Morning, gentle readers,

I'm about 7 weeks into my ballet lessons. All I can say is that shit is hard. But my legs and my ass are starting to look GREAT! Another two months, and I'll be able to crack walnuts with my butt cheeks. ;) I'm really starting to pick stuff up, too.

They've been desperately trying to teach me some things, one of them being piquee turns (aka Pirouette Piquees.

Here's a demonstration from the amazing American Ballet Theater's online ballet dictionary, which has not only word definitions, but quicktime videos demonstrating moves. Keep in mind that although the piquee turns are shown en pointe here (i.e., on the toes), they're only trying to teach them to me in "demi-pointe", i.e. with the foot raised, but not on the toes.

http://media.abt.org/qtime/pique.tour.mov

I'm getting better. At least now, I understand what's going on with this particular movement, but the spotting is still a bit difficult, so I get really dizzy. Last night, the teacher just had me doing the movement without actually turning. I'm starting to feel confident in that part of it, so hopefully the next time we go over this, I can add in the turn.

While browsing said dictionary, I ran into this:

http://media.abt.org/qtime/pirouette.second.mov

Now, those are some serious turns. In my secret heart of hearts, I would LOVE to be able to do something so beautiful and athletic.

Last night, a boy about 13, or 14, I would guess, maybe a little younger, joined the class. He's been taking class for exactly a week, and he's already better than me.

I hate him.

Not really of course, as he seems to be a nice enough kid (thank goodness I never have to be that young again), and I applaud his ability to pick all this stuff up.

Still ... I hate him. ;)

Travis