For the first time a week ago, I attended a class taught by a male instructor. I’m brain dead today so I’ll just call him “Boy Teacher,” as in male teacher AND teacher of boys, which he both is. Creative, I know. Anyway, I really liked him a lot. Totally defied the stereotype of the fey/wimpy male ballet dancer. This guy is masculine, strong and totally normal, yet a funny and fantastic teacher.
And DIFFICULT as all hell. His class last week was an hour and fifteen minute awkward and comedic blur for me. His barre exercises were complicated as shit, and we did something called a “Waltz Turn” which I reduced to a big hot tranny mess.
But this week, I’m happy to report that I did MUCH better. It helped a lot that he simplified the barre exercises and that I practiced that damned waltz turn over and over and over again this entire week. Still can’t do it well on the left side, but I was able to do the right one pretty damned well, so yay for me!
Boy Teacher did an interesting thing during barre today. He floated his palm a centimeter from the top of my head and told me to lengthen my spine and touch his hand. Then when I did, he told me to keep my posture that way the entire class. Whew! That was hard! But the curious thing about that is that in Lady Cheerleader’s class, she tells me to do the opposite. Not that I should slouch, but that I look stiff in the upper body and I should relax my posture because I tend to lean back a little.
Not sure what to do about the two differing teaching methods. One says elongate spine, the other says relax the upper body and concentrate all tension in the legs and butt. Is it possible to do both? Or should I lengthen in BT’s class and relax in LC’s class? Confusing!
