Ballet and Avalanche Class!!

There is a dance studio called Beat that is a few blocks away from my new apartment.  Pam and I had walked by it a few times, and one night she looked it up online and was really excited by the classes offered.  I wasn't interested in the majority of the classes, but the ballet class they have for adults looked fun because it had a more pilates focus using ballet, and had things like skipping and leaping around.  It looked like it would be ballet for fun rather than a really stiff, formal ballet class.  I really like to skip and leap and twirl, so I figured I'd give it a whirl.  So tonight, Pam and I went for the first time!  It was a lot of fun.  The instructor is a little odd and I really wish he'd wear some baggier clothes, but after I got over that I really enjoyed myself.  I think the class will be incredibly beneficial to me, so I am going to keep going when I can.  I've had terrible, terrible balance my whole life when standing still and it is really annoying.  I can't stand on one leg.  I can't do stretches that require you to balance on one leg.  I can't even plant my feet and move around (bending over, etc) without losing balance.  I can keep my balance fine when I'm running around or sprinting or walking around playing soccer or ultimate, but any sort of balance that is conducted at slow speeds or zero speed is beyond me.  This ballet class really focuses on your balance, so it might help me a lot in that regard.  You have to be really aware of your "seat bones" and where they are, and the relationship between that and your center of gravity really helps you balance.  Once I figure it out, I think I will be able to do a lot of the things that gave me problems before.  So I'm going to keep that up when I can!

After ballet, I headed over to REI to meet up with Tim, Andrew, and ..some other guy whose name I can't remember for a free class they were holding on avalanche awareness.  We figured it would be a good brush up on our winter skills.  The instructor ended up being the same guy, Aaron, that we'd taken a three day course with for avalanche safety in bear valley, so he recognized us and was happy we were continuing our avalanche education.  Tim interpreted for me, which was really nice, and it was a nice review.