grown and ain’t gonna be in the running for any beauty contests any time soon, though compared to what I had been dealing with, it’s cute as a button! I’ve been taking my vitamins faithfully, so hopefully it’ll grow all the way in soon, just in time for summer pedicures!

Secondly — new studio! Finally got a chance to tour it yesterday. You’d never know it was a funeral home in its past life! Two of the studios are probably about the same size as the rooms they replace in our old home, but the ceilings are much higher making it feel bigger. But the third studio, oh WOW!!! This is where we’ll have ballet and it’s gorrrr-geoussss. HUGE! Light, bright, airy, windows, viewing area! It’s got to be at least twice the size of the old room, maybe three times. And of course the room is about two stories high at its highest point. No more girls going head-first through the ceiling tiles when practicing lifts with their partners! And no posts in the middle of rooms! This is so exciting! Can’t wait to take my first class in that room!

The rest of the space is a vast improvement, too. The office, merchandise area, dancers’ lounge are all separated and away from the traffic pattern.

Still doesn’t feel like home, though. I mean, it’s pretty, but when I think about dance I still have a hard time picturing us taking class and rehearsing there. I still picture our old cramped studio. It was stinky and claustrophobic, but it was home! I’m sure in a couple weeks that will all change though and the new space will feel like home in no time.

Third celebratory event… up until a couple weeks ago I was scheduled to go to DC today for a work conference. Went to the same conference last year and was really not looking forward to it. Not only was the conference wretched, but this year’s location in the city wasn’t even conducive to a trip to Washington School of Ballet for a class. But, you know, then I went and found me a new job. Which ends in two days… smack in the middle of the conference, so… obviously, I got out of having to go to the conference. Hurrah! Whatever shall I do with this newfound freedom on a Sunday afternoon? Why, I shall head to Big City with one of my dance buds to watch Famous Modern Dance Company perform for the first time in a decade or so!