The Adventure Continues: Today's Forecast - Low Visibility

It appears that I am unable to successfully recall previous class blunders and comments after more than a day or two has passed so I will go back to writing regularly as they happen. 


I did go to MDB's class on Monday. Mostly I remember Lil Black Chick being there and a wacky reference to quasi being pronounced 'crasi' - to which I assume is the French/Ballet word for 'CRAZY'. 
(Quasi is a position -either stage related or in my instance - mirror related.)


I skipped Mr. Hall's class on Saturday (I didn't chicken out). I had a wedding shower to go to in the middle of bubble f**k nowhere, IL. I only venture to the unknown for people that I truly care about. (Note: If you live in bubble f**k nowhere - I still love you  - I just don't want to drive there!)


So today, feeling guilty, I decide to go back to the Sunday 12 noon slot. Mr. Heinz is currently out of town doing whatever professional ballerino's do when they don't have performances, otherwise, I would surely let him set my brain on fire with all the 'crasi' combinations he makes up. 


The rumor mill has mentioned that Lil' Miss Babymaker (LBM) isn't teaching the 12 noon slot anymore and Miss C or Missy as I call her is now teaching. As I round the block a second time looking for parking, I promise myself if I see Lil Miss Babymaker, I'm heading BACK out the door. (Note: LBM is a wonderful instructor - but somewhere between the forward slash in beginner/ballet I - she slid in ballet III.) I walk in, register and I don't see hide nor hair of Lil Miss Babymaker or the baby. 


Side Bar: Disaster averted?
Menty: Or TBD??


I walk into the studio and see a regular that I know. I drop my things, slide into my slippers and meet her at the barre. Interestingly enough, she starts right in on the difficulty of LMB's class and how much she struggled. She also stopped coming because she said, "I don't mind being challenged but I stopped because I always felt bad after class was over." 
Side Bar: It is true.
Menty: What?
Side Bar: Misery loves company.


There are five of us in class and then Legs comes in wearing a black leotard, a red lacy wrap around ballet skirt, hideous flesh tone tights and white pointe shoes. I shuttered before I could stop myself. It's the flesh tone tights. 


Before I can ponder the clothing selection any further, Missy gets us started with plies: two demis, releve, grand plie, port de bra forward on front, side, back - then circular port de bra. Missy calls it out, but she says it different from her original instruction. Three of us just ignore her and finish the combination - the other three hesitate and then do what she says. We all just smile at each other. 
Forecast: Lots of sunshine. 


We move into tendus and degages, but when we hit rond de jambes, she asks the one guy in class who he studies with - to which he says he teaches. After this announcement, class goes from beginner into ballet I/II ish. Suddenly, we have developpes with releves, fondus and passes. Missy asks us how many developpes were in that combination - and then she counts it for us. She said, "You're doing 4 of those." "I didn't do any." I replied while shaking my head. Of course, we have to do it again - I think I got three TOTAL from doing both sides. And for kicks and giggles, our battements have a pirouette turn thrown in there. 
Side Bar: Do you smell that?
Menty: Yea, that's our brain cooking again. 
Side Bar: Why is that always such an uncomfortable sensation?
Menty: It's connected to fear of embarrassment.
Side Bar: Well at least you know....
Forecast: Partly Cloudy.


We stretch and then move to floor combinations. The adagio isn't too difficult but it's lengthy. We flub this combination of tomlee front and back, rond de jamb to quasi, chasse to arabesque, fondu, releve, pas de bouree to fourth, plie, pirouette - start again other side. Then we do jumps in first, then echappe with a royal - which I don't do. Not due to fear of embarrassment - fear of pain is a pretty good deterrent too!


Our petit allegro is glissade, assemblage (both directions) and then three sissones with a subersaut - twice slow, then two times fast. I want to sink into the floor. I avoid eye contact. I stop looking around the room and just remember to breathe.  


Missy sees three of us struggling and tells us we are doing fine. But I'm not doing fine. I'm trying not to burst into tears. I'm trying not to let my frustration with this same combinations of movements make me lose my nerve. We are up one more time and I try to get the combination right at least once....Epic Fail. Insert deep sigh. Glissade, Assemblage, Sissone combination - 1001, Me - 0. 
Forecast: 70% Chance of Rain.


