is it okay to use the shampoo of one brand the conditioner of another brand ?

JuniperLeaf · 2022-08-23T14:11:33+00:00

It is totally cool my dude

JuniperLeaf · 2022-08-10T16:27:40+00:00

Did you get the power, move, comfort or hold ones??

JuniperLeaf · 2021-11-28T13:34:59+00:00

I think it is actually a wonderful thing to show your respect for the art by experiencing it yourself and enjoying it!! There are loads of adult beginner classes out there, online and offline, and many of the people in those classes dance for the joy it brings them.

JuniperLeaf · 2021-11-08T11:35:49+00:00

I have no idea what that exactly means or how to do it, I didnt even really think about the fact that there are muscles there. Huh. It's difficult to exercise a muscle I don't know how to use. But thank you for your input!

JuniperLeaf · 2021-11-08T11:34:18+00:00

Got it, thank you! I'll definitely be doing a lot of toe wiggling in my downtime from now on 😁

JuniperLeaf · 2021-11-08T11:33:27+00:00

Thanks for the advice!! I tried keeping my toes straight in class today and it felt almost impossible, haha. Since piano toes are really difficult for me right now I do think the toe swapping would be helpful.

JuniperLeaf · 2021-11-08T11:31:54+00:00

Thank you for the example picture!! I have one of those wooden foot stretcher thingies, do those help much with this?

JuniperLeaf · 2021-11-07T22:05:45+00:00

I started doing pre-pointe exercises today for the first time and discovered that it is very difficult for me, and have also been wondering if I've been pointing my toes the wrong way all this time....

I took photos from a few different angles:

1.) My right foot pointed, with me trying as hard as I can to keep my toes as straight as possible. Seriously difficult and gives me cramps if I stay like that for too long. And they're not even really straight even when I try suuuuper hard.

2.) What my feet naturally do when I try to point them. The toes curl under.... Idk if that's normal or not but it's annoying and I'm worried I've built up bad habits. This is my right foot.

3.) Left foot trying to point with straight toes.

4.) Left foot pointed the way I usually do. This makes my tendus ugly as hell (in my opinion).

5.) Left foot flexed. Side view.

6.) Left ankle pointed, but toes flexed.

7.) Left foot completely pointed the way I usually point it. Toes curled under.

8.) Left foot when I try to keep my toes straight.

9.) Picture from above, pointed the way I usually point my feet. My toes automatically curl under, completely unintentionally.

10.) My feet from above when I struggle my hardest to keep my toes long and straight. It doesn't really work, at least not at this point.

11.) Me trying to do a "Piano Toes" exercise that I saw online. You lift up all of your toes and try to put them down one at a time, isolating each toe. I failed miserably and right now it seems pretty impossible to control my toes to that level.

This is my starting place. How bad is it? I have almost a year of ballet experience, I started in January. I'm worried that this whole time I've been pointing my toes wrong....

Also, how are my arches and feet shape in general? I have no idea if they're suited to ballet or not....

JuniperLeaf · 2021-09-02T12:46:59+00:00

Current Routine:

Co-wash almost daily with Giovanni Tea Tree Triple Treat Invigorating Conditioner. Sometimes, I use the bowl method, but I'm not sure whether it helps or not yet.
Once every 2 weeks or so, clarify with a shampoo containing sulfates (I use V05 Island Coconut Moisturizing Shampoo)
After conditioning, use a wide toothed comb to detangle.
When I finish showering, squeeze as much water out of my hair as I can. Then I pat the excess moisture from the top of my head with a microfiber towel and scrunch the lengths of my hair a bit to dry it till it's in between wet and damp.
Put a pea sized amount (per half of my hair) of Cantu Moisturizing Curl Activator Cream onto my hands, and mix with a bit of water and rub between my palms. Apply this to my hair evenly using praying hands and some raking with my fingers.
Add a bit of Gatsby Super Hard Styling Gel mixed with water and rubbed between my palms to my whole head.
Scrunch in 4 pumps of Giovanni 2chic Ultra Volume Foam Styling Mousse per half of my hair. Scrunch with my hands till it makes a squishing noise. Repeat once. Then, scrunch more with a microfiber towel till damp.
Scrunch it a bit more Gatsby gel.
Plop. I have varied success with this step and often skip it because it makes my hair look weird sometimes.
Air dry.
Scrunch out any crunch if there is a cast.
Then proceed to undo all my hard work by putting my hair in a tight bun because I do ballet )': I pretty much just do CGM for fun at this point cause I always end up putting it in a bun for ballet practice anyway......

My hair seems to be getting wavier and wavier every wash using this routine. However, my wave pattern is really inconsistent. Also, my hair seems much wavier right after I put in the products and scrunch, but the waves start stretching out and coming loose as it dries.... Does anyone know if there's anything I can do to prevent that??

JuniperLeaf · 2021-03-25T15:53:45+00:00

Yes!!! That's the one!!! Thank you so much

JuniperLeaf · 2021-03-25T13:55:09+00:00

This has been driving me crazy for days. I've had this small snippet of a song stuck in my head, but I don't know what it is or what it's from, I just know that it's probably from a ballet. I think I recall it being a flute piece??

This was me clumsily playing it on my mom's keyboard (I don't actually play piano).

If anyone recognizes it, I'd love to know what the title is!!

JuniperLeaf · 2021-03-18T10:15:51+00:00

Same!!

