I lost count of the days a long time ago. I’ve certainly passed 100 by now; it wouldn’t surprise me if I’m even nearing 200.

Not that it matters. The number isn’t important. The results are.

You may have noticed I’ve pretty much stopped posting. I haven’t stopped dancing, don’t worry. No… quite the opposite. Now that I’m dancing pretty much every day for several hours a day (plus two hours of driving), and working on top of that, I hardly have the time to write anymore. I love it. And… well. A lot has happened in the last few weeks.

I love, love, love the way things are at the studio where I dance now. After two weeks, it’s starting to feel like home – just like my old pre-professional company did back when I was in high school. I’ve really missed that. I’m beginning to get used to the way things work around here, and the other dancers are starting to accept me. It’s a good feeling. And most of all, I love the way the teacher works. Today, she came up to me twice – “I’m impressed with how much improvement you’ve shown already in two weeks.” And then she immediately gives me a whole new set of corrections. I love it – I can see that I’m making progress, but at the same time I can never be bored or get lazy, because there’s always new corrections to work on.

Pointe shoes. *sigh* We all know how frustrated I was with them when I took tried to take the pointe class on Monday. So, not surprisingly, I was hesitant about taking today’s pointe class. Very hesitant.

Breathe. I forget to, sometimes. Usually just when I’m dancing. I’ll take a breath, and then forget to let it out. Breathe. I never realized it before. Or perhaps I never used to have this problem. I was always amused when other dancers got that correction, because I wondered, “How on earth can you forget to breathe?” Breathe.

Today didn’t go as I expected it would. I went to the level 3/4 ballet class. My ankle hurt. That, I expected. But I had also been expecting to take a second ballet class today. I didn’t.

I was determined today was going to be a wonderful day. But days quite often don’t go how you plan them. Not that today was awful. No, it was great, mostly. I got a ton of work and chores done in the morning, and I was feeling pretty good in the first ballet class I took. I’m feeling like the corrections are starting to become a part of me, and that I’m already improving vastly. It was a good feeling. But then I put on my pointe shoes.

Today’s class was a full class, instead of just barre. I wasn’t amazing, today. But I exceeded my expectations.

Day two of the class that kicks my butt. I didn’t take class yesterday – they were having a guest teacher, and it was recommended that I stick with the main teacher for now, at least until my technique improves. Although I would have loved to be able to take the class, to be honest I needed the day off. I was sore. So the day of rest did me good. So today, I was back, and infinitely more comfortable there than I had been on my first day. Thank goodness for friends, both old and new.

I had hit a wall. I had been going to class, after class, after class. I had been working as hard as I could. But I just didn’t feel like I was improving anymore. I had hit a wall.