2012 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

4,329 films were submitted to the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. This blog had 28,000 views in 2012. If each view were a film, this blog would power 6 Film Festivals

Click here to see the complete report.

Turnout Is Important

Yes NPR, turnout IS important.

Oh wait, I guess you’re talking about the upcoming elections, yeah I guess that’s important too.

I suppose one could practice one’s turnout as one pulls the lever, marks their box, or puncturing one’s chad. Just go and do it.

I know who I’m voting for.

Chair 2012!

Time Out

It’s been awhile since I have been able to dance, mid August when I was in Portland. I would have been suprised if you were to have told me that I wouldn’t dance again in more than a month.

Time out!

So, I’m sure you’re wondering what the fuck is up with you, I thought you liked ballet.

Well, you are correct there, I love ballet and I try to do it as often as I can. However, I’ve managed to really do a number on my ankle / foot areas. Somehow I kinda twisted / rolled said ankle area somewhere in northern California. I didn’t think much of it at the time and I really didn’t do to much about it aside from the standard ice bags and pills. Then the pain and discomfort just kinda lingerd, and really didn’t go away, not cool, but meh it happens. Plus, I still have the intermentant clicking noise and what feels like a bit like tendonitis both of which I’ve battled for years.

Then I go and crash really hard while cyclocross racing as I’m known to do. Aside from the crash that spit my knee open last year this was the worst crash I’ve ever had the mispleasure to have had. I don’t remember how it happened, all I remember is crawling off the course so I don’t get run over again by the guys who are behind me. All I know is I landed with all my weight onto my knee. It was a wreck that drew a crowd, those usually do not turn out well. I know I’m done immediatly and I might have actually done something bad to myself but nothing life threatning.

FYI Cyclocross crashes are quite common and rarely injure the rider. Trust me, it happens to me all the time.

Long story somewhat short I make an appointment with my doc to get checked out, basically trying to squeeze every ounce of my $20 co-pay. Let’s go nuts and x-ray everything. The knee is fine, just soft tissue damage but nothing that ice and more pills wont take care of. No bone spurs in the ankle, a possible cause of the clicking, but it could be arthritis (I thought that was just for old people). Oh, and a broken finger, a cracked bone in the joint of my left index finger. I’ll gladly take this diagnosis, a broken finger beats a broken knee cap any day of the week.

I’m sure my doctor thinks I’m out of my mind as I attempt to explain cyclocross, how I keep getting hurt crashing and my love of ballet. How many “hobbies” that take a tole on your legs and feet can I get myself into?

Anyway, he suggested that I should take another month or so off from ballet and I should quit crashing during cyclocross racing. It’s hasn’t been easy not taking my normal load of classes every week for the last month, and another month off seems like forever. What will I do?

I’m not in that video, but I have raced in several of the races shown, the US National Championships in particular.

These Poles Are Horizontal

I can’t believe I forgot about this until I just stumbled across it earlier today.

“I think we experienced our own ballet today, a ballet of emotions.”

Sketchy

Little Victories, Take Them When You Can

So the int / adv. class at Big City Fancy Pants Company School is well… advanced. Go figure, right?

So, I’ve been taking this class semi-regularly for about seven or eight months now, it’s gotten a bit easier. When I say easier, I mean I no longer want to run for the doors in a cold sweat because you feel your in so far over your head that you feel you are about to drown. Yeah, the class is still way hard dear readers, I’ve gotten slightly better but there is a long way to go, a looooong way.

However, there is one part of class where I excel, trivia, yes trivia. You maybe wondering what does this have to do with anything, well if you would let me continue here, I’ll explain. After barre ends Big Tex gives us time to get a drink, stretch, whatever, it is also trivia time. It’s usually two to three totally random bits of obscure knowledge. Things nobody really needs to know, but they are things that just happen to be up in my noodle. I haven’t been that many classes where I haven’t gotten at least one question correct. So if your choosing up sides to play some Trivial Pursuit you might want me on your side.

My way too smart best-friend seems to believe my hippocampus is more developed than most. Interesting theory, eh? I hold our collective childhood memories.

