Saturday, September 14, 2013

Second Balletversary (+ pointy business)

So. Today is my official two year balletversary. Two years! And I haven't given up, yet. That is pretty astounding. I get frustrated sometimes. Hell, even my teacher gets frustrated with me sometimes. My posture is horrifying, because I have scoliosis and arthritis and I-was-raised-after-parents-stopped-telling-you-to-stand-up-straight-itis. And for some reason I could pirouette four months ago, but now I cannot. It's like you hit a plateau... except sometimes you don't just hit a plateau. You hit a downhill slope. And suddenly you are over-thinking everything and things that used to work out okay are now a hot mess. Like chaînés turns. CURSES upon chaînés turns right now, guys. In fact turns in general can basically bite my shiny metal you-know-what right now.
Oh god, that was a Futurama reference. I apologize. I swear that I have never said that before in my life.

Anyway.

So, it's been two years. And there are things that I can do today that I could not do a year ago. There are sure as hell things I can do today that I couldn't do two years ago. I was in much worse shape, back then. While I often regret not getting around to it sooner, the fact is that I am just happy to have gotten around to it at all. With the body I have been given, and the questions that I have to live with every day (what's going to be the next part that catastrophically fails? When am I going to deteriorate to the point that I am confined to a wheelchair? This all sounds very fatalistic and silly and you have my permission to ignore it) I am just proud of myself for not folding up and calling it quits. I'm going to use this body, as awkward and clumsy and ill-suited to dance as it is, as much as I can while I've still got control over it.

To that end I took the pointe test on Thursday. My teacher had said "in a couple of weeks" but then a few days later she said "this week". Which was unexpected and alarming. I hadn't even had a chance to buckle down to the relevés and duck-walking I had intended to! But, once I knew it was coming I just wanted to get it over with because I HATE TESTS. So when she forgot about it I timidly said "hey, let's do this thing so I can get it over with and go spend the rest of the night sitting in a small dark corner of the room and shaking slightly." Well, okay. Maybe I didn't say exactly that.
Anyway.
And so then this happened:

You are asking yourself how comfortable they are. The answer is "not" as in "not even at all comfortable what the hell was I even thinking oh crap now I guess I am stuck with it"
But aren't they pretty?

13 comments:

  1. Congrats lady! They are very beautiful! Are they blochs?

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  2. Very pretty! Very very pretty!!

    I'm interested, what was the test like? I haven't heard of likes of it in my part of the world, or more accurately the ballet classes that I go to. Which are not in a real dance school.

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    1. The teacher mostly wanted to see me do lots of spring-under releves (one foot at a time). She focused a lot on my posture and placement, too, because my posture is naturally so awful. All studios seem to have their own requirements, though.

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    2. Congratulations! Your feet look beautiful! You should be so proud of yourself for achieving pointe. Since I have RA alss I have to go through every class in some amount of pain. The mountain we climb to be active is so much steeper! But you have persevered in spite of so many setbacks. You go girl!!! Hopefully the shoes will eventually be more comfortable.

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    3. Meadhbh:
      Thanks! I hear you about the pain in every class. My knees are the worst, they are pretty unhappy with this whole plie business, but it's probably good for them to keep moving as much and as long as they are able.
      I want to have a photograph taken standing en pointe and holding my cane. I feel like taking ballet is something like defiance, anyway!
      Best of luck to you in your ballet and RA battles, I'm rooting for you :D

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  3. Congrats!!!!!!!!! Really? Yours aren't comfy? Man you must have bought the wrong shoes lol!! Mine are like a dream! A confined restricted dream :) but no seriously that is awesome and you should be proud!

    And my 10 month danciversary is the same day as your 2 yr! So happy danciversary!

    And chaines stink. And even more so on pointe as I found out last week.

    (Oh and I finally got the nerve to take a master class yesterday, and I didn't die... Woo!)

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    1. the first pair the fitter put me in were super comfy. I stood up en pointe and was like "aw man! These are great! I don't know why people complain about this so much." and she was like "nope! Take 'em off! Wrong!"

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    2. actually mine arent bad. just constrictive. they dont hurt my toes at all, and are really supportive. the other girls complain so much about their toes, and dont understand why i dont. i never understand what the fitters see because i had on some that just were amazeballs, and there was apparently something wrong with them. but the ones i have (grisko 2007 main pair, bloch alpha, bloch suprima back up pairs) are all pretty good. i LOVE my griskos, and the alphas are probably my second fave. the suprimas just have too small of a platform... and they are as my teacher tells me "for later" whatever that means...

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    3. I think the comfortable ones gave me too much room in the toe box so she thought I was sort of sinking down in to them. And at least one pair she put me in let me knuckle over (a term that I never really properly understood until I found myself doing it).

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  4. From another with awful posture (but in your face kyphoscoliosis because, nyah) and shiny pointe shoes, I say *hi-5*

    And, yes, they are SO pretty!

    Chainés on the other hand, not so pretty. I thought I'd got to grips with them, then it turned out I hadn't and especially not on pointe. Boo that.

    But, yerno, pointe! All else is redundant ;)

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    Replies
    1. Right on!
      Wait, do people still say that? My grasp of slang is pretty pathetic.

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  5. AHHH! Congrats!!!!!!!!!!! So happy for you!

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