In an attempt to keep active, I've looked into taking dance classes here in Neuch. Last week, I finally attended one.
It's supposed to be a jazz class. Intermediate/Advanced level. It's pretty good. Different from what I expected. The class has been going on since the end of the summer so I just had to follow along to the exercises that the students were already used to doing. The teacher has a really good warm up. Pretty thorough. She seems to do sorta modern-jazz stuff. Lots of contractions, flexed feet, funky arms. I totally wasn't expecting it when the class broke out into a whole Capoeira thing, well I had to laugh. I was doing pretty well at following, but crazy flipping and rolling wasn't going to happen on the first day. It was really neat though. After about an hour of warming up, we did two exercises across the floor and then worked on a dance for about 20 minutes. The class was just an hour and a half long, so the warm-up seemed a little extreme. I would have liked more technique or more time to work on the dance. Although I WAS really warm. (It was a hot studio though, so you couldn't help but be warm.)
I had no desire to take a ballet class although I've done ballet since I was a little kid. It's one of those things that I need time away from, or am just going to put it behind me. I relaly like ballet, but somewhere down the line, the technique just made me not enjoy it as much. Whereas some people like the technique, and work to perfect it, I felt constricted by it. Like I couldn't just enjoy the dancing, all I could worry about was my turnout. I guess that's why I enjoyed "Free Movement" so much. I could just dance and not worry as much about the little things getting in the way. I could feel the music without worrying about my alignment. I also stopped dancing towards the end of high school, and while I danced a little bit in University, my technique is completely gone. In my head, I still see myself as the dancer that I used to be, and so I can't face myself in the mirror while I do ballet anymore. I'm just not satisfied with the reflection that I see. It's almost embarrasing. My mind also remembers what I want my body to do, and how I want it to act, but unfortunately my body's not quite cooperating. I think that for now, I'm only happy doing ballet in the privacy of my own room or surrounded by others who know nothing about me and are at a similar level as me, technically. Sort of like how I really enjoy skating with adults now.
This may all change in a couple years, but for now, I feel like I've completed my time as a ballet dancer. I want to do other styles of dance.
I'm happy that I'm still dancing though. I really do love to dance. Music just gets right inside of you.
3 comments:
I know what you mean about dancing facing the mirror. I used to really hate playing violin anymore (like in the past few years) because I could hear traces of how good my technique used to be except now it sucks. But I think you'll get over it in time. Eventually my desire to play again overcame my embarassment/frustration.
I still don't play that often anymore but it doesn't bug me when I play now. Also (obviously this doesn't apply to ballet, but maybe there's something analogous you can do) it helped a lot when I bought a mute. Then I didn't feel so self-conscious, and it actually built up my confidence a lot. So when I take it off I'm not afraid to "sound out".
it also helped a lot that I was motivated to play because I wanted to play for/with other people.
W
yay for dancing!
i'm impressed with how you have done so much great stuff so far, and in particular, these dance classes and the opera. yay limin!
oh, don't think i ever told you, but i joined inter hip hop here at queens. it's great! (though we did wait 9 hours in line.)
b
The most important thing in everything is that YOU enjoy it, be it dancing, ballet, violin whatever. The sound or the image in the mirror, they are just acoustics and optics, who cares. Just enjoy what you enjoy! It is your ACT of dancing or violining that counts and matters. I enjoy your piano or violin not that I know the music but that YOU play, the music created by your playing is just a bonus, not the key.
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