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!

How To Get Stronger Feet

As a ballerina, you obviously need strong feet. After all, they carry all your weight and are one of the main points of balance for any dancer. But how do you get strong feet in the first place?

Well, first of all, start of doing foot workouts every day. No matter where you are, as long as you have feet, you can do them. Stand on the balls of your feet and roll up and down working through your feet.
Do this fifty times on each foot. After 2 - 3 weeks you will notice a difference in the strength of your feet.
You should do leg lifts every day, too. This will add to the strength of your feet.

Another way to strengthen your feet is to actually get into those pointe shoes and so some work! A great exercise is to rest en pointe one leg at a time. Hold that position for a couple of minutes, and then repeat on the other foot. Do this three times every second day.

I know you will hate me for saying this, but you really need to do LOTS of releves to get/maintain strong feet. And when I say lots, I mean LOTS! Like, twenty in each position, including parallel.
So that's 120 a day!
You can do these en pointe or on demi pointe. It doesn't really matter.

One last tip I have for you is to do ankle circles. Do 20 clockwise, and 20 anti-clockwise on each foot every day.

If you are looking for stronger feet, I suggest you do these exercises. Try them for just three week and trust me, they'll make a BIG difference for you!

"Peta And The Wolf"

Gidday All!

I think that I must just accept the fact that I am really slow at updating my blog.
It's not that I don't absolutely love my blog spot - to be honest, I check it every day for comments and pole updates, it's just that, whenever I DO look at it, there usually isn't time to actually update it. For example, in a school break.

I have spent the last ..... ages trying to change the caption on the header of my blog.
At the moment it says "the lead up to my first pointe exam." Well, we all know that's all over with, so I am trying to write another caption instead. Problem is, I don't know how. Sigh. But ..... If anyone does know, please, don't hesitate to tell me!

Yesterday I spent ages in our office practicing standing on one leg on pointe, the other up on the window still.
I took a video of me doing this, and corrected my mistakes. When I eventually took my pointe shoes off, my feet we all numb and really sore.
I had ballet later that day, too. I don't think my pointe work was that good in class. ha ha.

Hay, I haven't told you this, but our end of year concert this year is going to be "Peta and the wold." Yup, Peta, not Peter.
It is still pronounced the same, but Peter is a girl (me, in fact) and so my teacher decided to change the spelling to Peta - which is pretty cool.

The music for "Peta and the wolf" is really beautiful. I will be doing my dancers on pointe which is really good.
In last years end of year concert, I danced on pointe, too. Unfortunately it wasn't very good, but I guess I had only been on pointe nine and a half months, then.

I am REALLY excited for the concert, even though it's about ........ nine weeks away. Maybe ten.
I will have to ask somebody.

My teacher asked me to come half an hour earlier (4:00pm) on Monday so that I could practice my dances with the grade threes before me, which will be pretty fun doing extra ballet, and having other people to do it with.

Just recently, I have started not just walking and riding the exercise bike but ......



JOGGING!



I usually hate jogging, but since our holiday at the beach last week (where I jogged along the beach every day and got my fitness up) I have really started to enjoy it.

Now I must go, my piano teacher has arrived, and, you know what, I think I have said everything I need I wanted to.

Thanks for reading/commenting!