Tap/Jazz class started off rocky tonight because I’m injured, yes, you heard me, I’m injured. I hurt my left foot today at work wearing high heels in the rain that didn’t agree with me. But as a true artist, I knew that I must dance thru the pain, and that’s what I did, I soldiered on. We started with some stretches that although they seemed basic, were extremely rough on my legs. The instructor let us know that if we were doing the stretches correctly our thighs should be burning. My thighs did have a fire feel to them but being the youngest person in the adult tap class, I didn’t want to say I was dying from stretches because I didn’t want to be viewed as “that girl that’s out of shape”, so I cried internally about my fire thighs. After the fire thigh exercise I was bending at the hips, pointing my toes and kicking my legs like a Vegas showgirl. I felt like a real dancer, but when I looked at myself in the mirror, I just looked like Kia stomping around in workout clothes.
The Jazz portion of the class really had me working up a sweat. I thought I was working really hard, but apparently the A/C was too high. Whatever the cause, I was jazz dancing and sweating, I call that a success. I did a “routine” that I like to call “drag your leg, cross your other leg, sway your arms, pivot, pirouette (fancy dance spin) and jazz hands”. I could’ve been extra in Chicago the musical with the moves I had going on tonight.
When we moved on to tap, I felt a little frustration growing because my feet weren’t tapping the way I wanted them to. So I decided to do something big, I actually spoke up and voiced my concerns to the instructor and she gave me a little extra TLC until I felt better about what was happening south of my ankles. To ease my frustration even more she gave me a routine I could definitely get on board with, the routine that her children’s class just learned. At this point, I didn’t care what age group the routine was designed for, I wanted something I could learn, become proficient at, and end up feeling like a success. I’m a semi success, I have to practice it as homework and be ready next class to show her my improvements. It’s mostly a lot of toe heels and heel smacks at a double time pace. For anyone that’s taken tap, you know how simple those moves are. For anyone that hasn’t taken tap before, disregard the previous sentence and know that those moves are REALLY hard. Tap is proving to be a challenge for me which was the goal here, and I think that learning it after the age of 6 is a great test of patience. Next week is the week I attempt to learn my routine that I must showcase for whoever is willing to watch me bounce around in tap shoes. Even if no one else watches the routine, I consider this a success, but because I know SOMEBODY will want to watch, saying success today is a bit premature.
Check back tomorrow when I learn how to pearl in knitting class. I don’t actually know what pearling is, but I heard somebody at the yarn store say it, so I’m sure I’ll learn all about it.
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