TYR

you know who spots like crazy? flamenco dancers. saw a performance the other day where someone was using the most incredible super-exaggerated spotting action, and it definitely worked for her - her axis in the turns was plumb bob vertical. to the front, for the record.

I definitely mean developpe rather than grand battement.

Yeah, they tell you the greats didn't kick through 90 degrees until, well, they started doing that, and they'd rather you were perfectly aligned even at 45. But I think we all know none of us really believes this and neither does your teacher and we all wish we could kick higher. Who's a kicker? What are good ideas, corrections, exercises? The one currently in my head is to keep weight and arms forward, watch the tracking, and kick more forward (say at 120 degrees of turnout, not being a Russian). But has anyone got owt good beyond that? I hear crazy people practise them standing on a Swiss ball which would deffo make eyes pop down at the council gym.

"When you go forward you should be dragged upwards by a rusty meathook here [points to the coccyx]"

"Your plié is like the US and China. In tension. Divided by the whole Pacific. If they get too close it's war. Or diplomacy. But maybe war and we don't want that."

Mark Kimmitt had us doing emboités on intensive week. Like half a coupé turn combined with a little jump and then immediately switching feet on the other side. ecch.

If you remember this: I'm back. Much better, apparently.

From last night at CSB: "The opposite hip is like the other side of your personality. It's the one that's really important..." I.e. don't let your turnout slacken in en dedans turns. Not actually Renato, but someone dear to his heart.

Not RP: "Imagine there's an eye in the back of your neck and it wants to see the whole landscape. Not the sky, not the ground...."

Oh, and I took class again today.

So we finished it. I don't feel anywhere near as battered as I usually do after intensive week; not sure if this is progress, if I didn't push hard enough, or if I'm going to be unable to get out of a chair on Monday, which has happened. Alternatively, I didn't do as much floorwork. We showed two pieces from Rep 1, one from Rep 2. The first in R1 really went well to the extent that even my partner thinks it was good and she is my most unforgiving critic. The second, not so much...I missed a step I hit in every other pass (wot?) although I did get the jump and the tube poster bit and in general the whole thing was a bit slack. R2 was cracking except for the final transition to the floor where you pull a wind-up turn (like you're allowed to?) and deliberately fall out of it at the end so you can crawl backwards really fast to the wings. Before that, though, there are four different turns in quick succession including a piqué en dehors, an attitude turn, an en dedans from 2nd, and a wind-up from 4th...oh, and a relévé balance in parallel wagging your leg around and a bunch of other stuff so I was pretty pleased with that. //Namedropper section: Senri Kou from ENB led R1, Pedro Lapetra R2, Begona Cao showed up for R2 showing, I spotted Richard Alston outside the front of the studio but it wasn't my business to bother him was it? Also some celebrity stan said Osipova was up in studio six rehearsing but I had class so I didn't go gawping and selfie hunting.// Other stuff: I just now this morning realised why the rep class barre always included a rond jété - there's one in the R2 variation but everyone did it slow in centre even though we kicked on barre and now I miss that fragment of lost time every pass so much. Also I think I'd be insufferable if I felt like this regularly.

Better day; morning class was a struggle but came out with working piqué/coupé/jété. Rep 1 was only OK but we pushed forward with Rep 2....on this one you get to do the "tube poster" passé rélevé balance with opposite arms so I'm totally here for that. I am enjoying the not-totally-classical turns, too. Natalie Karpf is also as good as people say on here; maybe the intro class I should have taken when I started? Lots of ultra specific floor barre-y smarts. Might have resolved the mystery of why my right foot flexes when I jump out of 5th or 1st.

Currently on The Place's third intensive week with ENB. Had two very good days and a less good one; we were told we're ready to show our Repertoire 1 piece from Aszure Barton's FANTASTIC BEINGS by the end of class yesterday, but today I managed to wipe out and fall on my backside in technique class for the first time ever. I've crashed in improv before but never in ballet class. (Crash inquiry: it helps to have done a la seconde turns more recently than a year ago. Off balance far enough, bum went straight down.) On the other hand I think I'm falling in love with temps lévé arabesque.

didn't know they did ballet....DB joined our class, so we had a total of four teachers counting Renato, three of them as students.

I think he's around - he taught on Sunday. (I also remember Desiree sitting in for Nina Thilas Mohs at Danceworks; that was seriously intense and very, very fast.)

"Push down into the earth with one foot and into destiny with the other" "It's easy to be a saint in a convent...but it's not so easy on Copacabana" Guess who.

Well, I've been going through a dip in form. So much so I had to drop out of Nina Thilas-Mohs' class and got screamed at by David Kierce. Not sure what else to make of that except that I've also been working unusually hard in the gym and I think I'm just perma-knackered.

Terroni's Italian restaurant, since 1875, is like a hundred yards up the street and so much better than anything a bleedin' Pret will offer you.

On Sunday - at 28 degrees outside - he showed up wearing a fur-lined parka.

RP: "Everyone feels horrible in coordination class...I've seen brilliant dancers destroy their careers like that...it's like Napoleon in Russia or the Germans in Russia...or....the *Russians* in Russia" Also RP: "Racehorses look front!" Actually useful from Nina: "If it's too fast, your core isn't tight enough"

Update: he's here and leading class at CSB for the rest of the week. Then back to Germany. Returns 8th July for most of August. Also, Antonia Franceschi might be about in the first week of June.

Not regularly, but he has been here for weeks here and there. He cancelled earlier in the week and announced a special extra long class that turned out to be built around something of his from Germany. It's probably best to watch his facebook page..

Who did Renato's marathon 2 hours 30 yesterday? "Khruschev! Podgorny! But not....Brezhnev!"

I was whining on here about trying to find a pair of Sansha Prince shoes a while back. It may not surprise anyone that I eventually gave up and went with the So Dancas instead

So you went through with the statue?