"We'll make a dancer out of you yet!"

Tonight's lesson went well! As expected, the one lady who joined us last week for a trial and gave up halfway through never came back. I feel bad. What if taking ballet classes was like a bucket list item for her? Then she gets to our class expecting to learn basics and is thrown to the wolves instead. We had another beginner join us this evening and she, like me, is a true beginner. She clearly looked lost at times but she stuck with it and actually tried. I hope she comes back.

Barrez - Much better at the barre tonight! In fact, I'm starting to feel comfortable enough to focus a bit more on Port de Bras and head position. Bobbie come over and corrected my positions a couple of times and I gladly accepted her help! One correction was on my passé. I should really strive to have my toes almost in front of my knee instead of directly to the side of my knee so it should pass up my leg rather than pass along it. Later, when we were stretching with one leg up on the bar, my standing leg was in first position. Bobbie came and fixed that as well so my toes were facing the bar rather than out to the side. She said she was "saving my knees" and I appreciate that!

Centerz - Lots of glissades and pliés. I was much better at pirouettes this evening as well but I'm still struggling getting my feet back into 4th position once I come out of it. My body always wants to treat this like a spin on ice and keeps wanting me to do more than one revolution. At one point she reminded us to remember our arm positions and as she was talking I must have done something pretty because she yelled "YES! Good girl, Mandi! We'll make a dance out of you yet!" I did a thing! :)

Across the Floorz - I was excited about the waltz step combo because I've been watching videos and  practicing so I think I got it! I may not make a fool of myself after all! I partnered up with a more experienced dancer so we could go across together and then I could just watch him if I needed to. But I discovered that I didn't need to watch him! Yay! I got the steps! So, it's a waltz step, balancé, pirouette combo and for the first time, I felt like I could really listen to the music and move my arms accordingly with my steps and even make it more musical. I struggled with returning to 4th position coming out of the pirouettes but hey, it happened!

Grand Finalez - She had the class mark some new steps that I think she might incorporate into our next class. I would describe them but again, it was mostly in french. The other students seemed to pick it up quickly and I'm just over on the side hopping around trying to make sense of it all.

Overall, I feel like I'm making progress and I didn't feel as lost tonight as I have in previous classes. I think I might be getting the hang this whole ballet thing!