We move into traveling floor combinations - and we do a sissone forward, back, side to side - and then two pique turns, chasse, grand jete. I manage to do this combination relatively right, but I don't do the jete on my left side. My left knee isn't even twitchy, but my brain is automatically protective so I can't get the mechanics together. Insert deep sigh. 


Missy confessed at the end of class that it was beginner to intermediate. She could have skipped the confession, I knew after we started the rond de jambes that maybe I should have stayed at home. 
Forecast: Low Visibility.

Mr. Hall, MDB and Blink, Breathe, Blink

The previous Saturday I simply did not have enough courage to go back to Mr. Hall's class. The combinations are not lengthy, complex or mind boggling. They are simple, exact and precise. But the master leading the practice by sheer force of will sucks the air from the room. This is probably why no one breathes in class. 

As I waffle back and forth about going this past Saturday, Side Bar and Menty kick in:

Side Bar: We don't have to go.

Menty: But he said he expects us.

Side Bar: He didn't mean EVERY SATURDAY

Menty: But we missed last Saturday

Side Bar: He doesn't even know our name

Menty: Maybe, Maybe not - but we definitely KNOW WHEN HE IS TALKING TO US!!

I pack my shoes, towel, water and ass and go to class. 

MDB is there and Miss M is suppose to be staying too, but she has to go. She promises next Saturday, but I won't be there. 

MDB is back at the barre at the center of the floor - but she's in pointe shoes. 

Side Bar: Are those pointe shoes?

Menty: RUN! RUN! RUN!

"Ummmm...I'm going to stand over here." I mumble and run to the closest barre AWAY from her. She is hardly alone though - one of the ladies from first company joins her - also in pointe shoes. And lastly a guy joins the ladies in pointe shoes.

Side Bar: Can he do that? Wear pointe shoes? I thought pointe shoes were for ballerinas?

Menty: He better - he's in them and Mr. Hall is here now....

We all turn to face the barre as Mr. Hall gets situated on his stool. And then I endure the hardest 16 plies of my short little ballet life. Between the plies, forced arch plie, forced arch releve, and lengthening to lower....Menty and Side Bar join in:

Menty: Breathe! Breathe!

Side Bar: Die! Die!

Menty: How rude?

Within 16 plies, I'm pouring sweat and ready to go home now. Of course, I don't. We move into the tendu combination - it is simple, exact, and precise. I manage not to screw it up too bad until Mr. Hall comes to adjust my arm. 

Side Bar: He's fixing my arm. 

Menty: Should we stop moving our feet?

Physie: Ummm...they already stopped.

Menty: What do we DO??

Side Bar: Oh hell.....

Menty, Physie, Side Bar: Blink, Breathe, Blink 

Mr. Hall tells me, "Not bad, not bad. Now let me see your tendu to the back again."

I do it. "Drop the heel." Mr. Hall says from his stool, "now close."

I try, I fail - "Do it again - drop the heel." I try, I fail three more times.

Side Bar: If he gets off that stool and heads in this direction - let's run out the door.

Menty: I was going to say squeal like a little girl, but that's WAY BETTER!

Physie: DEAL!

Mr. Hall doesn't get off the stool. I don't squeal or run away. I finally get it right or at least to his satisfaction.  We move into degages, rond de jambs, and battements - all the combinations are simple, exact, and precise. Unfortunately, I am not. Thankfully, Mr. Hall is busy yanking and pulling on the people in pointe shoes (including MDB).

We move into the floor combinations and some how I end up in the center of the row, center of the room, with no one in front of me....

Menty: HEY!!! 

Side Bar: Oh hell...

Menty and Side Bar: Blink, Breathe, Blink

I manage to only mildly embarrass myself. Then we move to the traveling floor combination - which involves holding three people - the center person piques onto releve with one leg in attitude arabesque and then panache (tip forward) come back up to attitude and then take three steps and repeat. 

Side Bar: They are going to drop me on my face. I have at least 50 lbs on the next person that's even CLOSE TO MY DAMN HEIGHT!!

Menty: Run for it?

Side Bar: Mr. Hall AND MDB are too close to the doors. 

Menty: Squeal like a little girl?

Side Bar: I don't think that will help. 

Menty: Suck it up?

Side Bar: Yup....

I don't get dropped on my face, I don't drop anyone on their face and thankfully the longest 90 minutes of my life on Sunday has passed in sweaty, comedic concentration! And Blink, Breathe, Blink.

