Blog 45

I missed one of the lessons again due to my work. Yep, that’s quite frustrating for my progress in ballet. And of course, for my focus. 

I am a grown-up person. I’ve obligations to attend to. And one of them is earning an income. Luckily, my job can be satisfying. But guarding the balance in my life with respect to working, performing sports and ballet, and spending time with family is necessary.  Sometimes, this is easier said than done. 

In earlier blogs, I wrote about a variety of exercises. Now it’s time to say a few things about the frappé, one of our custom exercises at the barre.   

We begin by standing in a wrapped cou the pied position, the heel of the working leg in front of the ankle of the supporting leg, then extend the working leg sharply en avant to 30 degrees without brushing or changing the shape of the foot. The frappé is a sharp movement and is performed dynamically. In the frappé, more time is spent in the final, outstretched pose of each frappé than in getting there. And then return the working leg in the same way. 

Of course, also à la seconde and derrière.

I always carefully look at Lyda while we perform the frappé, she is my role model. Up to now, I’m still taken by surprise with each frappé she makes. It’s a kind of quick reflex action. All the time, she seems to do a frappé exactly 1-speed millisecond earlier than I do. 

The frappé is also a terrific exercise to train the turn out of my upper thigh. Cause positioning my heel in front of the ankle of my supporting leg with the rest of my foot fully wrapped sur le cou the pied requires a considerable turn out of my upper thigh. And that isn’t easy.

We practice chainé in almost every lesson. We make a series of turns in the same direction on the diagonal. With our feet in demi-pointe.

I have to whip my head around quickly and focus on a specific spot in the classroom with each rotation of my body; otherwise, I will become dizzy. Yet, dizziness is my fate every time again. At the end of the diagonal, that is, if I succeed in maintaining a straight line, I sometimes have to grasp the barre or the wall to stop me from tumbling down. 

No need to drink any alcoholic beverages Lyda says, just do a chainé! 

Every now and then, Lyda wants us to do the chainé en relevé.  She slowly introduces more techniques to enhance our skills. 

As with all other movements in classical ballet, the challenge of turning is to make it look effortless. That’s what I call a real master challenge!

In a business meeting, I talked with my colleagues about my sports and ballet activities. And look at what happened. They became enthusiastic and asked me to organize a boxing clinic and ballet lesson somewhere in 2020. Would it surprise you if I say to you that the male colleagues want to box and the females want to experience a ballet lesson? I asked them to do both. Then I asked Lyda if she is prepared to give a ballet lesson, and she too reacted with lots of enthusiasm. A few days later, my daughter and her friend asked me when they can join in a trial lesson. And the same question came from my oldest son. 

Is something happening here?