Ballet vs. Life

This is a very scary year for me, being my last year of high school. Where I live, a lot pressure is put on students doing their HSC exams. When you realise that passing every subject can often still mean you don't receive a high enough mark for University strikes terror for most students. It's a pretty big year. And I start to wonder how much time and money I should be investing into ballet.

I've written a post touching on this briefly before, but every now and then I have a small freakout and think I should be doing over 20 hours a week. But not only is it difficult to obtain a mere 10 hours a week in my situation ( meaning my location and level of training coupled with age) but it's expensive, in terms of money as well as time.

Then I tell myself to chill and just go with what I can get. The girls in my class don't do more than I do. But I can't help but want to take as many classes as possible following the 'make up for lost time' philosophy. Part of me wants to take this new adult class that my teacher is offering to work on breaking some bad technique habits, but the other part is telling me I may just not belong or it'll be too basic or I don't know.

In contrast, part of me wants to attend the advanced pointe class so I can do more pointework, however the other thinks it'll be a breeding ground for bad habits.

Many people are suffering from having to choose between friends and ballet. However my issue is choosing between having money or ballet. I have to choose between ballet or part time work. Ballet or having a car. Ballet or saving up to move out. Ballet or having lots of nice clothes. It's hard to find the middle ground.

Back on track after a weird week!

I'm back to posting normal posts! I was unable to post normally during summer school as I had no computer, only my phone!

Unfortunately I fell off track this week following summer school, but in my defense it has been a weird week. I went back to school on Wednesday and then from Wednesday evening then throughout Thursday I was sure I was getting a cold; fever, sore throat etc. but today when I took the day off from school I feel fine! I don't understand my body, I really don't. So all this has thrown a spanner in the works, plus I don't go back to my ballet studio until next week.  I'm sure once the school week begins properly and I have ballet as normal, everything will fall into place.

I did most of my routine tonight after about a week's break and I have seemed to have not lost a lot of flexibility, like I expected. I'd hate to have all my hard work done for nothing! But hopefully I'll return to where I was before and continue to improve it. I'd consider OSEIJ successful because I have seen a good amount of improvement in my flexibility, but most importantly an improvement in my motivation to stretch. Even if I didn't actually stretch everyday, I tried to stretch, whenever it was possible, because I knew I would have to document on here whether I did so or not. I think this month I do need to document when I fall off track and the reasons why, even if they are petty. It'll encourage me to complete my routine each day more.

Goals for the month:
-focus on main corrections from ss:
weight forward in turns
no arched back
eyes up
use of plies in allegro
-maintain stretch and strength routine
-work on double pirouettes

And I'll add some more when class starts! :)