It May Never Be Possible

Originally posted on July 23, 2011

Mr. Heinz's Sunday morning class starts with me and Spunk walking into the reception area and finding a new skinny woman stretching on the floor. But this isn't just any 'skinny' woman, she's one of Mr. Heinz's fellow company members...i.e. someone else that doesn't really need to take this class...i.e. someone else that I will completely foolish next to on the barre.

Side Bar: Our Mission, if we choose to accept it, is to NOT be on the same ballet barre as New Skinny. 

Menty: We ACCEPT!!

Side Bar: Initiating avoidance sequence in 5,4,3,2

As Spunk and I start stretching, I listen to one of the owners praise Mr. Heinz to New Skinny - so much so I thought she was going to break into applause when he came through the door. New Skinny confirmed his wonderfulness and I tried my best not to barf a little in my mouth. I think Mr. Heinz's is fabulous too - but I'll pass on the gushing - thanks. 

We pull out the barres and Spunk and I are on the same barre. She's trying to talk me into going on the other side when the New Skinny comes over and throws her leg over the side - which pretty much ends our discussion. 

Side Bar: DAMN IT!!

Menty: Mission is EPIC FAIL!!

Side Bar: insert Deep Sigh

Menty: Let's just apply Jedi Knight focus and try not to screw up too bad. 

Side Bar: We are in intermediate ballet - TOO LATE!!

I spend the rest of barre trying not to feel too self-conscious about everything. The combinations were definitely more challenging and I know it's because of New Skinny, but I suck it up because it is intermediate. And I already know I'm the weakest link - GOOD BYE!

We move into a pirouette combination, followed by a sissone combination. And because we had not performed it to his standard - he makes us repeat them both again and again - and thankful time runs out! 

At one point in his explanation of the sissone combination - he stops and says "It smells like dust burning." My response: Sorry - that's just my BRAIN on FIRE trying to understand the combination!

I survive Mr. Heinz's class to go to MDB's class on Monday night. It's my first Monday night back for a few months and I'm a little nervous. 

I register and see MDB. We hug and I'm feeling less nervous and more secure. 

I walk into class, line up to the barre and find women putting on pointe shoes. 

Side Bar: Awwww....man. 

Menty: Oh well. If it's not one ballerina -it's your mother. 

Legs is wearing pointe shoes now. My right eyelid won't stop twitching. I can't watch. LBC (Lil Black Chick) walks in and lines up to the barre as well. I look at her and she just rolls her eyes. 

MDB starts the class with our usual plies - which aren't usual to me anymore - but I remember soon enough. 

MDB gives us our tendus, degages, rond de jambs, frappes and battements. Each time making sure she gave clarification to the women on pointe. I think it's great they do it - but I don't know that I want to hear about it. (I know that's bitchy - but it's true - class is hard enough in ballet slippers!) 

And since I don't get the combinations right on FLAT FEET - I sure as HELL ain't putting on POINTE SHOES!! POINTY SHOES - SURE - POINTE SHOES - HELL TO THE NO!!!

I begin to wonder again if I will ever have an excellent class. After some bickering back and forth between Side bar and Menty - we ALL agree - it may never be possible. 

Next, we try floor combinations. They weren't mind boggling, but did I do them correctly? Hmmm...maybe next week! And then we moved into the traveling combinations which included a combination of arabesques. I didn't ace these either. 

Self-awareness is overrated, y'all! Sometimes I wish I was a clueless wonder. 

To Watch or Be Watched: That is the question

Originally posted July 15, 2011

I guess you can split a week into Monday to Sunday or Sunday to Saturday. And since Mr. Hall is technically Ballet 2 (with or without crack or some other drug), I will write about Mr. Heinz's class and Miss M. 

I wasn't particularly craving an early morning intermediate ballet class on Sunday, but I knew Spunk would be there. And I'm running behind because I was experiencing caffeine withdrawal and I needed to stop by Starbucks. 

But as I'm about to exit, Mr Heinz stops into Starbucks. Crickets creak, birds chirp - silence. 

Side Bar: It must be because he's 6'6.

Menty: Yea! That was my second thought!

I pinch his arm and tell him now I know I won't be late. We laugh - the volume returns to normal. 

Spunk was texting me like crazy and she a bit peeved at me when I show up. She doesn't even hug me back when I see her - she's totally arms crossed and pout in full swing. I feel kinda bad because she's so sweet. 

