CPYB: Day 1

Today was the first official day of classes. I woke up at 7:30 for my 9:00 class but still ended up leaving the house at 8:45 in a hustle so I’ll have to wake up at 7 tomorrow. Nathalie and I almost got late but we drove and that saved some time. I think we should walk tomorrow even though its sooo hot!

The first class was very slow and methodical. We had our outside hand on our inside shoulder the whole time which was fine by me so I could concentrate on what’s happening everywhere else. Cynthia, the teacher, really broke things down – tendu in particular. You have to see each part she said, moving from fifth you should see a little fourth and then a high demi and then a pointe and back the same way. Eventually you’ll be able to do it faster. She also really emphasized turning out our standing leg. When tenduing to the side from fifth you must go through first and then out to fifth. I was sweating by the end of class from all the little details we were focusing on. I’m looking forward to tomorrow to see if some things stuck. She had so much turnout her feet went in the other direction a little…. eek.

Second class: I really liked the teacher. I can’t remember her name but she has a fun, happy personality with beautiful feet, a perfect fifth, and lovely port de bras. The class seemed much more relaxed in the sense that people were laughing when they were facing the wrong way on the barre or when we forgot the combination. The teacher laughed with us :). She also emphasized turning out the back foot more. I especially liked her because she kept the class moving. She said she remembered what it was like at intensives when all the teacher wanted to do was stay at the barre and all you wanted to do was get to the center. I personally love the barre but it was nice to not be babied. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. I think it’s good to go slowly and recondition and relearn things but it’s also nice to do things at a pace you’re used to. 🙂

Third class: BEST MUSIC!! We danced to Phantom of the Opera, Willy Wonka, Grease, and the Sound of Music. Such a great CD. Yes I said CD. No pianists here which I guess makes sense….how many pianists would you have to hire for 500 students taking 3-4 classes a day…..? I miss having live music but I liked seeing what type of music each teacher preferred. This last class is a pointe class I believe. I’m not sure if we’re going to be on pointe since we weren’t today but the exercises were definitely tailored to pointe – echappes, sous sous, tons of releve (did I mention my legs weren’t having all the releves in 5th for some reason?). I liked the teacher, she spoke very clearly and methodically. I’m not sure if she’d go on pointe with us. I really like when the teacher is on pointe too. I know they don’t have to be but it’s cool to have that sort of solidarity.

Overall I really liked how consistent the teachers were in terms of what they were teaching. Everyone encouraged us to turn out our back leg, everyone worked on sur le coup de pied etc. I do think the first teacher went around more and corrected each of us.

No exercise or combination was difficult, everything was easy to remember. Tendus en croix, fondus en croix, everything en croix. The difficult part was remembering to suck your belly, turn out, lengthen up, shoulders down, make sure your seat muscles are engaged, move through the foot, pointe, and all the other little things. 🙂

I didn’t go to the recommended evening class because I wanted to not over do it on my first day and I wanted to get some things settled for an online class I want to take and get some work done. The former was a cluster but the latter went well. I stretched on the floor while working which was nice. Those splits. Man oh man. I can’t wait till the day that I have one, just one of them, any one of them.

Funny story. A lot of the girls at this intensive look familiar to me. I’m not sure what it is. I asked one of them if she was from Boston and she said no. I asked someone about another girl and they confirmed that she also wasn’t from Boston. What’s going on…?? Deja vu? I guess I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be right now since my former self is remembering it so well. Or I’m just going crazy.

Sorry for the blase sort of post – I’m pooped but I wanted to make sure I got some of my thoughts down on paper. More tomorrow! Off to blissful sleep. Yummmmm!