I took back-to-back dance classes this week. I skipped a class last week due to Valentine's day (in order to preserve the peace with my wife, I wisely decided that dinner with her would be preferable to my dance class). When we miss a class, we can take a free makeup class in another session. I chose to take a Jazz dance class that immediately follows my ballet class.

I wore footless tights with socks so that I could quickly transition to bare feet for jazz. The ballet class was hard again, but I am loving every minute of it. I was a little worried though, because about 5 minutes into it, I had this weird sinus thing occur, and I briefly became disoriented. I worried if I'd pass out if I continued. Fortunately, the feeling passed soon and I was able to continue with no problems. At times, I was not strong enough to hold the required poses. At one point we were in a fondue (standing on one bent leg with the other foot raised and touching your ankle) for like five minutes (after having done several in a row), and I couldn't maintain it. I did okay on most of the combination exercises. I made my share of mistakes, but more or less recovered from them. At one point the teacher taught us one of the few "gendered" thing we learn in class: how to do a ballet walk. First we all did it in the ladies style (light and quiet), and then all in the gentlemen style (rather dull and boring). We also did lot's of jumps and I got my heart rate up.

When class ended, I pulled off my slippers and socks, and pulled a pair of shorts up over my tights for the jazz class. I've taken this twice before (last year) as a makeup. I really enjoy this class, partly because the dancing is more contemporary. In the past we learned dances to Michael Jackson songs, and this time we learned one to "Bad Romance" by Lady Gaga. I was definitely behind every one in the class, but I think I did okay for not being a regular attendee. The dances have 10 or more different parts to them and they are really hard to remember. Although I could get each step individually, stringing them together was really difficult for me. I guess I should be glad that I didn't bump into anybody or step on any toes, but I'm sure that if I saw a video I would have looked pretty bad. Every once in a while our teacher would tell me "That's right" or "good job" but I think she was just trying to keep me from feeling bad. About the only thing I think I did well in was the stretches. My flexibility is really coming along, and an added benefit of all of these dance classes is I'm learning to improve my posture (I have always had a really bad slouch) without looking rigid or stuck up. By the end of the class I was sweating and breathing very hard. I would love to take three hours of dance in a row regularly, but simply don't have the time right now. However, I'm sure I'd be in a lot better shape if I did!