First Fondues and Diving Arabesques

Last Friday, and this year´s première pointe class with Madame. We did our first fondues en pointe (well, my first anyway) -  and my initial reaction: gulp.. But surprisingly, I actually managed to roll through demi-pointe all the way up! I guess all those nasty (Madame´s word, not mine) exercises finally paid off. Not that it´s going to get any easier from here! Still, I fully expected to be shamefully out of shape with smoke rising from my burning toes.

Our barre was grueling work nonetheless. We did another first: relevés on a single foot, with passé retiré, then plie and up again. Of course lots of echappés as usual and sous-sous in 5th, with Madame watching every move under the microscope. I learned that to rise into 5th (without jumping), you have to do a tiny little "lick" with the toes of your back foot. It made me think of a cat´s paw, which kind of works since Madame often tells us to move like cats! (Not like the musical.) We also did a new enchainement in the center. Pictured right: the divine, not diving, Paloma Herrera. Photograhper: unknown.

Moving in the diagonal:
Glissade - piqué arabesque - plie - pas de bourré - repeat - and repeat - and, well you get the idea.. 

By the way, our class room is really long. As in too long for chaînés déboulés, piqué pirouettes, anything that requires some serious head-spotting! But that´s a different story. The thing is, you have this exercise which is fun to do but not that challenging in soft shoes. I don´t mean the arabesque - which can be improved upon forever, but rather the steps in between. On pointe however, oh boy.. The moves are all there in my muscle memory, except for those blocks underneath my toes getting in the way! Coming down into plié from a high arabesque - I almost dived head first into the floor, not just once but thrice! It´s a real challenge,  making those feet feel like they belong on pointe. 

I wanted to post this video here, because we have been dancing a lot to the music of Romeo and Juliet. Madame always tells us to respect Prokofiev´s beautiful score, and we try our best. Especially knowing that she herself has danced the role of Juliet not so long ago! The dancer in this clip is of course not Madame (though I wish we had her on film), but Dorothee Gilbert of Paris Opera Ballet. One of my favorite dancers..