I had my first ever babysitting gig on Sunday and it went suprisingly well! No kids were injured or lost and nothing cought on fire so I consider it a complete win. I was taking care of a 6th grader and a 2nd grader who I've known for about 7 years. They were really nice and apperently cleaned up their basment so that I could play with them there. I made them dinner and had to google how to boil corn but it was really simple and they both said that they want me to come over again "really soon" so... yay!
My first week of ABT ended yesterday! Overall, it was really nice and I think they did a very good job with the whole online thing. I was in a class with about 25 other girls my age and 1 boy. The intensives started at 12pm and ended at 4:15pm. Almost everyone was in America (New York, New Jersey, California, etc.) but 1 girl was in Denmark (It was around 5pm when it started for her) and the boy was from America but in the Philippines (Around 11pm when it started for him). I had 1 Zoom link for the entire week and different teachers joined depending on what class was supposed to happen.
Monday:
At 12 I joined without video and immiediatly turned my camera on when I saw a teacher already pinned and starting class. The first class yoga for 45 minutes. It was a really nice way to warm up and get to know how it was going to work for the rest of the week in my basement dance space. The teacher was a little annoying and talked too much (for me) but it was still very chill. After that I had a 15 minute break where I got myself a bagle and some crackers for lunch before "Technique and Variation". I choose a very bad time to go back upstairs because as soon as I came up, Zelda started barking from her crate and my brother got super mad at me for interrputing crate training.
The next teacher joined at exactly 1 and started class like a regular ballet class. We did barre, had some time for stretching and a water break, and did some floor exercises. It was very basic and I didn't get any specific corrections but my legs were very tired afterwards. The teacher's voice sounded really robotic (think Siri without the changes in pitch) and it kept distracting me so I had a really hard time focusing the combos. After some jumps and another water break, Everyone except the one boy put on their pointe shoes as the guy did some "men's work". Then the rest of us did not even 5 different pointe combos before being told to the off. My computer's battery does not work very well with Zoom so my computer almost died after 2 pointe combos so I had to run up to my room to get the huge charging cable I have for it. Next, the teacher turned on some music from Paquita and we learned a variation called Pas De Trois. It was actaully really fun and I totally recommend watching it... if you like that type of thing. We learned about 1 minute of the variation before it was 4:15 so we came up to our cameras and she just told us that we were a really good class before she logged off. I was starving afterwards so I had basiclly an entire meal 2 hours before dinner.
Tuesday:
Instead of yoga, I had pillates with a physical therapist who works with Florida's ABT branch. I did a lot of core exercises and found my "neutral spine" which felt just so wrong. It was basiclly a position where my spine was relaxed and not tucked or being forced into being flat. It felt so curved and unnatural but I got sorta used to it for the next 45 minutes before going back to normal. I brought down a snack and my charger before hand this time so I had some more crackers and water while waiting for the jazz teacher to join.
The basement was really cold and I couldn't feel my fingers or most of toes by the end of the break. The jazz teacher was super cool - as all jazz teachers are - and just gave me more of a reason to start taking jazz classes. We did a really fast warm up and learned a combo that was only 16 counts. Then she had us work out 16 counts of improv based on the word "hot" to add onto the end of the combo. I don't even know what I did but the teacher seemed to like it. Then we watch each other do the combo with our improv added on and then it was time for technique (the last 2 hours of every day was for technique class).
There was a different teacher every day for technique class and this one was so much better. The combos were a lot of fun and he gave specific corrections for different people that were super helpful.
Wednesday:
I had yoga again and the instructor was really starting to annoy me. But I focused on the stretches and all was good.
After the break, I had modern with a really cool teacher. Another "teacher" joined the meeting and set the tempo by playing drums throughout class that I honestly really liked. There were a lot of flat backs and Horton T's going on which were really hard to maintain and made my core super sore by the end. We learned a fairly long combo that incorporated a bunch of moves that I had already learned in dance during the school year. After doing the whole thing together once, we were split up into 2 groups (I was in group 2) and preformed it for each other.
Technique was really chill. The teacher was in an actual studio instead of their apartment with a barre made of what looked to be PVC pipes. She was super nice and let me stay off pointe because my hip wasn't feeling right. The combos were longer than normal but she always went over it twice exacly how she wanted us to do it for visual learners (like me) and then once using just words for auditory learners (like me).
Thursday:
I had pillates again and we did some more in-depth core exercises before doing some foot strengthening stuff with a theraband. I had a mini meltdown during the foot exercises and had to turn off my camera because I was freaking out over getting cramps. I've been getting foot craps really easily lately and when the instructor said "if you feel you're [muscle group] muscles cramping, you're doing it right" I sorta lost it. So... now I have realized a new great fear of mine.
Instead of a dance class, I had a 1 hour lecture on injury prevention. It was lead by that same physical therapist that did the pillate classes. The lecture included a lot of basic stuff but I still managed to take 4 pages of notes on it: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Z-_fEm4YGkl11RL5tK6Pk-eENVtxZ6tz9UT1fmD6Qwg/edit?usp=sharing and now I have a new folder in my drive dedicated to ABT. I had to keep moving a lot during that 1 hour because the basement was getting really cold again. I had to do 3 minutes of jumping jacks to fully warm up before technique.
Technique was taught by a guy who had a very thick russian accent. He sounded like one of those crazy scientists on a mysterious mission or something but looked not at all like his voice would suggest. It really threw me off for a couple minutes. The combos were very easy to learn and were at a good level for me (not too challenging but I still had to work hard). He also gave specific critics to spcefic people and I got my first directed correction. He also had us do certain movements (turns or degages) in groups after a combo so he could focus on each person. I think it was the best class I had all week and it was really contructive and helpful.
Friday:
Today was a yoga day and by this point I was so pissed with him. I just wasn't and a good mood and he was no help.
After break I had character class. Basicilly I learned how to dance in other ballet styles like Spanish and Pollish. I also learned a little of what was called Gypsy Dancing which was so hard. It was nothing like what I'm used to doing but it was still really fun and I would totally do it again soon. Character class was taught by the same guy that taught Thursday's technique class and it really helped to lift my mood.
The technique teacher was late byt like, 10 minutes because "there was traffic" but she taught class from her appartment so I don't know what she was talking about. She was really nice but talked super fast which made it a little hard to learn the combos. Her voice was like a mix between a fairy and Kristin Chenoweth it was so high omg. Anyway, she forgot to spotlight herself so it kept switching between her and the pianist so if you didn't learn the combo while you had the chance, there was no way to keep you on track while music was playing. It was still a really good class despite me still not doing pointe.
So yeah! That was my first week in ABT! I'll be doing I think 3 more weeks with a 1 week break in the middle.
I had a burst of inspirtation at 12:30 last night and starting writing some more on my other account (finally!). I think it's very clear when I got into the zone because I started using bigger and better words with more diversity but it could be just me reading too much into my writing (haha jokes).
Um... I'm pretty sure I'm ace which is cool.
Anyway, I think this is the most I've ever written for one of these enteries but I think I'm finally out of things to write so... Have a good day/night/time and make sure not to overwork yourself!
YOU ARE READING
Documented Dance
Non-FictionA documentary of sorts about my year of progession of mostly dance but also things like mental health, body image, etc.
