Ballerina, A Documentary

Yesterday I decided to take a break from watching 90s sitcomes and C-list Korean horror movies on Netflix streaming to edutain myself with a documentary instead.  In Ballerina (2006), filmmaker Bertrand Normand provides an intimate look at five ballerinas from the Kirov Ballet.  Oddly enough, Netflix tagged this as heart-warming and feel good.  I would characterize this as an untrue statement.  To get into the Vaganova Academy (the school of the company), ten-year-olds are poked, prodded and twisted in front of a panel of people who are judging them for their build and flexi-stretchi ways.  If you get in, you get to be yelled at for eight years about your thighs.  This part of the film made Dance Moms look heart-warming and feel good.  Then, if you get into the company, you get to be yelled at some more and compete with a hundred other girls in the corps.  Oh you'll say you have great relationships with everyone, but it's as believable as the same sentiments when spoken on a Real Housewives reunion episode.  Can you tell I'm also watching a lot of reality television in my funemployment?

Happy Weekend - Yoga Breakdancing

This video has been floating around the interwebs for a while, but it is new to me.  Check out this guy combining his awesome skills in breakdancing and yoga.  If you check out the Vimeo channel, you can also see his awesome skills in acrobatics, Parkour, etc, etc....  I really have to start doing my daily arm balance and  inversion practice again.  Namaste, yo!


Break ton Neck from Alex Yde on Vimeo.

My Home Work Out

The chair: my exercise machine
CC Image Courtesy Luca Rossato on Flickr

The title of this post may be a little misleading. Because I don't actually work out.  Sure, I'll go to any class named after a pastry, do any kind of yoga you throw at me, and I'll even embarrass myself in dance classes on a weekly basis, but in my mind these are just activities that happen to be a good work out.  I mean that stuff is fun; it's not like the real exercise that people who go to gyms do on scary looking machines and with personal trainers.  I've never been a member of a gym (apologies to the gym salespeople that I exploit for guest passes so I can go to free yoga and dance classes).  I don't think I've ever lifted a weight in my life.  I am unsure because I may have had to move one from under my roommates bed once to get to her stash of clean sheets, since I don't do my laundry very often either.  I'm not quite sure what an elliptical machine does.  I was a runner for a while, but my asymmetrical, overpronating, flat feet guaranteed that I was constantly injured.  In school, I went straight from playing kickball and steal the bacon in gym class to having cool electives like Tai-Chi.  In summary: not a person who "works out."