Sadly, I haven’t been able to return to ballet yet. I remember saying that I would travel far and wide for a great ballet class unfortunately things are a bit different now. For one thing, I haven’t found that perfect class or teacher yet and I haven’t found any adult ballet classes near me at all. The closest is about a 45 minute drive and yes, I used to driver farther in Los Angeles but one thing I’ve learn quickly is that driving at night in LA is WAY different from driving at night in the country. It is WAY dark over here! And the long stretches of road through farmland or forest with absolutely nothing is so lovely and relaxing for a day time drive but completely terrifying for a night time drive. Two land highway through a cotton field at night with no one around, I’m still too much of a city girl to feel comfortable driving all that way by myself. I’m a scaredy cat, you can say it.
I want to create a ballet room so that I can take classes online but I’m using said room for something else right now so it’s not cleared of space yet. I’m really looking forward to creating a dance room though because I’m also looking forward to buying a pilates reformer to stick in there alongside my bar and mirror. Pilates has become my goto without ballet classes and I really like the reformer because there are so many movements, exercises that mimic dancing. My favorite is jumping because even in my younger days at the height of my progress in class, I could never jump with that kind of height. It’s super cool to jump similar ballet jumps lying down and get that awesome stretch and height!
I’d like to set a goal of getting into shape enough to attend a camp next year. I’ve pretty much missed all the summer camps this year and I’m not in proper shape for them anyway but it’s still a dream to go to a camp and dance across the floor again. I also think it’s really helpful to have a goal or a mile marker to measure some kind of progress, at least that’s how it works best for me. So that’s the plan, that and write again. I’m not sure where our ballet community went, it would be nice to find it again. Hello? Where are you guys 🙂
So, my friends, I signed up for a Monday, 5 week course in a town that is about 45 minutes from where I live. As it is, adult ballet is not really a thing in North Carolina and adult ballet classes are hard to come by. Charlotte Ballet offers classes but that’s more than an hour drive and the class is only half an hour so mathematically that doesn’t really make any sense. This dance studio offers a number of classes for adults: ballet, tap, modern, contemporary. It is a really nice big studio in a really nice, well lighted area with tons of parking. I’m still a Californian by birth so free parking is like holy grail, peeps, it just makes us Angelinos so very happy. I dug around in the moving bins that are (still) squirreled away in my attic and found my flatties. As I was still feeling really trepidatious about the whole thing, I didn’t pull out all my ballet stuff. I retrieved two pairs of flatties, a pair of dance socks, two of my favorite cover up tee shirts, and two small hand towels that I got in Japan at a trip to the World Ballet Festival.
Today is cold, it’s rainy, and I’m not sure that any of this is actually a good idea. I hate driving in the dark here because it can get really dark, I mean, like dark. When you are from the city you don’t understand the darkness that comes from long stretches of farm land without city lights, street lights, or, um, other signs of life. Now, bear in mind that I don’t even live in the country-country. We thought we did but when we referenced living in the country during our first year here, we got laughed at and corrected. We are actually townies as we live in town and the town we live in is actually considered a medium sized city with lots of shopping and places to eat despite the fact that virtually nothing is open on Sunday. Also, deer. I really really really do not want to hit a deer. We have tons of deer in our neighborhood, we like to leave corn and apples out for them and they will walk right up into our backyard. It’s brilliant and I love it. And I’ve been instructed by those who know to never ever turn the wheel or try to swerve away from a deer in the road, that’s how people get killed. Not swerving to avoid them is how deer get killed, that’s for sure. When it is cold they tend to run around to get warm. I love seeing them run around our lower backyard but I do not relish seeing them run across the road. So driving at night, in the cold, makes me really nervous. My first class, which was tonight, Carboy decided that he would be the prince that he is and he drove me and waited in the car park. I don’t expect him nor would I ask him to do that regularly but it was a lovely thing for him to do and since I was on the verge of backing out, I accepted and we headed out to the studio.
To my surprise when we got there, there were lots of ladies! When I first started taking class in LA, they were pretty empty. After that (dumb and unwatchable) movie Black Swan, things picked up and then ballet classes started to really trend in LA so toward the end, classes were packed. Everyone was really friendly and helpful and our little lithe ballet teacher was all smiles and happiness and even though I felt like my feet were made of lead and I could barely touch my toes, it was great to move to music, with other ballerinas, in a big lovely studio, and I was happy. The beginning ballet class was before Christmas so this was more of an intermediate class. No worries, I just dug into the movement and the music and followed along as best I could.
Tomorrow, North Carolina is battening down the hatches for a storm that will be passing through on its way to New England. Schools are closed and everything is cancelled so we will hunker down and pray that the rain and the wind are gentle to our much loved homestead. Sometimes when a ton of rain soaks the ground and then wind whips around the tree tops, it can bring them down. So that’s not fun. And there is an outside possibility of tornados as well. Perhaps that is my least favorite thing about living in NC is that we do get an occasional tornado warning and we have to head down into the basement. But I am grateful that we have a nice basement that we have set up and stocked for these events but I do hope and pray that we don’t end up there tomorrow. Tonight I am still glowing in the light of a really fun cello lesson trying to find 4th position on my A string and a great ballet class trying to find my legs again. So, I guess, here I go. Again.
x Lorry
Almost 10 years between classes in my dance class journal!
THE 109th BEAD 