It's not all fun and games

Ballet is hard.

It takes discipline, dedication, memorization, adaptivity, strength, flexibility. I leave school around 11:15 every day, and class starts at 11:30. The day starts with a ballet technique class. The schedule varies day to day, but after that, I have anywhere from 2 to 6 more classes or rehearsals. I often get out at 8:30. When I get home, I'm usually exhausted. Homework, dinner, and stretches, pushups, and crunches. The latter three get chucked to the side way too much. The most difficult things is keeping up with independent excercises, because in the spaces between being busy....I just want to relax.

My challenges

• Splits- it used to be that men who could put on a pair of tights could get top notch jobs as dancers. But it isn't the 40's anymore. GUYS HAVE TO HAVE SPLITS. One leg in front, one behind. 180 degrees. Over the past few years, my previous instructor had been telling me to stretch and I just wasn't. But I didn't want to be a dancer and so it didn't matter. A bit before the summer, I decided that I did. More on that later. Point is, I had to start working on my splits. So thank god for Peter Stark. He pushed me to do them. A lot. My summer roomate and I worked on it every night. And now I continue to daily. And I am really close. I plan on having my splits in the next week or two.
• Strength- I'm 6'1''. I weigh around 135 lbs. I am a very, very skinny boy. I am the weakest boy at the ballet. This doesn't really bother me. Except partnering class. When I attempt to lift girls.......it's the most embarassing thing. But it's a process. I'll get there. But right now........it's the thing I reeeeally have to work on.
• Technique- I am blessed with what Julio Montano calls "monkey body". My legs are long, and my torso is short. My legs are longer than anyone I've ever seen. This is VERY good for dance. And I work really hard. So I'm not so worried about this. It'll come. But the strength and flexibility stress me out.

There's a lot to write about, but I guess this is a start. I'm tired, and I had a migrane today (I get those) so that's all for now.

Next: deciding to become a dancer, and the interesting situation that is living with a host family and dancing more than being in school.