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| You may not be able to tell from this photo, but this nail is giving me SO. MUCH. PAIN. :( :( |
Showing posts with label ballet. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ballet. Show all posts
Thursday, May 12, 2011
Wordless Wednesday
Monday, April 18, 2011
Just Dance!
"Most people think of ballet as children in little tutus. They don't know it is sweat, blood and tears as well!”
-- Nan Keating
I've been working hard on my arabesque flexibility and took some nerdy-ass pictures yesterday to prove it. Don't judge. Although, I didn't stretch beforehand, and have TERRIBLE arm position, because I kept doing retarded things when I had my arms right, sooooo they don't actually prove anything... except that I'm a dork. Also, I got some HILARIOUS looks from my neighbors as I was doing this, so I only took like 4 pictures... this from the girl who takes ~200 pictures in a given photoshoot... :P
Basically what I am saying is DON'T JUDGE!! hehe.
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| OK, come on here Loni, EXTEND THAT FREAKIN LEG. |
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| I've reached Kiera Knightley white. ScarJo white. Taylor Momsen white. Yuck. |
What sort of embarrassing pictures do you take of yourself that probably shouldn't be shown to the world? Ever put them on your blog?
Thursday, April 14, 2011
The Road to Pointe
WARNING: lots and lots of ballet-talk ahead!! :P
So this quarter, since I'm not taking any classes, I am auditing an intermediate ballet class on Mondays and Wednesdays, and taking one through our rec-center on Tuesdays and Thursdays (yup, that means 2 hours of class a day, 4 days a week!).... It's fun, but I feel like as soon as I have recovered over the weekend, I start back up again on Monday.. :)
All in all, I've been really loving ballet-- in fact, it's sort of my childhood dream come true. Everything about it is just so... awesome. And also, really, really, freakishly hard. Which only makes it more awesome.
However, I tend to get bored when nothing big changes, and since this is my second time in intermediate (usually you have to take each level 2-3 times in order to get to the next one) nothing much is new. Which means that I space out, I get frustrated with myself, I don't enjoy it as much, and I get competitive.
..Not to mention, about 6 girls from last quarter's class are starting en pointe this quarter. And I'm not one of them.
To be honest, I'm probably not quite ready for pointe work yet, but neither are some of them. A few of them are just at the right level to start, and a couple of them were en pointe when they were younger, but are re-starting now that they're back to dance, but there are at least 2 who I know for a fact should NOT be en pointe. And I, being the competitive, easily bored person that I am, am bugged to nooo end by this. Ugh. It bothers me that it bothers me, but watching a couple of these girls wobble around en sousous ON HALF POINTE, and then attempt to go en pointe (and wobble some more, grab the barre, almost break their ankles, and look superawkward while doing it) just makes me mad. Being a soccer player and general athlete, I know that I could physically go en pointe, and my teachers have told me such. But no no nooooo, I'M waiting until I'm perfectly ready, so that I don't get hurt, and ultimately will be a better dancer for it in the long run. Ugh. Being smart sucks.
So today at my other dance class (the rec class), which doesn't have anybody en pointe in it, I went up to my teacher and asked her about going en pointe and what I need to do to get there. She told me that I would probably be fine, but she wants to wait until I improve a couple of things.
First of all, I tend to get lazy/bored/space out, which means that I lose my posture. This means that I sink into my hips and don't pull up out of my feet (which can either be super dangerous en pointe, or instantly fixed by going en pointe). I need to constantly be focusing and thinking about my body position and weight the entire time I am dancing in class, pulling in my stomach, tightening my abs, and LIFTING OUT of my standing leg. Fun.
Secondly, since I have hyper-extended knees, I tend to get away with being lazy about my extension; I don't follow all the way through on my tondus and arabesque, and I'm not using my full strength and support en eleve. Basically what this means is that, since it looks like my legs are straight even when they are slightly bent, I am not entirely flexing my muscles to build strength and support for my feet... another thing which could be bad en pointe.
