The Distant Threat =)

I’m trying to think of an excuse to wearing socks 24/7 inside our house when I go home. Mom is going to kill me when she sees my feet. Two nails are no longer attached to the nail bed by three-fourths of their area. I have three nails going black too. And the blisters. And the wounds. This was one of the reasons Mom didn’t want to pay for my ballet tuition. She said I’ll just ruin my feet. Well, I have. But I still think it’s worth it. I'm hoping that the weeks I don't attend ballet class (because of final exams and thesis papers) will give my feet time to heal. If two weeks isn't enough, I'll have to face Mom's wrath. She really likes my feet. She thinks they're very pretty. Is this a Mom thing or is it just my Mom?

Last night when classes were canceled, Fiona and me satisfied our deprivation by holding our own class here in the dorm. I taught her the barre exercises since I’ve memorized them and then some of the center exercises. She’s still not familiar with all the terms so it’s hard for her to catch up in class. She was satisfied at understanding and memorizing three barre exercises: Plié, Battement Tendu and Rond de Jambe. And she was looking forward to joining me when I practiced them over the week.

Imagine her dismay when Ms. Mylene announces that next weekend, she’s teaching us a whole new set of exercises. Flabbergasted is hardly the word.

Class was good. I’m getting really chummy with pirouettes on my right leg from fifth and fourth. My “lefties” still need cleaning up and I still can’t find my center when I do releve passes on my left leg. But just as I was beginning to love them instead of loath them, Ms Mylene challenges Marion, Dione, and me to work towards double pirouettes. Ballet class resembles a song in round robin. Except in this case, you begin one thing while you’re still in the middle of something else.

We also did training exercises for fouettés and chainés. Chainés turns to the left are hell. I’m not a left turner. I get lost in the middle of the floor. That or I start doing it to the right again. But that didn’t suck so much because no one’s a left turner in our class so we were all uniformly messy to look at. Ms. Mylene stopped the music and asked us, “What is happening? You’re all all over the place.” She made us do it twice before she gave up and told us to practice that for next class.

I still can’t go over on my left. So the pique arabesques on my left were another waterloo tonight. What am I going to do with this leg and foot?! Doing it on my right leg is fine. I could go on and on. Sigh. Splitting with my left leg in front is a piece of cake. Doing splits any other way seems impossible but, fine, patience Krissy and you'll get there.

You know that ugly feeling where you feel like you’re the worst student in the class? It’s nice to not feel that all the time now. There are lots of newbies in class. I’m evil, I know.