Birthday Plans

-wear a pretty pale peach dress
-climb on top of bike handlebars and cambrE back
-photograph a $5000 bike
-pet a cat
-strike a balletic attitude over a bike seat
-walk barefoot over a bed of fallen cherry blossom blooms
-have a birthday ballet class
-pet a dog
-proclaim that "freedom is bondage"
-eat cheez-its

"We all look good for our age...ain't that right, Margaret?" Ballet is our fountain of youth.

-Angie's Adagio <3<3<3  (not inspired by the royal wedding; counts of 2's and 7's; sums of 3's)
-failli was transferred from hips to upper back/shoulders
-spot something that you really don't want to miss...like a man running off with your purse
-Giselle's leprechaun leap
-en pointe: it is not such a great leap from demi-pointe to pointe; weight is already on the ball of the foot, though imperceptibly so; jump from both feet

A playful class.

-"I believe I can fly"; the R. Kelly Adagio
-Hotel Cosmos: $500/night if you're a gringo
-pas de poisson. Wait a minute...fish don't have legs!
-to be pliable with one's mood

-It takes great effort for things to become effortless. It takes effort both in and outside of the studio. It takes assuming the carriage and mentality of a ballerina outside of the ballet studio to reach the ideal sought inside the studio. The way to becoming a ballerina is to bring the dancer with you as you leave the studio and go out into your daily non-studio life, and in effect, make the world your studio. When you pack up your bag after class, you cannot leave her behind. She must come with you, along with our leotard and tights and toe shoes and hairnets and umbrellas and other less significant smatterings and paraphernalia.
-en pointe: ...and by the ball of your foot, he means the heel; push the heel forward as you roll up onto relevE; Andres floats away before the conclusion of the class; first, practice mechanics of a bourrEe without traveling
-С Днем Рождения, Ленин! (Happy birthday, Lenin!)

Algorithm:

-"The point of this exercise is to develop a skill."
--"That skill is to quickly and accurately throw your leg to a very specific point."
----"That point is 45 degrees."
------"45 degrees is at the level of your knee cap."

I marvel at Kip's algorithmic way of speaking. That is to say, his algorithmic way of thinking. Moreover, he has a very analytical style of imparting information (teaching). Take, for instance, his analysis of the profile:

"The chin looks directly into the elbow [if chins had eyes]; the eye looks into the wrist/wristwatch/bracelet; the middle finger falls directly in line with the nose."

As he once said, ballet is an art, but that doesn't mean that it cannot be looked at with a fine eye. My teacher, he speaks from experience.

The summer breeze sauntering in through the window screen is intoxicating. As I participate in this study of the size of attitude, facing the window into the dimness of night, the parking garage across the street at our third-story level. Reflections of the new crop of dancers are background to my own reflection, whose shoulders I try to keep square and depressed, the neck long, kept cool by the intermittent breeze.

I've come a long way since last summer, but incredibly-- or not so--, there are plenty of moments when I perform a pass or combination as clumsily, awkwardly, and naively as I would have last summer. I am reminded every day (especially during Friday morning classes!) that I am still a beginner and have much to learn before I have gained the finesse to make even my mistakes appear graceful and controlled. He introduces alternating degagEs to the dancers, and even this I find challenging to perform, though this time with the added challenges of not having a barre and having to follow the port de bras arm at that.

After class, I pick up a teaching technique from Kip: to teach people starting with what they know. Twist from the torso, then later from the feet, then later from the hips/pelvic floor, which is the true answer to the question: where does the motivation for turns come from? It is like when they first start teaching you about atoms and as the years go by, you uncover lie after lie after lie to get to the truth, but the lies were part of the journey to comprehending the truth. We learn through metaphor; by mapping the known concept to the unknown one, and this is true of concepts in any field of knowledge, whether it be ballet, chemistry, math or anything else in the learnable world.

Everything has the potential to be a deep study; it only depends on how far you allow your curiosity to go, and whether you decide it is worth the time and the effort. One wonders about limits...do they exist, and what are they for me? However, whether or not they exist, or are or are not defined, I think actions should be least motivated by limits. One should act as if the limit does not exist, just as in the studio, one should dance as if space is limitless and expansive, and one should stretch out one's limbs and project the body outward as if to embrace as much of this great space as possible.

"This is pure Vaganova. Don't blame me."

-battement divisE en quarts (rf: page 38 of the Vaganova handbook); a study of the depth of pliE to its release
-attitude, full promenade
-Cecchetti divided up the dancer's personal space with microscopic units; he was excised by Vaganova
-electromagnetic force between fingers at low, mid, and high arm
-coupE pas de bourrEe: must contain a sense of urgency in this filigree footwork; literally the muscles used to hold in the urgency; get on top of the hips; is a movement motivated by the feet, showcasing the feet; is not a sticky floor dance showcasing the knees
-piquE arabesque must be strong and assertive, not fearful, hesitant, or timid
-pirouette en dedans en attitude: torso forward, then around
-Mary's right hand is a great distraction

-ba-lan-ce-oire
-character dancing incorporated into ballet language
-a questionable ending to a combination
-Austin is very loooong; the rest of us give the impression of being long
-project yourself; I mean PROJECT YOURSELF; so much SPACE to ENCOMPASS! so much SPACE to EMBRACE! EMBRACE the SPACE!

