My gosh, dreams can be expensive. Especially this one.

One month of almost-daily classes: over $200. More if I want to take more than one class a day, which I would eventually like to. Plus the cost of leotards ($20-$40 each), tights ($10-$20 per pair), and shoes ($15 for ballet slippers, $35 for my brand/style of pointe shoes, though they can easily cost upwards of $60 per pair depending on the brand).

Ouch.

Luckily, I still have most of this from my younger years of dancing – I can still fit into the leotards and tights that I wore in college, and I still had a few pairs of unused pointe and flat shoes laying around my old house that I can still use. Thank goodness.

But oof, those classes. To take one class: $23. To take twenty in one month: $217, which drastically lowers the price per class to $10.85 per class. A huge difference. But still… that’s a lot of money. Almost $3,000 worth of classes in a year. Oh my.

So I’ve begun thinking of things in terms of the number of ballet classes I could buy with the same amount of money. $20 from a relative for my birthday? That’s two classes! One of those expensive coffee drinks… that’s half a class, right there. Really puts things in perspective.

And it’s making me reevaluate my priorities, and figure out what’s really important to me. I had been considering going to a certain large blogging conference this year – there are a lot of people going who I would really love to meet, and everyone seems to say it’s a very valuable conference to go to. But then when I think about how many classes I could afford with that money – conference ticket, hotel, and airfare – at full price, the conference would cost me almost $2000. Do you know how many ballet classes that is?!?! (Even with the discounts I can get, and if I were to stay with a friend who lives there… that’s still at least $500. Still two months worth of classes.)

So. Priorities. Yes. Working hard, so I can play dance hard.

(Why do I bring this up? I just dropped $200 today for the next month’s worth of dance classes. Ooo boy. Plus the studio just sent out an email that they’re raising prices starting next week. Aaiiii!)

****

Day four. Four days in a row, and it’s finally starting to feel like it used to. Which is not to say I have my strength, stamina, and flexibility back yet. Oh no, not quite. But it’s starting to feel routine. Like it’s normal to go to ballet every day. Just like when I was younger, and used to rehearse and take classes six days a week. It’s starting to feel right.

I have the stamina to get through barre, now… now it’s just everything else that I need to improve. The strength is not there yet, although it’s improving. The flexibility… still not quite there, though it’s getting close to what flexibility I had when I was at my best (which doesn’t say much – I’ve never been all that flexible – but I can do the splits on both sides now). With more classes, those will both come back.

But what I really need to work at is the technique. Technique is like riding a bike. Once you have it, it’s always there – even if you don’t have the strength to actually do the stuff, your body will always know how. And it shows. In class, you can tell which ones are the professionals at a glance. You can see which ones used to dance professionally, or had a good foundation. And you can very much see those who are only just beginning, who flail about with little correct technique at all.

I like to think I’m one of those with the good foundation, although I never danced professionally. Just walking down the street people ask if I’m a dancer, and in class or on stage, people always tell me I’m a really good dancer… even if in my eyes, I’m out of shape and look awful. It’s all in the technique.

But mine? Yeah, not perfect. I don’t have good turnout (never have), and I have a weird tendency to raise my right shoulder so I end up looking lopsided. Odd. (And let’s not even talk about my age-old problem of looking at the floor when I dance. I’ve gotten better, I swear!) These are things to work on, now that I can.

There are little wins, though. I did double pirouettes to the right today (on my bad foot) and triples to the left. I did grande allegro with no problems at all, and didn’t have to put the brace on. Although… shin splints. Ew. That was a problem from way back when – I used to have to dance with both my shins wrapped. Don’t want to repeat that. Much stretching to do. It’s looking like it’s associated with my foot problem this time, as it’s only the left leg… definitely going to be keeping an eye on that.

Will there be a fifth day? Yes! But not tomorrow. As much as I don’t want to take a break… 1. I know I need to, and 2. I’m going to Seattle anyways all weekend for a food blogging conference. So I really don’t have a choice – I have to take three days off. Which is probably for the better… don’t want to push my body too hard right off the bat. But you’d better believe I’ll be in class on Monday!