Just Get Up and Dance!

Today I started another adventure- I, Claire Hilton, have officially returned to dance. Crazy, I know. Lets just add another thing to the pile of what all's going on in my life at the moment. But really, this is a good thing to add. 2-3 classes a week (as of right now) is totally manageable. Hopefully I'll add tap and jazz when I find a good class to take. Anyway, I had my first day back today after a 2 1/2 year hiatus from ballet. I didn't realize how very much I had missed it until I put on my tights, leotard, and slippers this morning. And once I was in class, it just got even better. Its a small class, full of some of my old friends from the studio. Of course there was that whole awkward "Dang it! I totally forgot how to do this, and have no clue what the heck a 'rand de jamb' is...etc" that comes with jumping right back into something you haven't done in a long time. But the good thing was that my technique is still pretty solid. I mean, there wasn't anything presented that I couldn't do, or at least attempt to do correctly. It'll take a while for me to get back to where I was with dance, but I'll get there. For today, I was just happy to go and sorta "detox". Dance is all about emotion and story, and this week was full of both for Claire Hilton. So having a creative outlet to pour all the pent up mess into was such a help, not to mention challenging. As I'm sitting here typing this, I can already feel the muscles in my legs protesting to the stretching they received this morning. After all, its been 2 1/2 years since they've been pushed and controlled to do some classical dancing. But its the good kind of sore. The "alive" soreness you can only earn from a good ballet class.