We set up the barres and start whispering like schoolgirls. We were about to really get going when Mr. Heinz comes in with Starbucks in hand. To top it off, a newbie wants to trade places with Spunk so she can watch her. 

Side Bar: How does she know I'm not good enough to watch????

Menty: It's intermediate - we aren't good enough to watch. 

Side Bar: Oh yeah...right. 

Our barre combinations follow the plie, tendu, degage, rond de jamb, frappe, battement route, but we detour with fondus, passes, releves, coupes  - and a partridge and a pear tree! I, too, spent a good portion of class eye balling Spunk. 

It didn't help that it was a 'wandering' class for Mr. Heinz. Mostly he will stand in the one corner and watch from there - he's tall so he can see, but Sunday - he walks. When he gives us the barre stretch that requires my leg in arabesque on the barre...I try not to look too panicked that I can't get my leg up there and BEHIND ME!! I look at him cross eyed for two seconds and then I lock my lips. He sees this and laughs. 

When I almost fall onto my face because I can't keep my leg up there - everyone laughs. Deep sigh - I decided NOT to warn them and just let it happen.  The other side was better. I just cheated. 

The floor combinations were scary. All the experienced people went first which left myself and the other beginners to basically run in circles, screaming for help.....ok so maybe it wasn't that bad - but damn NEAR!  I'm still trying to get up to class tempo with glissade, assemblage, changement, changement, glissade, assemblage, changement, changement - sissone (hold), sissone (hold), sissone, sissone, changement, changement. I refused to do the sissones because I knew I would jump in the wrong direction. 

While most people think that's ok (fail faster and all that) - let's just keep in mind that average weight of the girls in his class: 100lbs - that's THEE AVERAGE!! And then there's me. If my LEFT THIGH brushes one of them - They. Are. Going. DOWN!!! So for everyone's safety, I just hopped around in the wrong direction.  It is on my list though - I plan to get that combination. 

Miss M's class last night was packed. We had 8 people - 6 women and 2 men. Two of the women came in almost 20 minutes late into class - and I just kept thinking how that wouldNOT fly if it were Mr. Hall. And one of them was wearing a leotard WITHOUT TIGHTS!

Now I know I'm not the ballet police, but seriously even if you are thin/skinny/fit/toned - you need something to stop friction. It was like a train wreck - loose, jiggly thigh meat - ICK! I don't wear tights - but I don't come to class with bare legs either. 

One guy is disastrously uncoordinated - he, of course, wants to stand RIGHT behind me. Miss M would say front - and I guess FRONT to him is 10 o'clock. I had to stop watching him because my right eyelid started to twitch - why come to class if you aren't even GOING TO TRY!!! 

Our barre instruction was interesting - Miss M was back from a European vacation with crazy lay overs and missed connections - so she is having jetlag issues. She would give us the combination and then say them while we were doing them - and CHANGE THEM. I would just nod and do my best. 

When we moved to floor combinations, I was standing to the far left of the class. Miss M gave us the combination which was fairly basic - quasi, 3 tendus, 1 tombele to the front, 3 tendus arabesque, 1 tombele to the back on false, repeat to the left, repeat to the right, 2 passes on releve and 1 pirouette - and repeat. Miss M gets the music and I'm standing in position. The Football player guy asks me to stand in the middle so he can watch me without turning his head. 

Side Bar: YEA!! Finally, we are SOMEONE to WATCH!!

Menty: But can we do it RIGHT???

Side Bar:hmmmm....no pressure.

I do it right - on the right side and the left. We move into waltzes and waltzes with turns and arms. I do this correct in the first direction -and it's a little touchy on the other side. 

After class, the Football guy says, "I feel like a bull in a china shop." I say, "I was you last year. I took about 3 classes a week. Come to Ballet 1 - I'm still breaking china - pots, pans, tea kettles, cauldrons, coffee mugs and sugar spoons!" Football guy says."I don't believe you. You are so graceful."

And I had my first real, genuine, happy smile at that moment. 

Dare I go to Mr. Hall's class tomorrow? Dare I NOT GO to Mr. Hall's class tomorrow? I don't want him looking for me but I don't know if I can go....

Thee End Or Lessons Learned this Year

Yes, thee - not the. 

Yes, I am still taking beginner classes. Yes, I am still a beginner. 