-7, 6, 5 (3)
-7, 6, 5 (3)
-7, 6, 5 (3)
-Nail Polish Union

-it is said that an exceptional uniformity characterizes the Russian language, in spite of its expansive territory; this uniformity also exists in Russian ballet; whereas in the States, one sees all manner of style and school, in Russia, it is just one style, or method-- Russian method
-the grand battement element exists in the rond de jambe exercise as an homage to Cecchetti, the precursor to the Russian method
-in the Russian method, the head reaches back toward the outstretched toe in 2nd arabesque; Vaganova recognized the inherent circularity of the arabesque pose
-4th arabesque is only ever seen at croisE; at en face, place arms at 2nd
-when the leg is at 60 degrees en avant, 90 degrees de cotE, or 17 degrees en arriere, the pelvis easily maintains an upright stance; beyond those critical angles, work to maintain the integrity of the pelvis by pulling up (and counterpull)

Ballet marathon today. Three classes from 10am to 10pm. It's the best kind of tired.

Relish life, not hot dogs.

What is wanting now is a hot bath. I'll settle for a shower.

Morning:

Fever! in the morning! Fever all through the class, you give me fever...

-heel heel, shoulder shoulder, rub tummy, pat head, and eat ice cream all at the same time...in 5/4 time
-modern attitudes: table top; square; ninja
-deconstructing ballet into representative components F = f(x) + g(y) + h(z); failli developpE combo = knee knee + arm arm leg leg leg arm arm + shoulder shoulder +...

Evening:

-a Delibe-erate prelude to the class
-pliEs to the LakmE Flower Duet

Where else did you hear the LFD?

(a) the lesbian vampire scene in The Hunger
(b) the Canadian art house flick, I've Heard the Mermaids Singing
(c) Ridley Scott's Someone to Watch Over Me
(d) Andy's prank in Shawshank Redemption, for which he got 2 weeks in the hole
(e) La Vita e Bella, the song which momentarily raised the spirits of the camp dwellers

Non-answers: (d) & (e). In general, the LFD is featured in movies to heighten the eroticism of a scene, which often involves vampires (for obvious reasons); whereas other operatic excerpts are used to signify, cause, or enhance the feelings of spiritual liberation, ie: transcendence (eg: the Belle Nuit Barcarolle in La Vita e Bella; the Duettino Sull'aria in Shawshank Redemption)

Night:

-with preparatory arms for assemblEs, do not carry a heavy pile of books; do pick up a great amount of space
-preserve integrity! the integrity of the pelvic girdle in temps liE
-jetE entournant: pull the energy back in as soon as you throw the leg out (like as a fishing reel); twist torso, foot follows; internalize the twist so that the movements appear simultaneous, not as two separate but connected actions
-most of the action is created by the feet, but I find that balance is more easily achieved if the focus is drawn away from the feet and toward the upper body: the rib cage, the carriage of the torso, the back,...

Awkward AssemblEs Anonymous:

-kick leg out, but pull energy back in immediately; like as reeling in a fish
-up! up! up!
-come to ballet class

-moonlight sonata pliEs 
-birds swoop across the Symme-tree; tires screech; coffee spill #2
-soft-STRONG, soft-STRONG is the rhythm of ballonEs
-a small series of small adagios:
of ebb and flow;
  of decision and indecision;
    of logic and illogic;
      go fast!
        but go slow

"Sorry!"

"What happened?"

"I slapped him."

-how we welcome new students to the studio

-Theme: Variations on Jeté Passé
-pas de cheval: purpose is to work on (a) the shape of the articulating foot, & (b) turnout; immediately wrap pinkie toe (heel for en dedans) around the ankle
-force of turn wants to come from the legs, rather than from the desire to turn
-the head is a weighty object; bend all the way down in forward cambré; maintain integrity of the line in back cambré
-Poses: A Prelude to Rond de Jambe
-we would like pointed toes for frappés (why?)
-at center, exercises that have been worked out in detail by many thinkers over hundreds of years; they are anything but random; it is a language to be learned
-paper planes

The feeling in today's class is of not listening to music for a very long time, and then suddenly hearing a song. So happy :@)

Maiqui
-facing the mirror
-high kneecaps (activate muscles surrounding them)
-stand on both legs on one leg; pull up to balance, rather than shifting way to the side
-her mother was her first ballet teacher
-beach ball; beach ball expanded; elbows
-P for passé
-tombé battement: drag back leg through first, into battement
-chassé: sliiiideUPsliiideUPsliiide...
-there is only straight or bent, including the foot
-a ballerina's feet are her deadly weapons; point them sharp; sound all the airports

Oh, Brother...

-Tiny Dancer captured