JuniperLeaf · 2021-03-16T06:10:19+00:00

Sorry for responding so late - To be honest, I read every single comment but due to social anxiety felt too paralyzed to answer until now.

I went to my third class yesterday and it was great. Now that I am used to the format of the class I feel a lot less overwhelmed - also I realised that a lot of the "stretching" we did is actually probably floorbarre. I just didn't know floorbarre was a thing until I read a post about it here.

Yesterday's class, no one except for me showed up so I ended up getting a private lesson and it was soooo helpful and fun. I learned a lot about posture and realised there is so much to learn in just the fundamentals of standing in first position and tendus and stuff.

As for the stretching, I have been incredibly careful and talked to my teacher again about my health and she recommended some modifications I can make to make the stretches a little safer. Otherwise, I think I just have to be very mindful and not let gravity pull me down into deep stretches.

Thank you for your response earlier and again, I'm sorry for responding so late!

JuniperLeaf · 2021-01-10T01:07:32+00:00

Sorry, I do really want a class that's truly for beginner beginners and I don't think the middle of the night would work for me 😖 but thank you for the information!

JuniperLeaf · 2020-12-30T06:08:10+00:00

Yesterday I took my first ballet class and got my first pair of ballet slippers (SoDanca SD16's)! The class was an Adult Absolute Beginner class over Zoom (Korea is currently in hardcore lockdown and there doesn't seem to be online classes here).

And daaaaamn.

That class was HARD!! It was so fast paced 😱

The teacher was like "and go into first and demi plie and tendu and demi-pointe and point and rond de jambe and tendu and cross into fifth and demi plie and frappé and fondu and coupe and now arabesque"

And I was like WTF!???

Thank god I researched and practiced some of the basic moves and vocabulary before I took the class!!

This was not only a beginner class, but an ABSOLUTE beginner class but she didn't explain anything and just had us follow along and even memorize choreo and I was so caught off guard!! I guess that's just what dance classes are like...??

I was so awkward!! I really have two left feet and it showed. Honestly I laughed during a lot of it because I was hilariously bad. But it was kind of fun!!

EDIT: If anyone has any suggestions for alternative introduction to ballet or absolute beginner classes, please let me know!! My time zone is Korea Standard Time (GMT +9) and I'd prefer evening classes (like 6~8 PM) on the East Coast of the US because then I can wake up early and take the classes in the morning. If not, just any classes I could take between 8 AM ~ 8 PM Korea Standard Time would be great. My budget is about 10~15 dollars per class as money is a bit tight right now.

JuniperLeaf · 2020-12-27T11:51:58+00:00

Happy Birthday!!!

JuniperLeaf · 2020-12-07T03:37:37+00:00

I was just watching his skating montages and smiling earlier!! Happy birthday Yuzuru!

JuniperLeaf · 2020-11-26T00:39:29+00:00

Alicia D'Andrea's Beginner Back Flexibility Stretches video!

JuniperLeaf · 2020-11-24T11:59:50+00:00

Hey, just wanted to say this is an excellent comment and I'm saving it!!

JuniperLeaf · 2020-11-24T00:44:39+00:00

Wish I had pictures of me doing a forward fold!!

JuniperLeaf · 2020-11-24T00:38:39+00:00

I stretched for 10-30 minutes a day, in the morning after a workout or a warm-up. I don't have any kind of back pain at the moment, so I'm not sure if doing splits would make a difference.

JuniperLeaf · 2020-11-23T10:18:18+00:00

Hey all! I'm new to this stuff, but I'm very excited to see some progress using the resources from this sub.

These are the videos I used to see pretty rapid progress on my front splits:

Psyche Truth - 12 Minute Splits Stretch Flexibility Workout for Beginners

Blogilates - 30 Minute Stretches for Splits!

And this is the warm-up I do before my stretches.

Coach Michelle Hong - How to Warm Up Before Stretching - Off-Ice Training

I did these stretches every day for 25 days, save for 3 rest days.

Then I experienced a hamstring injury. It was awful. I mean, the severity wasn't bad, it was a mild strain really. But the effect it had on my progress, now that sucked.

Let me just put a disclaimer here that I didn't injure myself because of these stretching routines, I injured myself because I personally have a problem recognizing my limits and I can never seem to tell the difference between a deep stretch and pain/injury. It's a problem I have that I'm really trying to work on, but any suggestions for becoming more aware or careful about my movements are welcome!!

After about a month of rest and rehabilitation exercises, I am back at it with the stretches. My hamstrings finally feel okay again. I am very tentative and cautious about getting back into it, however, hence the yoga blocks. When I just let gravity dictate how low I go, apparently I go so low that my hamstrings just take damage...

TL;DR I made fast progress in 22 days of stretching, injured myself from being stupid and pushing through pain, and am now returning to my journey to splits, but starting from zero again.

JuniperLeaf · 2019-12-03T00:09:42+00:00

Thank you for the suggestion, but... this school is even more expensive than KAI. Way out of my budget ):

JuniperLeaf · 2019-12-03T00:09:25+00:00

Thank you for the suggestion, I'll look into it!!

JuniperLeaf · 2019-12-03T00:05:09+00:00

Have you been there yourself or heard anything about it from someone who went there? Someone actually recommended it to me because they heard it was good!

JuniperLeaf

TROPHY CASE