Quick Post From Me

Hi Fans!

Today I went up to a town about an hour and a half away from where we live. I had a special ballet class there.
A while ago I went there for a class, remember. However, this time it was a private lesson, not like last time where I was in a class with lots of other girls.

The class was extremely intensive and went for over two hours! By the end of it my legs were shaking like jelly!
The teacher didn't mind my pointe work, but I thought it was pretty horrible. Because my legs were shaking so much, it was really hard to balance.
At the end of the class, when I was putting on my shoes, my legs were shaking so much it was embarrassing. I seriously couldn't stop it.

Despite the hard work, it was good and I'll be going up for another two hour class next Friday. When I got home tonight, I immediately got in the shower to help relax those muscles.
The long trip home was good, too. It gave my muscles a chance to relax.

The teacher said that I need to work on my double pirouettes. She said they were good, but they could be better and I needed more momentum to get me all the way around ...... twice.

She also said that I need to work on my pas de bourrees. Apparently I am not stepping into second enough, and my foot is going behind instead of coming in front. So I'll be practicing them on demi-pointe and on pointe over the rest of the holidays.

Apart from that, she seemed happy with my dancing and said that I was certainly ready for the exam. Tomorrow it's the first of October, which means it's only 17 days until the big day. eek!

Thanks so much to all the people who voted on my poll. The results were:

7% - I dance but not ballet

14% - No

78% - Yes

Be sure to keep an eye out for my next poll. I haven't put it on yet, but I will. Hope you all have a great weekend!

Quick Update

Heeey!

OK, so not much has been happening at the moment. Although I did just find out that my exam is in about a months time, so ...... yeah - I'm really nervous.

Working on those pirouettes hard, must say!!

My teacher said that if you don't have space to practice pirouettes, then simply go over to a bench or a barr or something and practice your releves on one leg.

Hold your leg in the pirouette position for as long as possible. This helps you keep your leg up when you are turning.

So that what I'm doing. I also got new pointe shoes a few weeks ago, so I've been doing some pointe work at home.

I'm sure I've already said this, but my new pointe shoes are AMAZING! They are soft, but still good to work in and when I pointe my foot it looks great too.

I tell you, European Balance is the WAY TO GO!!

Thanks to all those people who have been voting on my most recent poll. However, I think I've only got 10 votes so far. Come on guys, surely more than 10 people have looked at my blog in the last two weeks.

There are only 4 more days to vote so get voting everyone. I appreciate it, as I'm sure you're aware of.

Thanks xx

Poll Update

Sorry

I probably should have posted this, like, two weeks ago, when the recent poll ended. Anyways ...... here are the results:

15 % Informative
30% Picture Post
53% 'Diary,' updates

Thanks you so much to all those people who voted. I think it's a bit obvious that the 'Diary,' updates won.
I'll sure do a lot of diary posts from now on, but I am still going to do some informative ones, and picture ones, of course!

Be sure to vote on my next poll ...... I want to see what you think!
Thanks guys!

Tips To Improve Your Arabesques

Hey there!

I've got twenty minutes before I leave for my Monday dance class. So, I decided to post in that time.

A while ago, somebody suggested that I do a post about how to improve your arabesques. Well, it's your lucky day, Cu's' this post is for you!

To start off with, let me ask you a question. What is the most amazing thing about an arabesque? Is it the standing on one leg, or the working foot? No, it's the graceful curve in the spine whilst the leg is extended.

It depends on how flexable your back is as to how high your leg will get.

Use the 'cobra,' stretch to improve the flexibility of your back. The more flexible your spine, the nicer the arabesque will look, and the easier it will be to keep your leg up.

Secondly, keep your arms looking graceful, but relaxed. Don't force your shoulders out when you extend your arms. Having your arms in the wrong place will pull you off balance. It will twist your spine and this will ruin your arabesque.

When you do an arabesque, all you think about it the leg that's up in the air, right. Yeah - I do too! We forget about the leg that's actually giving us support, and that's the leg that we are standing on.

Turn it out from the hip as much as possible, and keep it totally straight.

Here are just a few small tips, I'm sorry, but I must be off to dance class right now. If you want to know more arabesque tips, simply ask me in a comment and I'll reply to you with some more arabesque tips.

Got to run ..........