Last night I decided that I should try to take a Ballet 1 dance class at Jimmy DeFore's Dance Studio in Costa Mesa. They have been around for a long time, and offer great classes in 3 large studios. I dragged out the old dance bag, dug through drawers to see if I had any wearable leotards and tights, found my dance shoes, printed the class list and threw everything into a tote bag for the morning.
My black Lycra leotard was un-apologetic as it clung to every last curve, bump and muffin on my body. I cringed as I heard the sound of old elastic cracking as it forced itself to be as flexible as I knew I wasn't! I found a pair of sweat pants for warming up, an old ripped up pair of leg warmers, pulled my hair back and tight to my head, grabbed a hand towel and a bottle of water and I was ready to put myself out there.
The class was surprisingly large. Good, less people to notice me. It felt kind of nice to be in familiar surroundings. My mantra "keep things small, do them well, and don't over do it". Exercises at the bar went OK, my brain did a pretty good job of remembering the combinations and if I got lost I looked into the window reflection to see people behind me or followed the girl in front of me. Breathe, mop sweat, drink water, breathe, mop sweat, drink water. That was what I did for the first hour. Then it was on to exercises in the middle of the floor. Here was the real test. I was so tired, my legs were shaking and I was having a hard time balancing. Things really fell apart when it was time to do chenes across the floor. After I tried to stop after 12 counts of turns, the room never stopped spinning! It was worse than a bad night of drinking! What did I expect from not having danced in a ballet class in over 20 years!
I can hardly wait until tomorrow morning. Already my legs feel like lead. I don't dare do a squat, it is too hard to stand back up! Best to take a nice bath this evening and do a rub down to ease the muscles. I should be able to recover just in time for next week's class!
Ta ta for now...
