Miss C or Missy

It was OH MY GOODNESS Cold outside tonight. At 5:36pm I made the decision to go to class anyway. MDB went through the hassle of finding subs, the least I can do is take my tuchus to class.

I walk in, register and head to Studio B. As I watch the pointe class dance to Sugar Plum fairies , I think about my upcoming trip to see the Nutcracker. I'm kinda looking forward to watching ballerinas crack nuts!! :) While I'm watching these feets of strength (pun intended), I'm unwinding my scarf, pulling off my gloves, unzipping my boots, rolling down my socks, and unbuttoning my coat - and just before you think this is a strip tease....let me remind you - it was 27 degrees outside!!  

Two regulars and one regular that has been MIA for a while are sitting with me on the bench watching the dancers. Three other people round the corner and one of them is our sub.  

Last night we had Little Red, tonight we had Miss C or Missy - if you say it quickly :)

She's about as tall as Little Red, but a brunette with blonde streaks in her hair. I've seen her around a lot, but I have little to no idea who is a just dancer (which is a marvelous thing), who is a teacher and who's class will make you scream who's your mama!!!  

Missy introduces herself to all of us and asks for our names and then gets us started right away. There are six of us in class - 5 women, 1 man. For the most part unless you are a regular I typically don't give you a name - it's not worth the effort if you aren't coming back. But Mr. Self Important must have a name.

She has start with port de bras for position of plie, which is different but not mind muddling. Then we move into tendus, more tendus, degages with piques and beats, frappes with beats, and rond de jambs. Now while all of this sounds fairly normally, she likes us to hold things in releve.....things like my heavy ass THIGHS!!!

Missy likes to end each combination in releve in coupe or retir or arabesque with or without attitude, which would be fine if my thighs weren't 1/3 of my BODY MASS!

Side Bar: What was that Missy? You want me in retir on releve AND BALANCED?  Ok, how about you can get two of the three....I'd like releve and balance

Menty: We can do it - just stack the bones...

Side Bar: Like you know what the hell that even MEANS!

Physie: Less chatter - MORE matter - I can't hold this if you aren't paying attention!!

The barre portion of class wraps at 7:30ish, we break for water and come back for center floor work. It appears that MDB may be one of few instructors that ACTUALLY starts center floor work with an Adagio. Missy has us start with something that wasn't quite slow but wasn't fast either. It wasn't really difficult but we didn't nail it either.  Missy gives us the adagio which has three arabesques, chasse, pas de bouree, closing in fifth - one in each direction. She makes us do this at least four times, which gives me an ass cramp on the right side. She moves us over to the corner and runs us through one petit allegro and one grande allegro.  

Missy was a lot less hurried but no less challenging than Little Red. And while Little Red makes me want to hide in the woods, Missy's class makes me warn her about the Big Bad Wolf.

On the other hand, MDB would probably have me skipping through the woods holding the basket of food while correcting my grip and yelling TOUCH IT! 

And freak that I am, I miss her :)