Year 1 semester 2! lesson 6

Wow! What a day! 7 hours on the road with the boys being bored out of their minds! Made it through California, Nevada, Arizona and into Utah. Stopped at a rather nice hotel right off the Arizona/ Utah boarder. Had a very nice Habaichi dinner which the boys loved. After my stomach stopping feeling like I ate a thanksgiving dinner it was on to my "relaxing" time. I felt off balance tonight, so long in the car and being some place different threw me off I guess. Grande plies in center were funny tonight. Added some more jumps tonight Assemble being one! WEEEEE "Brush JUMP!" I can hear my teachers voice in my head even now. Thank you Miss V! Tonight was also the first lesson with any pointe work!! YAY!! LOL even though my feet seem to be much wider :/ putting my pointe shoes on again for the first time in over 18months was both exciting and painful. I haven't been en pointe since my foot surgery, I've honestly been a little scared to do it, but reading over the section of pointe and seeing it was only reveles I decided it was worth it. OUCH OUCH OUCH OUCH oh it hurt and it was hard to feel my feet dancing on a carpeted floor tonight. Now I would like to point out (as they do in the book) that this book is NOT made for the at home person to learn ballet, this is a teaching aid, and that things moving forward like going en pointe would be done by the judgement of the teacher of each students strength and readiness. I am using it as a guide as something to after dancing for more than 20 years, and would never push myself to any point of injury. I have another long day on the road tomorrow yay! OI!

Year 1 semester 1 lesson 5.

I didn't forget I promise! Today has been a crazy day of doing laundry, packing, cleaning and making super hero hats for the boys, but I got my 45 minutes of ballet in still! This lesson was a bit shorter than yesterdays, being the last lesson in the semester! Very simple demi and grande plies, today. Tendues, frappes, grande battements. Pretty much a complete repeat of yesterday. Today my grande battements were so much higher! I am so excited it hasn't taken very long at all to get back a lot of my strength and some of my flexibility already! I can't wait to see how things are in 95 more lessons! We added on pas de borre today as well as some jumps. I am so exhausted today, I feel like I was non-stop. Tomorrow we will leave early to hit the road. Six and a half hours on the road. I will post from the hotel tomorrow, after I start semester 2! The first lesson on pointe! YAY!!  

Year 1 semester 1 lesson 4. Arabesques!

Not feeling much better today than I was yesterday, stomach thing and my upper back locked up, and nothing wakes you up and gets your heart going a mile a minute quite like your child screaming out in the middle of the night! I had to stifle my laughter when he told me he fell out of bed and bonked his head, yes the next thing that came to mind was "momma called the doctor and the doctor said"! At 4:30 in the morning my mind does not work very well. Of course his crying woke the entire house hold so getting the boys out of bed and moving this morning was some kind of act of congress! Still school is close so as of yet we have not been late! * knocking on wood!* I am finding myself more and more grateful for this challenge, even though it is only day 4 I am already seeing a great change in my strength! My core is already showing signs of getting stronger, I no longer have that twinge of pain when I contract. Only a slight one on my grande battements. This in itself is a huge gift. Today's lesson was a few exercises longer again than yesterday, yes everyday is just a small amount longer than the day before. As always, starting with plies, today a combination of both demi and grande, tondus, piques, ronds de jambes, fundus, frappes both single and doubles, leg lifts, and finally adding grande battements! I love grande battements! Even though I don't have the lift I did years ago I still love them the combination today was a simple tondu, lift, tondu, close 4 times, followed by leg lifts, 90 degrees in each direction. My legs shook, my core burned but by golly I did it! Even though I didn't get my chance to soak in the hot tub last night my thighs did not burn as badly today as they did yesterday. Another proof that I am getting stronger every day. In center we did a simple repeat of most the barre exercises, demi plies, tendus, ronds de jambes, and the study of several poses croise, efface, ecarte and ARABESQUE!! Everyone knows arabesque, its that classic ballet pose we always see in photos of dancers. I always love practicing arabesque. Something so soothing in holding that very simple pose. My 30-45 minutes of ballet have started to be my calm time even if the boys have been crazy and there are a million and one things going through my mind as soon as I turn on my music and its just me and my ballet for a little while. Spent a little extra time stretching today hopefully less pain tomorrow. This coming week is going to be crazy so stick with me, some posts may come in later than normal! Happy weekend everyone! 4 days down 97 more to go! YAY!!

Year 1 seamester 1 lesson 3!

Yesterday's Mombie was brought on not by just lack of sleep, oh no, it was a warning sign! It was the ominous music before the monster jumps out and grabs the kid from behind! Woke up this morning feeling positively awful! My stomach tossed and turned through getting the boys up and ready for the day, " I just need to eat" I told myself. NOPPEEE eating did not calm my stomach. While I kept the food down the queasiness did not want to let go. After dropping Super Hero of to school, super star and I trudged home. My stomach thought it was a great time to do a gymnastics floor routine! I made it though my morning chores, most of which I skipped yesterday, thanks to feeling like a Mombie. As I sat here on the couch sipping a hot cup of tea I felt defeated today. This is what I do. I set a goal and when I look at it as something I can do, I defeat myself. I get sick, I get injured, I get "too busy to take the time". NOT THIS TIME!! I will not give up! I will not accept defeat! So I pulled my hair-up, put on something comfortable to work out in and sat down to read today's lesson, today we added Grande plies, preparation for ronds de jambes en l'air and what is basically leg raises along with of course demi plies, tondus, and more frappes! Singles and doubles today! I couldn't tell you how many years I've been doing frappes. Some how I still manage to bang my ankles! I'm pretty sure my legs thing they are going to fall off! Grande Plies today were simple 2 in each first, second, third, and fifth on 8 counts per plie. OH how I wanted to quit! My thighs ached so badly and then I still had to do my leg raises to 90 degrees, and hold for 4 counts. ouch ouch ouch ouch! Simple port de bras were my breathing chance today something calm and focusing. That moment of calm and focus is like a switch for me, it helps me stop thinking about all those things that need to be done later, the what if's, the should do's. Its just me and the music for a few minutes. The rest of the afternoon as gone much more smoothly, while my stomach still doesn't know which way is up. I feel less frantic. And I am excited to have gotten past one of my weaknesses today! With that I would like to share with you a short video on frappes from yesterdays lesson. As I continue I will make more (hopefully better)! 

