Days 4 & 5, Loving It!

Today we are finishing choreography for the final demonstration.  We also got to take a jazz class.

In ballet, instead of learning new moves, the focus is on the basics and getting them perfectly correct.

My friend and I met a nice counsellor who is in charge of the Violet group, which is the highest level.  

This has been a good time to make new friends from around the country.

On Sunday we went to church at Saddleback Church.  It was terrific, but I couldn't stop thinking about tomorrow, when I will go back to ballet.

Each day the classes give you a good work out.  By the end of the day almost everyone is tired out.  

In technique class we work mostly at the bar and then repeat combinations everyday so that we can nail them.  Then we come to center and do some jumps, port de bras and dégagés.  After that we'll go across the floor with various moves and finally do a reverence. There is a real pianist for each class, and she is very kind.  There are many different teachers and one of them is French.  He has a cute little dog that he brings to class.

I would say that pre-pointe is the most tiring class of the day because you do a lot of releves and your calves begin to burn. One of our pre-pointe teachers talked with us about the history of pointe shoes, how they were first made and why.  After that pre-pointe comes lunch, that goes on for about an hour. The classes that we only have once a week are jazz, modern, character and ballet history.  I like history of ballet the most.  Did you know ballet terms were used by the army??   Finally comes choreography class where we are working on a dance that is pretty simple, but they want us to do the movements perfectly (almost).

Can't wait for the next week!