Ballet Body

On Tuesday night, I took a class called Ballet Body at my friend Laura's gym. It was part ballet class, part pilates, and was actually pretty good. I was nervous at first, since it's been about 5 years since I took classes regularly, but it was a gentle class, and the instructor was very nice (he even said I can come back as his guest - aka for free - any time!). I probably won't be going every week, since it's all the way out in the Marina (it took me an hour plus to get home, and the class itself is only an hour long!), but it's something I'll probably do a few times a month (Laura - time for a sleepover!).

I don't so much care about getting the "ballet body," although I certainly wouldn't mind, but I really liked getting back into the ballet movements. It felt really good to port de bras and pique turn, even though I did get dizzier than I'd like to admin. Ah, these things were so much easier 5 years ago! :-) And it was fun putting on my leotard and tights -- but my leotard somehow does not offer as much support now as it did then (go figure), and I had to pull the old sports bra-under-the-leotard trick. Oh well.

There are a few beginning/intermediate adult classes at Berkeley Ballet that I'd like to try as well, though those aren't free, and will probably be more difficult. Maybe I'll start out with one and see how it goes...

Anyway, that was Tuesday night. I woke up on Wednesday morning feeling a little bit more sore than I would have liked, and wondered how the heck I was going to make it to Pilates at noon. BUT, I made it. I forced myself to go, and it was a good decision. While I can hardly move today (no really -- it was painful to bend down to put on my shoes), it's a good feeling. I never used to get this sore when I was dancing regularly, and I'm looking forward to building myself back up to a place where *real* workouts (as opposed to plugging away unenthusiastically on the elliptical) don't hurt so badly the next day.

Hooray for ballet!

(PS - lots of parenthesis in this post. sorry.)