Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Sort Of On Holidays : )

Hi Followers,

I guess that since last Thursday I have sort of been on holidays from ballet. Well, I danced through the holidays, but I've got until Saturday off!
However, I'm going to be very temped to strap my pointe shoes on and do a bit of pointe this afternoon.

I think that I'll also do about an hour of stretching today. You know how you sometimes just get that feeling that you really need to stretch? Well that's how I feel right now!

You know how last time I posted, I said that there was a girl who was dancing with me, just for the holidays? Well, it turns out that she now lives in Alice Springs and is dancing with a company up there!
I felt really privileged to be in a class with somebody dancing at that higher standard, even if it was only for four lessons.

My ballet teacher is really great, too. I know that I have already said this, but she really is. She danced with the Australian Ballet for a few years, then came here and started teaching.

One thing that my teacher said that I really had to work on was, strangely enough, my arms. It's true that when you are doing a hard exercises that your arms/fingers will show it.
My teacher said that when I am working really hard, my thumbs stick up! Then after thirty seconds or so, my arms start to droop, especially in second position.

So, you may thing, well, just change it and do it properly. That's when I've been trying to do, but it's SOOOO hard. You will not believe how hard it is. Like ..... seriously!
I have been working on them in the last four lessons I have had with her, but still, my arms droop all the time!

My teacher said that it's just practice, practice, practice. She game me some pieces of paper to hold between my thumb and palm. That helped, but I'm still working on it. My goal is that by the end of the year to have perfect hands!

Thanks for reading/commenting, everyone! I will be back to post again, soon - I promise!

10 comments:

Lauren said...

Ballet sounds SOOOOOOOOOOO hard! There must be so many things you have to think of all the time. Gymnastics was a bit like that. In fact, I had a very similer problem to you. My fingers on beam were so tence, they looked auful. I remember my Gym teacher would get so angrey at me.

Izi said...

ha ha ha, yes - in every excercise their is a million things to think about, and there are a million different excercises, on the bar, in the centre, and on pointe.

My ballet teacher never gets angry at me though. She's so encouraging and lovely.

Izi xxx

Rachel Carina said...

hey lzi! love your posts; yes, arms are such a hard thing to accomplish! i watched a video of myself doing a variation the other day, and i realized that my arms looked horrible! It's amazing how something that seems so in significant is actually so vital! My teacher did the same thing, I had to hold a hairpin between my index and thumb.

Lauren said...

By the way, since you have Google buzz (or something like that) I really don't know anything about it, could you give me some info? Mabye email?

Izi said...

Hey Rachel,

Thanks so much for the comment. (I'm loving your blog, by the way.) Do you have any other advice about arms? If so, could you please tell me!

Thanks!!!!!

Izi : )

Izi said...

Sure, Lauren - I just did! wahaha

-(check your e-mails)-

Julie said...

I just found your blog today and
I LOVE it!!!! My twin (who is a dancer like me) used to have trouble with holding her arms also! You should try looking in a mmirror and practicing you arms so you can get the feel. Also try some strengthening excercises to give you the strength to hold them up!!!! Love love love your blog!!

Izi said...

Hi Julie,

SOOOO glad that you love my blog! I always love having new people who read my blog.

Thanks so much for the advice. Yeah, I actually do do that. And I agree, it helps!

Thanks agian for the advice, and for reading/commenting!

Izi : ) !!!!!

Pas de Deux Princess said...

You should, not when dancing, tape your middle finger and thumb together, that way you really know how the proper way to hold your hand feels like, my friend did this for a couple of days, right when she got home from dance she would tape them and now she is soo graceful! Being a dancer I know exactly how you feel! What i am working on now is actually releasing the stress and tension in my neck since i focus so hard. It ruins my line, so i need to fix it! sorry for such a LONG comment but thought you needed some advice =)

Izi said...

Hi pas de dux Princess,

No way ..... I love long comments, they are my favourite. Thanks so much for the advice - I will try it out, it's a brill idea!

izi : )