Like any art form, it takes years, possibly decades to master. I am still a beginner. I will be for many more years I suspect, but I have a lot more patience and respect for my body and its limitations - as well as my mental ones as well. 

Some of the most important things I've learned this year:
1) I need to be MENTALLY and PHYSICALLY present in class. It's not enough to show up - I need to have the capacity to learn - not just the ability to do. 

2) My emotional state - no matter how illogical and irrational - can make or break my learning experience. I need to pay attention to it even more than just my mental and physical state. My emotional state has the capability of mental torture so cruel, I can be physically handicapped by it. 

3) Patience. I want so bad to be good - that I fail to remember that the people I am looking at, learning from, watching from a distance - have given up (happily) many things to be what I aspire to be like. 

4) Focus on the Goal. I am ambitious enough to take the class. I need to be ambitious enough to put in the work. My goal was to take the class, learn the technique, attain some grace, be inspired, learn to pirouette without injury (epic fail on this one :), and become a better dancer. I'm still working on all those things. 

5) Practice. If you perform at the level that you practice - then I need to practice more - for everything. It is not enough to NOT FALL ON MY ASS. I need to not fall on my ass with grace :)

6) Managing my fear. Most people would think I'm not afraid of anything - they would be wrong. I'm always afraid - of failure, of foolishness, of being ostracized, of going to the right instead of left and vice versa. But instead of trying to conquer each fear, I just manage my response to it better. I work through my mental and emotional fight and flight mechanism and try to become comfortable with being uncomfortable. 

7) Failure - the quickest way to learn something. Rachel Brice said during on 3 hour workshop - that one of her teachers said,  "The fastest way to learn is to fail. Fail faster." You recognize the mistake, you adjust, you try again. You try again. You try again. You try again. Each try you learn something else, something new, something different about you, the process, the movement, the way things work - fail faster - learn better. I also learned that failure doesn't kill you - neither does embarrassment. And if they do - I don't want to be the FIRST CASUALTY!!!

8) Respecting my body. My body is not small, fine bones with dainty fingers and toes. I cannot make it into something it is not. No matter how little I eat. No matter how small I get - my frame does not change. My muscles will. The amount of fat will. My shape does not. When I do not listen to my body - I hurt myself. When I do not respect its limitations - I hurt myself. When I push it hard and demand more than it can give - I hurt myself. I need to listen better. I need to respect and honor it - I only have this one.

9) Flaws and All. My teachers do not look at me and wish I was something different. MDB doesn't think my knees are chubby - she thinks they are just as capable as the next set. Mr. Heinz doesn't want me to have a narrow ass - he wants me to keep the one I do have under me. Miss M doesn't want me to jump higher because I'm tall, she wants me to jump as high as it's safe with proper technique. And Mr. Hall doesn't think 'who is this beginner in my ballet 2 class?", he thinks I'm a student worth having. I'm not perfect. I'm my worst critic and harshest judge - I need to be kinder to myself - flaws and all. 

10) Just Dance. No other art form is so fleeting. Books are printed. Movies are recorded. Painting are framed. Dance is a living art form. No moment is ever exactly the same ever again. No performance is exactly the same. The energy is never the same. When it's time, just dance. Staying in that moment is priceless and it never comes again. 

I'm not the same person from last year. I'm not the same dancer. I would like to believe that I'm more present now than any other point in my entire life. I don't want to fade into someone else's background - I want to own my little piece of spotlight my whole life. It doesn't matter if I'm looking at Ethereal ;) or watching my toes. I going to dance my whole life or as long as God gives me the ability to do so. 

Thank you all that have read, followed, learned, laughed (with and at me), cried, commented, been frustrated, had patience, plied, pirouetted and fallen with me. This is the first time I've ever written anything with any consistency and meaning to me- it was an experience in and of itself. All of your comments, critiques, criticisms, opinions, encouragement and references to Side Bar, Menty and Physie have been appreciated. It's like having your own cheering section especially on those days when I wanted to give up and give in. 

I will continue writing about ballet class, but instead of daily - it will be a weekly review. I have no idea how I'm going to do that seeing as my daily adventures are so long.  Or maybe I will just write about Mr. Hall's class - at any rate, I don't think I can stop writing. I love it as much as I love to dance.  Maybe writing is my next adventure :) 

Class with a Master

Originally posted on July 4, 2011
_____________________________________________________________
This is my first anniversary of learning ballet. And of course, it must be celebrated the same way it started:
scared, nervous, uncertain, doubtful and stomach flutters.  

