New York, Here I Come!
Gooooood morning!
I feel so guilty for not posting with regularity anymore! It's weird, when I first started this blog EVERYTHING was either a totally new experience or a chance to dust the cobwebs off of skills I never thought I'd use again. I wanted to talk about it all, and turned to lots of adult beginner and adult dancer blogs to help slog through it all. Now, dance is just something I do all the time. Less of the experiences are brand new or a crazy refresher, so I find myself turning here less and less. I also am pretty busy with work, but still. Strange.
Next week I am traveling to New York and New Jersey for work, I'll be in the city Tuesday - Friday, traveling to Ohio Friday morning and then back to Wisconsin Saturday.
I don't have any major jobs going on at work, so I have been deciding what I'd like to do to take up my time while I'm in the area. It's been 10 years since I was in NYC, but naturally my brain thinks ballet. :) I've found a few studios local to where I'm staying that offer several classes I think I would fit in with.
The most exciting part though, is that I've just made a fitting appointment with the Gaynor Minden Flagship store for Thursday!! I'll be fitted in person and hopefully walk out with a pair of shoes, or at least place a custom order. I'm anxious to see what they fit me in, and how different it will be from the shoe I bought with help from the GM online fitters. I'll be bringing my GMs and my current pair of Grishkos.
I still have my Grishko Dreampointe model coming in from Greece, though I placed my order exactly two weeks ago and it still hasn't shipped. I'd love to do a GM/Dreampointe comparison, and especially after class yesterday, I need a pair of shoes that will last more than a few classes.
My current Grishko 2007 Proflex (hard shank) are dead dead dead. I loved them when they were new, but now the shank and demi area is totally worn in and I'm starting to get wobbly, especially on my (stronger) right foot. The platform is mush and with the box issues it's just not a good thing. The shoe doesn't *look* terrible here, actually the opposite, but you can see in the pic above how I'm tilted too far over the platform. The gap in the back edge of the platform is supposed to be touching the ground! This is just standing on one foot, too, when I'm working in eschappe for example, my foot looks more claw shaped. Not pretty.
I roll too far over my shoe and the platform just squishes in instead of retaining its shape to help me feel where true full pointe is. I'm still working on increasing my muscling to automatically extend to correct, true pointe and hold myself back, but it's not 100% yet. I need that extra help from the shoe.
You can rest assured that I'll write up a review of my experience and any shoes I end up buying! LOL.
Everything else is going really well. In jazz we are breaking down and slowly learning fouette turns, something I've always hoped to master. It's so frustrating, when I was a kid fouette turns were SO easy, and now it's pretty much impossible. Haha. I have no problem doing a coupe or pencil turn to prep, going in to the first part of the fouette where the leg extends out in 2nd, but I haven't quite coordinated the action of snapping that leg back in during the rotation and beginning the whole process again in a timely manner
Part of the issue is that I LOVE the "hang time" in the air. I am great a slow pirouettes, arabesque or attitude 'holds' and other turns, so in the fouette I end up keeping my working leg in 2nd for too long, and the snap back to passe comes far too late. I think with more practice I can get it though!
The biggest surprise of this season is how much I am beginning to love tap. I always hated tap as a kid, but now I'm really enjoying it and feel like my adult beginners class is way too easy. I can pick up a new step or combination after being shown once, and it takes everyone else quite a long time to figure it out, and even then they can't do it unless the teacher is barking out the steps or doing it with us. Then again, anyone who has taken a year of ballet or jazz should be able to execute a simple flap ball change, and most of the ladies in class with me have not taken dance before. I suppose I'll cut them some slack, I just want to learn more at a faster pace, that's all. Really fun though.
Oh, last thing. Last night in ballet we were running our usual pirouette drills. I NAILED several perfect double pirouettes in a row last night!!!!!!! Usually it's hit or miss, and yesterday it was definitely HIT. And, in jazz on Monday I knocked out an awesome triple coupe turn, where the standing leg is in plie. It's part of a combination where we are asked for a double coupe turn, pause in front briefly and extend the working leg out in 2nd, turn and end up on the floor. It felt wonderful. :)
Anyway, that's all of my random rambly nonsense for one day. I'm very excited about my GM fitting and all of the fun things I'm working on this year. I'm also STOKED for Thanksgiving. I hope my readers in the USA have a great holiday tomorrow! Enjoy your turkey coma. :)
Happiest Dancing,
-RB
I feel so guilty for not posting with regularity anymore! It's weird, when I first started this blog EVERYTHING was either a totally new experience or a chance to dust the cobwebs off of skills I never thought I'd use again. I wanted to talk about it all, and turned to lots of adult beginner and adult dancer blogs to help slog through it all. Now, dance is just something I do all the time. Less of the experiences are brand new or a crazy refresher, so I find myself turning here less and less. I also am pretty busy with work, but still. Strange.
