#5 Take a ballet class

I've been a little bit obsessed with ballet lately. I think Kanye West actually did it. If you'd like to see how he made it happen, watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jg5wkZ-dJXA. He also did some lovely performances on Saturday Night Live: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdcnXWe1GUw. Lovely.

From that, doing ballet moves at the bar became my new thing. (I realized it was getting to be a problem when my brother and I went to Dan's Tavern on Christmas Eve Eve and a friend of mine from high school I hadn't seen in 14 years commented on a photo I had posted of Dan's that said something like, "I just saw some ballet moves by the juke box. Nice!")

Next, I got very excited about Black Swan and loved every minute of it... though I wish someone had mentioned the intense sex scene before I went to the movie with a girl I was rumored to be dating. Not that we wouldn't have gone. I just wish I had been prepared for the hotness of it. Yikes.

I was even more excited to take a ballet class after going to the Joffrey Ballet. I love ballet! Who knew?!

I wasn't sure I would like ballet class because I'm not a big fan of group exercise classes in general. I want to play spots or do totally solo activities, like running or biking. I don't even like to run with others. The only group ex I can do regularly is plyometics, and even then I like small groups of people I like and will push me because I don't want to be the wussiest one.

I'm also very inflexible and not really known for my grace, so I was nervous about that part.

Angela Mioglionico, my very focused friend, loves ballet and classes. She looked us up a lovely studio (Intrigue in the South Loop) and class types and times and everything. We chose Beginner Ballet instead of Novice, as I was familiar with the words. Or so I thought.

I didn't quite know all the words, and I was nervous when the cute, little instructor said to give that night a try but novice was the real beginner class.

However, I loved it. Loved it. It was such a good workout. In a yoga kind of way. Just full of great exercises that are challenging but semi-slow and just great for thost core and little-balance muscles in the arms and legs. I would 100% recommend it to anyone who is training for any sport or race, just like I'd recommend yoga. I liked ballet a little more than yoga, but I can't quite put my finger on it now.

The bar work was my favorite. The leaps across the room made me feel like an elephant. And I'm awesome at turning (pirouetting) on my right leg but not my left. I couldn't figure out why until it hit me that I used to skate, and I did turns on my right leg all the time when I was little, just on skates.

The instructor even said I did great for someone who'd never taken the class before (playa, please), and said if I just took one novice class to learn all the vocab, I could jump into beginner easily. And if I didn't want to so easy, I could really just do beginner.

I definitely plan to go back. Loved it.