Dance is like sleep - you can't really bank hours.

It's been a tough two weeks at work, which means that I have been neglecting my dance classes. Unfortunately for my core, modern class is usually the first to go because the class takes place on a Wednesday night, sitting smack dab in the middle of the week where work can easily find priority over dance. What this really means is that, come Saturday morning, I attempt to get all of my dance in one morning to make up for the lack of activity during the week.

So, I start at 9:30 with a beginner jazz class then move straight into the intermediate class at 11:00am. While I would like to say that I am not phased by the 3 hours of class because of the amount of hours I logged in rehearsals this past autumn for Dance Motif, I am sorry to say that I am simply not conditioned for that kind of activity. Actually, three hour classes have been great for my flexibility because I get 10-15 minutes of stretching four times in one morning. But by the end of the three hours, I was feeling exhausted and hungry.

I read an article in the newspaper about the idea of banking sleep. The idea was that you simply take short naps and expect so many 30 minute napping sessions to add up to 8 hours of sleep and feel well rested. Most neurologists will tell you that it is impossible to bank sleep: you have to get 8 hours of continuous, uninterrupted sleep to get the regenerative benefits of sleep. Why is it that we cannot simply bank hours of dance? Log our hours when we find it convenient then come back and simply improve? I suppose, like sleep or any other, the act of regularly doing dance however many times a week you choose to do it is what allows you to improve and get stronger. I definitely have not been getting stronger or better over the past two weeks.

Luckily, classes extend well into April and I still have a chance to condition myself for a summer full of dancing. During May and June, I will be participating in a mixed-level modern class which caters to everybody, from beginning students to advanced students. I think it will be a really interesting and exciting experience. Look forward to some posts about a lot of learning!