BTW, he’s an avid dancer himself, he’s way into all things swing. While I enjoy it in small doses, its not for me.

It’s a shame I can’t harness this ability for my betterment, say, oh I don’t know, the ability to remember all of the steps and in the right order for one of Big Tex’s uber complicated crossing combos. They are a full length ballet including intermissions compared to what we do in my other classes.

Peace out!

Adult Beginner, No Not The Person, The Short Film

I really wish I could get this to embed into this blog, I’ve been trying for hours, with no luck. Anyway, click the link, the movie is great. It’s a school I dream about, classes just for us types who found ballet way later than most. They even get choreographed pieces given to them and dance in front of real people with tickets not a wall full of mirrors.

I’ve seen the trialer on Youtube, but this was the first time I got to see the entire film. It runs about one hour.
Trailer

http://science.kqed.org/quest/files/jw-player-plugin-for-wordpress/player/player.swf

Michelle Ortega, KQED in SF CA, and North Beach Digital.

What Could Be: 2012

Some call them resolutions others goals, call them what you will. Anyway here is a list of whatever you want to call them.

• Splits! Side and front, all of them, both of them, are there more?… I was getting close at one point this year, but then shit happened and I lost everything I had going.
• Get that crazy high extension! I mean who doesn’t want to scratch your ear with your knee?
• Stay out of the ER, I guess that means I need to quit crashing the bike while racing, maybe this one should go into the cycling goals blog. Oh well.
• Make the most of the barre I built, right now it has clothes draped over it.
• Stretch early, and stretch often!
• Actually use those thera-bands I bought.
• Spend more time in the tights, find a way to add a permanent third, maybe fourth class into my schedule.
• Watch more ballet / dance live in person. The interweb is great, but nothing beats the real thing.
• See if there is anything I can do to keep my ankle from always bothering me after class.
• Find a ballernia class©.
• Remember not to wear grey tights with stitches in your knee, your teacher will see them and freak out and you will see any blood that might soak through them. Black hides a multitude of sins.
• Quit worrying about what other people think.
• Keep up the dance class journal and blog. That reminds me, I need a new journal book.
• Find more ways to reference The Big Lebowski and or The Seimpsons in the blog.
• Photograph my ballet classes. I have no idea how I’ll do this but, I’ll find a way.
• Stop obsessing about why I didn’t do ballet as a kid. I can’t do anything about it now.
• Pay more attention in class, especially the names of what we’re doing. It’s hard to practice if you can’t remember what you just did.
• Get to the point where I’m more comfortable in the Int/ Adv class. It’s doable, but I need a ton of work to get my head above water for the full 90 minutes.
• Travel more, and take classes when out of town.
• Remember to have fun!
• Don’t get hurt or burn out.
• Wear that leo, I bought from Boys Dance Too at least once. BTW, they are awesome, a real gem for those of us who don’t wear frilly pink things (my pointe shoes don’t count).
• Don’t over-think things.
• Find a way to perform, who wouldn’t want to put what they’ve learned in front of others aside from your classmates. Rock some white tights bitches!
• Double check for type-o’s before publishing posts (this was posted hours ago and I’m still finding errors).

Have a great new year. Here is hoping your plies are deep, your pirouettes come in multiples and your jeté’s are grand!

Oh, go vote for LATBIT in the Dance Advantage blog contest.

xoxo

2011 In Review

Sweet, a blog post I didn’t have to write, thank you WordPress!

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 10,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 4 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

Round Two Starts Now

Ding ding, The Dance Advantage Top Dance Blogs of 2011 contest round two starts now.

Thank you to everyone who left comments, LATBIT moved on and into round two, woot!  Now, dear readers, I need you to follow the link below and vote for LATBIT. Polls are open until January 4th at Dance Advantage. So then, fire up that desktop, laptop, iPad, and or smart phone and log on and get to it.

Also, I’d like to thank you, my dear readers for actually reading my blog. The dude abides!

Remember, vote early and vote often!

xoxo!

Click here to vote!