Cancellations

My job is a bit stressful this month, so when I receive e-mails about cancellations, I am usually overjoyed to have the extra time to finish experiments, start new experiments, go for a run, or take another yoga class. Last week, I received an e-mail informing me that my modern class would be cancelled due to a women's volleyball tournament and I found myself surprisingly upset.

Volleyball is a great sport, but, frankly, my modern class is fantastic. Before modern, the intermediate ballet class spins, leaps, and brushes their way across the same floor that I will eventually traverse, creating my own movement or attempting to perform the phrases my instructor Jodie teaches us. I am lamenting the fact that the floor is free of these movements this week, only to be scratched, scraped, and squeaked up by the athletic shoes of the volleyball teams in the tournament, grinding dirt and gravel from the sloppy streets into our floors. *single tear*

Funny, but the weekly ritual of "coming into modern and leaving everything else at the door" (as my instructor's mantra serves me well to remember) has become an integral part of my week. To maintain my sanity, I need to cleanse my mind by focusing on just movement, if even for only one hour and a half, and cleanse my body by sweating out those movements. Sure, I could repeat all of our technique exercises in my living room but I would miss the new phrases that we get every week. For some reason, I like watching Jodie invent phrases that look confusing, complicated, and that force me to train my body to move in ways I never even thought my body could move. I missed that sorely this week.

So what's a girl to do without her weekly modern class? Yoga? That would certainly help improve my core strength and flexibility in an active way. Running? That would improve my cardiovascular abilities and, let's face it, nearly all Albertans need a boost in this capacity every spring. Work? I certainly have enough of that to keep me occupied for the designated 1.5 hours normally allotted to modern class.

Actually, I ended up skipping rope. I felt like it was an excellent alternative to modern because it increased my heart rate in no time, I could work my core by twisting my body from side-to-side while jumping, if I made a mistake I felt it (because the rope would either hit me in the face or tangle itself beneath my feet), and I ended up on the floor laughing at the end of it. It was so much fun that I did not regret annoying my neighbours with half an hour of pounding on their ceiling. I mean, I landed through my entire foot, so I could not have been that loud ... The reason anybody returns to an activity every week is because they find that activity really enjoyable. I have tons of fun in modern class and I was upset about the cancellation because I thought that would mean I would miss my weekly dose of active fun. All I had to do was get moving and I found that my body just responded instantaneously with smiles and happy thoughts. My dance instructors always refer to 'muscle memory' as the way your body reacts when it encounters a movement you have done before: the movement becomes easier as you build muscle memory. In this case, my muscles remembered the emotional association I made with specific movement - like jumping - and allowed me to conjure those same emotions when I got moving again. Jumping making me smile = muscle memory in action!

I will be happy to return to modern class next week, but I was happy to have some time to rediscover some Wednesday night joy without it this week.