My dance studio is closed for the regular two weeks of holiday season. I've followed suit and decided to go home to spend time with family over Christmas and New Years. One thing I've noticed in the downtime however, is how much I miss doing Ballet. Something about being in a class in full kit with a teacher guiding your instructions that is ultimately more fun than trying to practice at home. I'm trying to keep active however, I'm trying to get myself to stretch and remain limber in the time off. It's proving to be a fruitless task however since I am unable to stop indulging in the little goodies that generally lurk around the house during this time of the year.
I think the main problem with me trying to stretch out at home is not yet being able to devise an appropriate routine that is efficient and effective. I am an absolute stickler for maximum efficiency since I am inherently lazy and hate doing anything that is superfluous. I find that it is also easy to make excuses not to do something when you don't have a clear focus or idea of what you are doing. Also, being quite large in size adds an extra logistic to account for and another excuse to add to the already full list. Not that I needed any extra excuses in the first place.
So before I get onto the task of setting my resolutions for 2011, I think I need to clarify my goals and what I aim to get out of Ballet. I mean of course there's the standard flexibility and strength that comes with doing ballet that I seek to gain. In addition to that however, there are some set moves and techniques I want to be able to master somewhat.
1. Continuous a la seconde turns - In my mind, one of the most impressive feats of strength in a male danseur's repertoire. The amount of flexibility and strength required to maintain the leg straight at 90 degrees coupled with the skill required to spot with the head constantly and not get dizzy (something I struggle with) is something that utterly impresses me. I remember long before I started learning Ballet, watching Ethan Steifel perform seemingly endless a la second turns in his Nutcracker solo in the movie Centre Stage had me stunned in awe. If I could eventually do these myself, I could die the next day a happy man with no regrets. For those of you who aren't as nerdy as me with the french terms here's a neat video:
2. Tour en l'air - A technique that seems to be performed only by males in the Ballet world. The flexibility required to maintain a well turned out fifth position coupled with the strength to spring up from demi plie and complete 2+ full revolutions is impressive to say the least. I see this as the rite of passage into manhood of the ballet world; If I could one day do these, I will be a real ballet man. For those of you who don't know what these are, here's another neat video:
3. Grand Jete en Tournant - I've been told that these aren't particularly hard, however they are very cool to watch being done by a professional with excellent air and hangtime. Here's another video so you get an idea of what they are:
So this brings me quite nicely to my resolutions for the New Year. I feel that if I document them publicly I'll feel more obliged to try and achieve them.
1. Setup a stretch workout/routine to do in roughly 20 - 30 mins a day.
Ultimately I want to get better at ballet and to do so requires more flexibility for turnout. Whilst I have seen a marked improvement in flexibility over the last 10 months of doing ballet classes, I feel that this growth has stagnated a little only because of my body's downtime between classes. I currently have the New York Ballet Stretch Workout DVD on hold at the public library and when I return from holidays I will borrow it out and study it meticulously. With any luck, I will see greater improvements in my technique before long.
2. Do more ballet classes.
This is something that I already plan to do, however the only thing stopping me at this stage is time and money. I desperately want to increase my ballet classes from twice a week to 4 - 5 times however. The thought of sacrificing eating for ballet is beginning to cross my mind but for the sake of promoting healthy body images and all that positive rainbowy stuff I'll spurn that thought from my mind. So the aim of this resolution is to find the time and the money from somewhere to add to my existing ballet schedule.
3. Watch a live Ballet.
This is something that I've actually never done in my life. Instead of putting this on the backbench of 'something to do in my lifetime' I will push the priority forward to 'something I will do in 2011'. Whilst I would prefer it to be in my city, the idea of travelling just to see a ballet is somewhat attractive also. The aim of this resolution is to see more choreography and variations being done by real people in real time, to greater inspire the soul.
4. Start regular Pilates.
In my mind there is never such a thing as 'too much core strength'. Whilst my core strength isn't horrid as a result of my personal training sessions for the last 12 months, I could always use more core work. I had the pleasure of attending my first pilates class ever a couple of months ago and it was hard. If I could get better at Pilates I know that my flexibility will drastically improve as well as my ability to balance myself on releve through the increased core stability.
5. Continue this blog.
I seem to always have a bad run with blogs. I start them and then never continue them because I get overly self-conscious with what I write. This post alone has been about 4 hours in the making simply because I write and rewrite always unhappy with the way I phrase things. Sometimes I'm overly verbose and use ridiculous big words, Other times I will write plainly and be utterly frank. I think if I blog enough I'll get over this blogging 'self-esteem' issue. In any case I make the resolution here and now to continue blogging throughout 2011. In the past I've not had anything to focus my thoughts, but with ballet as a guiding light I hope I can continue to make this something special.
So I think I'll leave it there at 5 resolutions for 2011. They are all about ballet but with these goals set and published online I'll feel more motivated to see them through. At least that is the idea anyways.
Happy New Year and TTFN (Ta-Ta For Now)!
Leo
No comments:
Post a Comment