Lastly, I need to work on my arms. I tend to focus so hard on my feet (or apparently, lose focus altogether), that my arms start to drift up and back. If your arms go behind you, your center of balance starts to fall backwards-- bad bad bad!! I need to be tilting slightly more forward and thinking about keeping my arms in front of me at all times so that my weight is centered and I can more easily go en pointe-- it is a lot easier to rise up en pointe if your body is pulling you up and over that way in the first place, and not back where you just fall onto your ass. Not to mention, arms forward generally looks a lot better and less farmer-like than weird chicken-y arms (wow, just called myself a farmer and a chicken in the same sentence. yay me.)
So that sounds like a lot to work on, but luckily it's not actually as much as it seems like. It is all stuff that I understand, and know how to do and why I need to do it. Actually, the main problem is just my focus. I sink into myself and forget that ballet should be work, and stop remembering simple beginner things like RISE UP! ARMS FORWARD!! EXTEND YOUR LEGS ALL THE WAY! They are really not difficult concepts, and my strength and understanding is there, it's just a matter of working hard and thinking about every single move I make every single minute of all 8 hours I'm dancing per week.
Honestly, I think that if I were to go en pointe, it would probably give me that extra inspiration/motivation/focus to make me improve on a lot of the silly little things I forget about, but I don't want to risk getting hurt or anything, so I might as well be as perfect as I can be before taking the next step.
I CAN DO THIS.
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| Not me... but someday soon! :) |
So this quarter, since I'm not taking any classes, I am auditing an intermediate ballet class on Mondays and Wednesdays, and taking one through our rec-center on Tuesdays and Thursdays (yup, that means 2 hours of class a day, 4 days a week!).... It's fun, but I feel like as soon as I have recovered over the weekend, I start back up again on Monday.. :)
All in all, I've been really loving ballet-- in fact, it's sort of my childhood dream come true. Everything about it is just so... awesome. And also, really, really, freakishly hard. Which only makes it more awesome.
However, I tend to get bored when nothing big changes, and since this is my second time in intermediate (usually you have to take each level 2-3 times in order to get to the next one) nothing much is new. Which means that I space out, I get frustrated with myself, I don't enjoy it as much, and I get competitive.
..Not to mention, about 6 girls from last quarter's class are starting en pointe this quarter. And I'm not one of them.
To be honest, I'm probably not quite ready for pointe work yet, but neither are some of them. A few of them are just at the right level to start, and a couple of them were en pointe when they were younger, but are re-starting now that they're back to dance, but there are at least 2 who I know for a fact should NOT be en pointe. And I, being the competitive, easily bored person that I am, am bugged to nooo end by this. Ugh. It bothers me that it bothers me, but watching a couple of these girls wobble around en sousous ON HALF POINTE, and then attempt to go en pointe (and wobble some more, grab the barre, almost break their ankles, and look superawkward while doing it) just makes me mad. Being a soccer player and general athlete, I know that I could physically go en pointe, and my teachers have told me such. But no no nooooo, I'M waiting until I'm perfectly ready, so that I don't get hurt, and ultimately will be a better dancer for it in the long run. Ugh. Being smart sucks.
So today at my other dance class (the rec class), which doesn't have anybody en pointe in it, I went up to my teacher and asked her about going en pointe and what I need to do to get there. She told me that I would probably be fine, but she wants to wait until I improve a couple of things.
First of all, I tend to get lazy/bored/space out, which means that I lose my posture. This means that I sink into my hips and don't pull up out of my feet (which can either be super dangerous en pointe, or instantly fixed by going en pointe). I need to constantly be focusing and thinking about my body position and weight the entire time I am dancing in class, pulling in my stomach, tightening my abs, and LIFTING OUT of my standing leg. Fun.
Secondly, since I have hyper-extended knees, I tend to get away with being lazy about my extension; I don't follow all the way through on my tondus and arabesque, and I'm not using my full strength and support en eleve. Basically what this means is that, since it looks like my legs are straight even when they are slightly bent, I am not entirely flexing my muscles to build strength and support for my feet... another thing which could be bad en pointe.