MDB and I agree (or maybe I'm prodded?) to go to Saturday 1pm ballet 2 with Joel Hall. 

Oddly, I wasn't nervous going to class, but I think that had to do the extremely late night/early morning I had on Saturday.  As I walk into the studio, I look into the fish bowl to see Mr. Hall putting everyone through their paces. He is pulling legs higher, straighter, checking and giving attitude, making corrections and snapping his fingers. I'm in awe and suddenly scared shitless. 

MDB rounds the corner and we hug tight. I'm thinking about squeezing her silly for recommending this class, but I'm here. 

The class lets out and everyone is covered in sweat and relief. The industrial fans are blowing the hot air around as the ballet 2 crowd walks in. I put down my things and try to hide at the barre in the corner, but no - MDB is standing at the barre placed in the center of the floor. 
"So you are going to abandon me out here, huh?" MDB says over her shoulder.
Side Bar: HELL YEAH! He's going to be closest to that barre!
Menty: He's going to see us where ever we are.
Side Bar: I don't need to be up close and personal!
Menty: Get yo ass over to that barre!

I try to wonder nonchalant to the barre, but I'm kinda terrified. And as if that's not bad enough, Mr. Hall pulls up a stool and sits less than 8 feet away from me in a soaking wet shirt to start class.

We start facing the barre i.e. I start facing him. And while the combinations are simple enough (eight plies, eight tendus with plie, forced arch, eleve, and lower - both sides then reverse order, eight degages front, side, back - reverse - then four, then two then one, eight rond de jambs - reverse, grand battement front, side and grande panache to the back), he is not so interested in the combination - he is interested solely in the mastery of the technique.

Knees back! Weight back in the HEELS! Push DOWN! POINT! Push that hell FORWARD! Unfortunately, due to my chubby knees, I have to shift slightly to get them 'unstuck' from themselves - and he shouts 'No SHIFTING.' 
Side Bar and Menty: Blink....Blink...Blink
Side Bar: But I'm fat
Menty: I don't think he cares....

Mr. Hall is very specific about what he wants - and he wants it to be correct. He calls out the names of the people that aren't correct - and I'm a little thankful he doesn't know mine - but he has my undivided attention and I know when he is talking to me. 

The barre is a practice in perfection and even MDB is getting her corrections. At one point, Mr. Hall grabs her leg and pulls it into a very high arabesque while she is holding a balance on releve. MDB holds it staring up at Ethereal - and I'm holding my breath. 
Side Bar and Menty: Blink....Blink...

I start to think maybe I can't make it through barre, let alone consider floor combinations, when Mr. Hall releases us for a water break. As I return from the ladies room, I hear Mr. Hall calling for someone that hasn't returned to class. I run into class to find everyone lined up. I drop my stuff while he is telling us that he doesn't want to be looking for us. I fall into the back line closest to MDB and try not to feel like an elephant in a china shop breaking all the fine china. 

One of the students from the previous class asks to be excused while the rest of us are trying to get through the first of many floor combinations. He wants us to say the combinations as we move through them. I don't know them all by heart yet, but I do my best not to miss any of the postures and positions as we move through them. 

We move into two more combinations that I cannot manage to do all the way through. I try to get through as much of the combination as possible. I don't give up even when I'm so frustrated I could cry. When we finally get to the end of class we must finish with pique turns. The tempo is so fast I can't keep up but I push through as best as I can. I even have to restart every time -but I just dig down and try not to lose my nerve as the better students appear to be turning on top of me. 

And when class is over, I start breathing again - big whooping lungs full. I threatened to kill MDB twice after class started, but she kept saying she was going to die before class was over anyway. She didn't and I didn't kill her either. 

We exchanged big sweaty hugs - thankful to make it through the most intense 90 minutes ballet 2 class anywhere. And as I gather my things and Mr. Hall calls me over to him and gives me a big hug. And I cry a little because it was hard and he's so fantastic and talented and wonderful. He tells me to keep going to my classes and going to Saturday class. And he tells me not to be intimidated by ANYONE. 

And I think - He must be kidding - he's Joel Hall!! 

So now I'm taking beginner AND BALLET 2 classes! Whose up for my next adventures