do you remember the fresh prince episode where aunt vivian takes the ballet class cause she used to take ballet when she was younger and she falls all over the place and ends up crawling on the floor to get to the door? or the friends episode where monica takes the tap dance class? or billy elliot before he gets good when he’s walking/kicking/having an adolescent flip out down the road?
yeah those people are all better than i was last night in the drop-in class.
let me tell you a little secret about ‘beginner ballet’. it’s not actually for beginners. it’s ‘beginner technique’ meaning actual dancers in POINTE shoes are taking these classes to brush up on their (not at all) basic skills.
i knew i was in trouble when i walked into the class to people doing stretches in splits. yeah no problem i’m wearing a bun and my monday teacher says i have pleasing arms.
NO DICE HERE FOLKS. i had my leg up on the barre/air/behind me somewhere i didn't know was there; i danced across the floor in groups of 4 in what can only be described as a flying banshee doing a crab walk. i was AWFUL. just awful. and it was still awesome.
whenever i did somewhat manage to get one of the fifty five footwork movements to correspond with one of the hundred and fifty five different arm movements, i felt like i’d won the lottery. and with the lottery had bought myself some dance skills.
THIS STUFF IS HARD. and here i thought nearly 9 months of beginner ballet at the other place would have prepared me for something. i did bump into a real ballet dancer in the washroom! that's something! i said 'excuse me' and she said nothing but still. nice little exchange i think.
AND i sweated right through my shirt. AND i ran into the girl beside me while attempting my fifteenth consecutive pirouette. AND the class had to be stopped, just for me, more than once so i could be moved to a safe distance where my kicking and jumping and arabesques couldn’t endanger the lives of any more people.
i felt EVERY centimetre of my body. every flailing, leaping, backwards bending centimeter and even though it was the most embarrassing, exposing, completely revealing hour and a half of my life, i can’t wait to go back next week and make even more of a leaping, flailing, backwards bending fool of myself.
other dancers beware. no really stand back.
x
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