Lastly, I need to work on my arms. I tend to focus so hard on my feet (or apparently, lose focus altogether), that my arms start to drift up and back. If your arms go behind you, your center of balance starts to fall backwards-- bad bad bad!! I need to be tilting slightly more forward and thinking about keeping my arms in front of me at all times so that my weight is centered and I can more easily go en pointe-- it is a lot easier to rise up en pointe if your body is pulling you up and over that way in the first place, and not back where you just fall onto your ass. Not to mention, arms forward generally looks a lot better and less farmer-like than weird chicken-y arms (wow, just called myself a farmer and a chicken in the same sentence. yay me.)
So that sounds like a lot to work on, but luckily it's not actually as much as it seems like. It is all stuff that I understand, and know how to do and why I need to do it. Actually, the main problem is just my focus. I sink into myself and forget that ballet should be work, and stop remembering simple beginner things like RISE UP! ARMS FORWARD!! EXTEND YOUR LEGS ALL THE WAY! They are really not difficult concepts, and my strength and understanding is there, it's just a matter of working hard and thinking about every single move I make every single minute of all 8 hours I'm dancing per week.
Honestly, I think that if I were to go en pointe, it would probably give me that extra inspiration/motivation/focus to make me improve on a lot of the silly little things I forget about, but I don't want to risk getting hurt or anything, so I might as well be as perfect as I can be before taking the next step.
I CAN DO THIS.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
365 Project
I've started my 365Project!! Here it is: 365project/loni526
I can't decide what picture to put up today, I just took a few, and they are all terrible quality (iphone camera= bad photos) so I kind of over-edited them in an attempt to make them cooler. Also, a few of them were taken with the hipstamatic app, so that's why they're kind of.... hipster..
Here we go.
1. I don't really like the top half, and it didn't have the same effect that I wanted, but oh well. Won't be this one.
I can't decide what picture to put up today, I just took a few, and they are all terrible quality (iphone camera= bad photos) so I kind of over-edited them in an attempt to make them cooler. Also, a few of them were taken with the hipstamatic app, so that's why they're kind of.... hipster..
Here we go.
1. I don't really like the top half, and it didn't have the same effect that I wanted, but oh well. Won't be this one.
2. Much better than the first, and had the effect I wanted, but kind of boring. I like how it actually shows my day, though... ballet= first half, studying=second..
3. Ohhhh, hipstamatic.... Too grainy, but I like the B&W
4. Don't even ask. I was playing around with the orange, and I liked the contrast between the blue and orange. Didn't show as much as I would like in the final pic..
5. Haha, I actually like this one. Basically, I should have eaten some healthy food (like an orange) and studied that stupid book, but instead I finished a batch of brownie mix. Yum!
6. Soooo all I've actually done today is dance for a few hours, and now take pictures. The main reason I don't really like this one is because my STUPID HIP IS OPEN TOO FAR... I know that's a ballet thing and not a photography thing, but this will forever bother me... All I hear everyday in dance is "LONI! Hip down!! Hips belong to standing leg!!" ...also, the standing leg needs to be more effing turned out!
..Besides the ballet stuff, it's an okay picture. I like the line of the mirror...
7. I think the only reason I like this one is because it kind of looks like I'm wearing pointe shoes...
8. So, I kind of love this one, and it will probably be the one I post for today. I just love the idea of the foot under a spot light on a pedestal.. it's so true for my two sports.. ballet and soccer. I'm hopefully going to do another one similar of my foot in a cleat and shin-guards, and try to find a cool way to edit them together, kind of a juxtaposition of the reasons why my feet will forever have bloody blisters and hate me...
God, most of those were truly terrible pictures!! What can I say, it's hard to take pictures on an iphone, without a self-timer, zoom, tripod, flash, or ANYTHING for that matter.... Oh well. More important to take a pic a day and try my best.
I promise I won't post a gazillion pictures everyday for this damn 365 proj. Generally, I'll just post the one, and not even really talk about it. Probably. No promises, though :)
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