Next week I am traveling to New York and New Jersey for work, I'll be in the city Tuesday - Friday, traveling to Ohio Friday morning and then back to Wisconsin Saturday.
I don't have any major jobs going on at work, so I have been deciding what I'd like to do to take up my time while I'm in the area. It's been 10 years since I was in NYC, but naturally my brain thinks ballet. :) I've found a few studios local to where I'm staying that offer several classes I think I would fit in with.
The most exciting part though, is that I've just made a fitting appointment with the Gaynor Minden Flagship store for Thursday!! I'll be fitted in person and hopefully walk out with a pair of shoes, or at least place a custom order. I'm anxious to see what they fit me in, and how different it will be from the shoe I bought with help from the GM online fitters. I'll be bringing my GMs and my current pair of Grishkos.
I still have my Grishko Dreampointe model coming in from Greece, though I placed my order exactly two weeks ago and it still hasn't shipped. I'd love to do a GM/Dreampointe comparison, and especially after class yesterday, I need a pair of shoes that will last more than a few classes.
 |
| Current Shoes, Grishko 2007 Proflex, dead. Right Foot |
My current Grishko 2007 Proflex (hard shank) are dead dead dead. I loved them when they were new, but now the shank and demi area is totally worn in and I'm starting to get wobbly, especially on my (stronger) right foot. The platform is mush and with the box issues it's just not a good thing. The shoe doesn't *look* terrible here, actually the opposite, but you can see in the pic above how I'm tilted too far over the platform. The gap in the back edge of the platform is supposed to be touching the ground! This is just standing on one foot, too, when I'm working in eschappe for example, my foot looks more claw shaped. Not pretty.
I roll too far over my shoe and the platform just squishes in instead of retaining its shape to help me feel where true full pointe is. I'm still working on increasing my muscling to automatically extend to correct, true pointe and hold myself back, but it's not 100% yet. I need that extra help from the shoe.
You can rest assured that I'll write up a review of my experience and any shoes I end up buying! LOL.
Everything else is going really well. In jazz we are breaking down and slowly learning fouette turns, something I've always hoped to master. It's so frustrating, when I was a kid fouette turns were SO easy, and now it's pretty much impossible. Haha. I have no problem doing a coupe or pencil turn to prep, going in to the first part of the fouette where the leg extends out in 2nd, but I haven't quite coordinated the action of snapping that leg back in during the rotation and beginning the whole process again in a timely manner
Part of the issue is that I LOVE the "hang time" in the air. I am great a slow pirouettes, arabesque or attitude 'holds' and other turns, so in the fouette I end up keeping my working leg in 2nd for too long, and the snap back to passe comes far too late. I think with more practice I can get it though!
The biggest surprise of this season is how much I am beginning to love tap. I always hated tap as a kid, but now I'm really enjoying it and feel like my adult beginners class is way too easy. I can pick up a new step or combination after being shown once, and it takes everyone else quite a long time to figure it out, and even then they can't do it unless the teacher is barking out the steps or doing it with us. Then again, anyone who has taken a year of ballet or jazz should be able to execute a simple flap ball change, and most of the ladies in class with me have not taken dance before. I suppose I'll cut them some slack, I just want to learn more at a faster pace, that's all. Really fun though.
Oh, last thing. Last night in ballet we were running our usual pirouette drills. I NAILED several perfect double pirouettes in a row last night!!!!!!! Usually it's hit or miss, and yesterday it was definitely HIT. And, in jazz on Monday I knocked out an awesome triple coupe turn, where the standing leg is in plie. It's part of a combination where we are asked for a double coupe turn, pause in front briefly and extend the working leg out in 2nd, turn and end up on the floor. It felt wonderful. :)
Anyway, that's all of my random rambly nonsense for one day. I'm very excited about my GM fitting and all of the fun things I'm working on this year. I'm also STOKED for Thanksgiving. I hope my readers in the USA have a great holiday tomorrow! Enjoy your turkey coma. :)
Happiest Dancing,
-RB
I noticed the grishko proflex died fast too. Congrats on the doubles! I did that once! Haven't repeated it since lol. Goodluck at GM, I hope fitting is better in person from them as I've gone through two pairs and they never fit just right. Let us know how it rolls.
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