Triple Pirouette

I went to ballet level I-II last night. My regularly scheduled Monday night ballet I class has been upgraded.

The new menu is challenging to the palette with mind boggling combinations.

LBC called to make sure I was coming to class, which is only that much more ironic because she’s been missing in action for almost a year. But I was happy to hear from her and glad to hear that she was coming to class.

So I walk into Joel Hall Dance Studios and sign in. The fish bowl is alive and teaming with dancers rehearsing for a big fundraiser in November. A gospel piece is in motion and while there is chattering in the background; mostly we are trying not to press our faces against the glass in awe.

MDB, LBC and I walk back to studio B to find two other women at the barre. As we line up more women slide in and line up. MDB has thankfully left the plié combination the same – that cannot be said of anything else. As she began showing us the latest combinations of tomfoolery and mayhem for tendus, degages, and frappes – I feel my eyes glaze over as my neurons forge new path ways to figure out what the hell is going on here.

LBC is lost as well and I’m helping her screw up by being in the very front on the second side. I hear random outbursts of “Dammit Jatare!” “Crap” and “Shit” from time to time, but mostly I giggle to myself and try to look at ethereal instead of watching my foot touch down.

Once we’ve started the floor combinations, I find that I’m not as anxious about standing in the broken mirror. I’ve decided its ok to be distorted from time to time. The adagio was challenging but completely within my realm of doable. But considering I’d recently survived Modern Dance III – I figured my perspective might seriously be askew…..

We get to a combination of pique, balance, pirouette, and arabesque and run away – and I actually nailed a triple pirouette!! I’ve finally gotten to the point where I could do two pirouettes without falling to the ground in a jumble of arms, hips and thighs….and I was working up to three, but wasn’t quite there.

And then I did it again…..finally, after all the times I smacked my living room floor, got back up and tried again….and now I want four.

Sometimes you are given gifts, sometimes you are blessed with talent, sometimes you are given grace, but most times, if you want it – you have to put that work in and earn it.