April 28, 2013

Back En Pointe!

English: A pointe shoe, showing the elastic ba...

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It’s taken me forever to get there…but yesterday I took my first pointe class again!

I hadn’t been in a pointe class after my first one in January when the pain in my shin started to get super intense and I had to take a fair amount of time off.

Yesterday I decided it was about time to try pointe again.

I don’t know whether it’s the running or all the stretching I’ve committed myself to over the past week (or something else entirely), but my nagging shin pain has finally started to disappear. While running hasn’t been 100% pain free, it’s been more manageable once I decided to adopt a better training plan. The pain usually disappears after running and I feel great afterwards. Ballet was a different story for a while–but this past week has been great!

Class went relatively well–except for the moment when I accidentally jumped onto pointe–OUCH! Not what you are supposed to do, I know. I was super worried that the rest of the class was going to be too advanced (pointe classes started in December, I think….) but my ballet instructor gave me different things to do when the exercises were too challenging.

I can’t wait for this super busy semester to be over so I can start going to more ballet classes!

What ballet or fitness-related accomplishments have you made recently?

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April 26, 2013

Beginner Ballerina Profile: Carina Perry

Here’s another great profile of Carina Perry, who takes classes at the Dance Hub in South Africa. Susan, who owns the studio, wrote a guest post for ABP a few months ago here.

IMG_7162When did you start doing ballet as an adult?

January 2012

Did you ever take lessons as a kid?

Yes I had lessons for plus/minus 2 years when I was 9.

Why did you decide to take ballet as an adult?

I knew I had to do some exercise but don’t like the gym. So I was looking for adult tap dance classes and couldn’t find, And then I discover Dance Hub and that was a new exciting phase in my life.

Where do you take classes?

Not that far from home at a gym.

What is your favorite part about ballet?

Discipline in another fun way, lots of laughing and meeting new people. Good exercise and toning of the body. Last year I did a pilates class also and that helped a lot to becoming more fit.

What is your least favorite part?

When I miss a class due to guests, illness or work.

Who/What is your ballet inspiration?

I always loved ballet, don’t need inspiration, enjoy all of it.

What motivates you to keep dancing?

It changed my way of thinking, in the beginning I couldn’t concentrate on nothing, just thinking of work. Therefore its good for body and mind.

IMG_7172Do you take any other dance classes?

Currently I’m doing one absolute beginners class and two beginners classes during the week.

What are your hobbies outside of ballet?

Photography, gardening, crocheting and knitting

What advice would you like to give to those who want to start ballet or have just started?

Never give up, you don’t feel on top of the world the first couple of months. I struggled so much in the beginning, nothing make sense. And after 4 months I started feeling more comfortable. I’m 42 years old and did no exercises except from running and smoked 30 cigarettes a day, I stop smoking in my forth month of ballet and still going strong. I gain a lot of weight after stopped smoking but still I’m proud of myself.

Anything else you’d like to add?

An extra bonus is Susan, (owner of the dance school) allows me to take photos of the more advance dancers and there shows and that is so great. I’m privilege to combine two hobbies and grateful that my health is still good to do ballet. Susan is the actual soul of the ballet school, she is such an inspiration, she started with no experience and is a great adult ballet dancer today. She is good fun and put a lot of effort into the school. I’m privilege to be part of Dance Hub 2013.

 

One of the photos taken by Carina.

One of the photos taken by Carina.

Filed Under: Adult Ballerinas, Ballet, Interviews Tagged With: , , , 3 Comments
April 23, 2013

Dancers=Clumsy?

Is it possible that dancing could be making me even more clumsy?

Dance requires a fair bit of balance and coordination, but according to an article by the The Dance Training Project, it could be making you clumsy.

Now, I’m a pretty clumsy person to begin with–and I’m clumsy in my dancing too–but part of me wants to blame these reasons that dancers are clumsy for the reason I tripped and fell on my ass yesterday when attempting my first Couch-to-5k run.

I was doing my second walking portion of the training and trying to fix my headphones–when BAM!–my foot landed at an awkward on the part of the track where it just begins to slope downwards and landed on my butt, just barely scraping my knee. Now, there weren’t too many people on the track to witness me being a complete klutz, but the two guys who were walking near me asked if I was okay cause they saw it happen. I’m just glad they weren’t laughing.

Otherwise–it was a really good first training run and I finished 2.64 miles and got an exciting e-mail with some exciting news which I’ll be sharing next week!

Have you noticed that you’ve been more clumsy as a result of dancing?

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April 22, 2013

Struggling to Stay on Track

I need some motivation this Monday.

This week marks the beginning of the last two weeks of college classes in my undergraduate college career. Yikes. I’ve been super busy, and therefore practicing ballet and working out has kind of fallen to the wayside over the past week. I skipped Saturday’s ballet and pointe not for this reason–but because my shin splints were acting up like crazy after an attempted run on Friday.

When a friend posted on Facebook that she both admired and despised those who worked out during finals week it reminded me how much I need working out to help keep me sane. Although it takes 45 minutes to an hour of my time, it’s so worth it in the end because it helps keep me focused (sometimes you just need a break from staring at a computer for hours upon hours) and helps me sleep better. But, I need to remember to take it easy so what happened this past weekend doesn’t happen again.

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So today, I’m re-beginning my Couch to 5k training plan outside in hopes that training this way doesn’t kill my shins this time, and fitting in some yoga/stretching while I get some reading in.

How do you fit exercise into the busy parts of your life?

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April 18, 2013

Reaching My First Ballet Milestone: One Year (Again!) with Ballet

Roughly 15 years ago, I was a little ballerina, ecstatic to be receiving a perfect attendance trophy for attending every ballet class of the year during my first year of ballet at our year end recital. Seems crazy, right? Two years later, I quit after I switched to a new studio.

Now, 15 years later, I’ve completed my first year of ballet again. Except this time, there’s no perfect attendance trophy  (although my attendance was far from perfect), no year end recital, no moving up in class level. But, it has been worth it.

I never thought when I first walked into the studio in my brand new ballet shoes a year ago I’d ever be in love with ballet the way I am today.

No, I don’t have perfect splits yet.

Yes, I still stumble over my own two feet.

No, I can’t dance en pointe yet.

Yes, it has been tough.

But it’s been worth it.

Ballet is tough, and although to an outsider it may seem like I haven’t improved much in a years time, I can tell I’ve come a long way. My pirouettes are almost there and my tendus don’t look nearly as sloppy as they used to. I’m improving. Slowly, but surely.

I’m hoping the next year brings more ballet classes. More ballet friends. More improvement.

More fun.

Although my future is uncertain–I graduate in May and don’t know where I’ll end up–although I hope to stay in Philadelphia because of all the wonderful things it offers (including a plethora of ballet classes)–wherever I end up, whatever I end up doing–I know it’ll include ballet.

How do you  celebrate milestones in your training?

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Filed Under: Ballet, Blog, Etc. Tagged With: , , , 4 Comments