I'm not happy, I'm ecstatic. The amount of happiness that my first class back has brought me still has me gushing. I wish I could have made this post the other day when I was bursting at the seams with joy and ready to unload it on anyone that would care to listen. Unfortunately, life got in the way and now that I've calmed down considerably I don't think I can quite channel the jittery, excitement filled me that I was after class. However, I'm going to try anyways for you, the reader's sake.
So if I were to say that 'It began just like any other day' I'd be lying. I got off of a 4 hour red-eye flight on a squashy budget airline bleary-eyed and exhausted. I got home, dropped my bags, collapsed into my already made bed (making a bed before you go away: best idea ever!) and had a short snooze for a few hours. I know these are minor details but I thought I'd build the suspense so you can understand the level of excitement I was at the other day. So after my short nap, I awoke and started looking for things to do for the rest of the day. I decided that sleeping was a lost cause and that going to bed earlier would be good for my body. I jumped onto my dance studio's website to see if any ballet was on (hint: It was) and when I spied the name attached to the teacher column I freaked out, in a good way.
So why did I freak out? Let me tell you why. THERE WAS A MALE TEACHER'S NAME THERE! Now some of you may think "Yeah, big deal!" but for me it was. I had semi-resigned myself to the idea that I would probably never have a male teacher simply because here in Brisbane (You now know where I hail from hooray!), there's not a crazily large scene for Ballet. This means very little access to male teachers as the only ones qualified enough would probably otherwise be occupied with full-time work at the Queensland Ballet.
So now that you know why I was so excited I'll gloss over the minor details and get to the stuff you want to know about, The class. The teacher's name was John Sandurski, he was back in Brisbane having been in Europe for the last 10 years dancing. This guy was amazing, He was every bit as technically skilled as my regular ex-company trained teachers (as flexible also) except he was also this outstanding role model for my development in the world of ballet. His class was an eye-opening experience for me, even though the speed and level was relatively high given that we had some advanced guests in our beginner class (a principal dancer with the Queensland Ballet on holiday) I learnt some nifty new things. During Plies we did temps leve (I think that's how you spell what he called them) with rond de jambe from fourth instead of 2 demi plies, a grande plie and a releve in the other position. We did some other nifty flourishes at the barre during the regular exercises including some pas de bouree's to soutenu to change sides (previously only just releve to soutenu) and an arabesque on demi point, falling forward into fondue on the front leg (which I liked the look of when he demonstrated because it belied an elegant strength).
Moving onto center work, we did tendus in the center from fifth moving from croise to efface with a pirouette from fifth to change direction. We did arabesque work with pas de bouree derriere (pique for the ladies, normal for the boys) as the directional transition. We moved onto pirouettes with a new exercise involving petit retire and quarter turns to both sides from fifth with a quick fourth prep into pirouette. We finished the center with a mix of saute and changement with a soubresaut to mix it up (I'd never done soubresauts before)
before finally finishing the class with a neat travelling chasse exercise going down the room.
Whilst I got lost quite a bit in the speed of the class, I was impressed by the great nuggets of wisdom he imparted as we worked through the class on what we should be concentrating on technique wise. It was entirely refreshing to have a male presence and I am now going to take every ballet class he is teaching whilst he is here. I walked out of the room positively gushing, so much so that I think I came across as some sort of crazy person to the teacher with my ridiculous enthusiasm. But it's like I said in my opening blog post. I am addicted to ballet. That is why I have this blog here, to relieve some of that excess enthusiasm so I don't explode at random at all my friends. So now I eagerly wait until Monday, when I can take class again with John. Now that the initial excitement has worn off I hope I don't come across as the freakishly enthusiastic and giddy person I was when I finished class the other day.
TTFN,
Leo
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