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!!