Year 1 semester 1 lesson 2, also know as I HATE FRAPPE!!!

A nap, a nap, my kingdom for a nap!! A major lack of sleep last night has lead to me being what a refer to as "Mombie". After dropping my Super Hero of at school this morning, ( some how we magically made it in time!) I coaxed my Super Star into "nap time". After 3 rounds of "soft kitty " and finding every stuffed animal he has, I got him to lay down. Ahhh sweet relief! Or so I thought. Not more than 15 minutes after I laid down he was in. "Mommy I brought you my kitty" 15 minutes after that "Mommy I need some water" Now mind you he's almost 5 and can reach his cups and the water cooler. So I gave up on a nap, and Mombied my way into decent clothes for the doctors appointment. Well I'm pretty sure doctors are schooled in sideways talk. Never a straight answer! As if having my Pancreas go prima donna on me and losing 2/3rds of it, as well as my entire spleen now they think my adrenals are "out of whack", yes that is what the doctor said to me. So after my Super star brought me his pillow pets to make me feel better we made the walk to get Super Hero from school, when we got there is was very empty in the area the parents wait to pic up their kids, "Am I late? I couldn't have dosed off could I?" I look at my phone and see we are not only early, we are 25 minutes early!! Well better early than late right? Our walk home was as normal, I don't know how a 7 year old who can remember going to KFC with his granddad when he was 4, cannot remember what he did in school today, but still every afternoon the conversation is the same. " How was school today?"  "Good!" " What did you do?" " I don't know." 
Get the boys settled in with snacks and games and I turn to lesson two. This lesson was quite a bit longer than the last, same basic moves, Demi plies, tondus, and ronds de jambes. Along with Frappes my friends Oh I do not like Frappes my friends, I do not like them in the least! I do not like them single or double, this fact has caused me great trouble! I do not like them fast, I like them slow even less! I do not like frappes my friends! They cause me so much stress!!! Todays frappe exercise was a slow, a simple single to the side with a hold on the extension. Cry! oh my legs burned after that and I was only half way done! My saving grace Port de bras, oh how my back needed that! Snap, crackle, pop! I sound like a bowl of rice crispes! Gentle demi plies at center floor was very calming and relaxing for me today. I got the chance to just breathe and focus my mind on one simple thing for the moment. While my balance was a little wobbly I'm lucky I wasn't doing grande plies! 
So now as I sit here by the pool in the sunshine typing this I am watching the boys ride their scooters around the complex and I'm doing my best to let go of today, gearing up for the craziness that is trying to get the boys to eat dinner, bathe, and go to bed! I may not get back to what I was when I was 18, but I will be in better shape than I am now. 2 days down, 98 to go!

Year 1 semester 1 day 1

Before the surgeries I was teaching Ballet, only 6 hours a week, to military children on base in Okinawa. My two boy 6 and 4 years old spent most my class time with me or staying with a close friend. I always wanted to add more hours, get more time in the class room. Then I got sick, and I missed my classes so much, I missed my students and I missed the work outs. My boys missed it too, they missed doing ballet with us. 
Since the surgeries I feel I have lost all my strength, having your abdomen cut open twice kills core strength, releves, turns, jumps all of them suffer so much. Unpacking from the move I came across the book 101 lessons in classical ballet by: Vera S. Kostrovitskaya. Gifted to me as a teenager when I spent 20 hours a week dancing. I never much looked at the first half of the book, what need did I have for year one lessons? Basics, nothing that, at the time, would give me a work out. 
Now I feel I'm at the beginning again. So that's just what I am doing. Starting with year 1 lesson 1. How hard could it be right?
Reading through the lesson, Demi plies, tondus, ronds de jambe a terre. I know all these moves in my sleep the only hard this about this lesson is finding music to work to, classical is not my cup of tea.
After a mile and a half jog on the treadmill to warm up. Super-star (my 4 year old) curls up in his bean bag to watch TV and I open to my first lesson. Plies as long as I can remember every single class has started with plies, I turn on some Princess music (aka Disney), find a comfortable first position, back straight, shoulders down, head up, correct my core. These lessons are ones that I would teach a 7 year old and I struggled to keep posture today. My legs barely noticed that I did anything at all to them this lesson was a minor warm up, but my core noticed. My over all goal is to finish all 101 lesson, by May 28th, I hope that you will stick with me and my Super hero (7 years) and Super star (4 almost 5 years) as we work through the next 100 days. Not only challenging my body with dance but with being a stay at home mom and the life that comes along with that. I hope to share getting stronger and expanding my technique.