Big Ballet Dilemma

I have been faced with this dilemma for more than two weeks, I still don’t know what to do and I have to find a solution like NOW. I know that the decision should be mine, but I’m in desperate need of advice.

As you know, I’m studying in Salamanca. This is my last year of university, and therefore it is also my last year of ballet in this studio with this Amazingly Awesome Ballet Teacher. I had a ballet class for beginners today. I felt so much ahead the rest of the class. I’m not swaggering; it is a fact. We did a new barre and I could remember all the steps and I performed them pretty well. I didn’t get any corrections from the teacher. Only things like “very well, Nerea! You’re doing fine!”

Well, it seems that I have a pretty much pretty and amazingly cool life. What is the problem, then? The Problem is this:

Class finished and Amazingly Awesome Ballet Teacher told me that she didn’t know why I still was in that class with the beginners. She had spoken with intermediate ballet teacher (with whom I have had an intermediate class and two hours of pointe. That equals three hours), and this second person had told her that I could totally get enrolled in intermediate class. She said I was doing well; I just needed to have a little more agility at the centre.

So I told Amazingly Awesome Ballet Teacher that I didn’t feel really confident in intermediate level. She answered that she was sure I was ready and intermediate ballet teacher thought the very same. I hesitated for a second and Amazingly Awesome Ballet Teacher shouted: “come on!!! It’s always me! I always have to push you guys to do new things! Come on, Nerea! Go to intermediate level!!! You can do it!!! I know you can!!”

So, these are my options:

• Stay in ballet class with the beginners, with Amazingly Awesome Ballet Teacher, 2 hours a week + 1 hour of flamenco, also with Amazingly Awesome and Adorable Ballet Teacher.

• Go to intermediate level with Not-So-Awesome-Ballet-Teacher. This means 2 hours a week + 1 hour of pointe shoes with her… And not flamenco at all, because, you know, my budget has its limits.

The first option means that I will focus on the basics again; on very easy things that I can already do, which can be nice… or not so nice, and of course, staying with lovely teacher. Second option means, of course, something like: “bye, bye, Amazingly Awesome and Adorable Ballet Teacher, forever and ever, and hello, stressful ballet classes in which I learn so much and I can actually dance like a ballerina, but where I don't really know if I'm performing correctly!”

There are other options, but certainly less advisable, like giving up flamenco, staying with the beginners in ballet class and going to intermediate pointe class. Or going to intermediate ballet classes, giving up pointe and going to flamenco with Amazingly Awesome Ballet Teacher.

Should I repeat that Amazingly Awesome Ballet Teacher absolutely wants me to go to intermediate level, because she thinks I have some kind of potential?

My head is a total mess. Any experienced advice?

Oh, and if I choose option 2, I will dance like Tamara in a few years. Yeah, sure... ;)
Look at that super AWESOME winged foot!!!

Nerea.

Twitter talks pointe class

Going to ballet class. Excited. Je vous vois dans trois heures, tweeps!

This is how I said goodbye on Twitter last Thursday. Three hours went by, I got home, and this is what I wrote:

Back from ballet class... with GREAT NEWS. OH-MY-GAWD, OH-MY-GAWD, OH-MY-GAWD, YOU GUYS.

My teacher has invited me to JOIN TOMORROW'S BALLERINA CLASS, aka POINTE CLASS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

POINTE, POINTE, POINTE, POINTE. I'M GOING TO A POINTE CLASS TOMORROW!!!!!!!!!

I haven't been to a pointe class since I was 13. So I've just (re)joined the club of people who like to mangle their feet on purpose!!!

Please note my mental breakdown. It might be serious. Later that day I also had my sentimental moment:

I just wanted to say that... I love you all, ballet tweeps. I'm so happy to be a part of this community where we can share our impressions.

And then, another mental breakdown. This one is a little milder, as I was starting to assimilate the news:

Sorry if I'm a little annoying, but I can't help jumping and shouting in joy! I AM EN POINTE, YOU GUYS.

It seems that when your ballet teacher invites you to try pointe class, you feel everything. Fear, of course, is the order of the day:

But I'm a little worried, because pointe class won't be with my regular teacher. The other one seems a little harsh (?).

Oh my God. I am going to suck so much this afternoon at pointe class.

Then, I got ready (see feet here) and went to pointe class.

And this is the result of it:

Advanced pointe class is serious business, guys. It felt good, but I was doing pointe with 15-17-year-old girls far more talented than me, who could do piqués en tournant without problems. But the good news are that my feet weren't hurting at all!!!

I will go to the academy on Monday again. I will talk to my pointe teacher and to my regular teacher and we'll see what they think about me.

Oh my, I'm dehydrated!!!

I guess my teacher was right (they know us better than we think). I was prepared. I didn’t break my ankles in pointe class.

The problem was the technical level. They should give a pointe class for beginners, because I simply couldn’t follow the steps. Seriously, how the hell do they want me to do a hundred piqué turns EN POINTE in my first class in 8 years? I can't even do them properly in slippers!

Definitely, I could totally go to that pointe class during barre and port de bras. But the diagonals were too much. TOO. MUCH.

Oh, and by the way... I think my ballet teacher just promoted me to intermediate class. Maybe I did something well today, after all? =)

Nope, I hadn’t done anything well THAT day. This is what hapenned yesterday when I went to talk to her:

My ballet teacher had spoken about me with the intermediate teacher before the academic year started.

She told her I was strong, had a good posture, a very fast evolution and could perfectly fit into the intermediate class (and pointe shoes).

She said that last year she could tell I had danced for many years before. In her (translated) own words: “I just had to polish you up a little bit, but now you’re ready”.

So she has definitely invited me to try intermediate level. She said I could be a little lost at the beginning, but she believed I was prepared.

SO I AM HAPPY.

And also sad, because that means that I am probably going to class with another teacher. And I like Mrs. C so much, you guys. Because she’s lovely.

My super old pointe shoes, which look less crappy with their new ribbons!

Nerea.