Yadda yadda, long time no write, blah blah, yeah.

So, about a month ago I decided I wanted to take dance classes. I figured, hey, I took about a decade's worth of dance classes (we're talking near 6 hours a week there towards the end) growing up, why am I trying to workout in a gym instead of dancing? So, I talked to my sister (who's a professional flamenco dancer), who pointed me to ODC, which is a dance collective that offers all sorts of fabulous dance classes. And, bonus, the center is only two blocks out of my way on my walk home from work to BART.

So, I started taking Advanced Beginning Contemporary on Mondays. (I chose that level mostly because I'm way too out of shape for intermediate, but know too much for an absolute beginning class; I also trained mostly in Ballet, Tap, Jazz and Acrobatics as a kid/ teenager, so I only have a smattering of Contemporary (we called it Modern back then) to draw on anyway.) The first week, I could barely walk for five days afterwards. The next week, it took about four days to recover. Last week, I was ok by Wednesday, though on Monday night right after class I had to use my hands to lift my legs out of my pants when I was getting ready for bed because my legs just would not respond (a *very* freaky feeling!).

What I'm saying is, it's a good workout.

Tonight, after class, I felt great. I still feel pretty damn good, though my feet are cramping and my ankles/ calves kinda hurt (it's very heavy on training us in foot articulation, which is useful, but owie; trust me, you don't usually use these muscles just walking around).

But the best part was that I'm finally able to put some interpretation into the moves -- y'know dance -- instead of scrambling to keep up physically, to remember the choreography. I still have a dancer's brain -- I know how to pick up steps -- though it took a little practice to get it back. But now I'm getting the physical endurance back, which is just making this fun. Hell, I was doing slow developes tonight (bringing one leg up the other -- coupe* (ankle level), pique (knee level), out into attitude (bent leg), to full extension) in time to the music, without dropping my leg early. Whoo!

I'm hoping this week to also take the Wednesday class. We'll see how my feet feel. They're definitely my weakest part... well, at least my sorest.

There's more going on, natch, but I think I'll leave tonight dancing!

*My apologies for leaving all accents off the French words. Not only do I not know how to code that, I also don't want to have to look it all up to be sure I have it right, so I'll just be all wrong and leave it at that.