Thursday, January 31, 2013

rondes des jambes en l'air, at long last!

i started taking ballet last september at the tender age of 25. most people probably start around the age of 5, but whatever. growing up, i had several friends who danced. i was IN LOVE with ballet, but by the time i knew it (maybe age 11-12?) i felt like it was too late to start. i occasionally tagged along with them to their lessons in middle school, and would even sometimes dress in a leotard so i could participate, but i'd always get shy or feel inadequate and opt to just sit on the floor and wait for my friend to be done.

i was lucky to find a place in town that offers classes for beginning adults...AND! surprised to find that there were bushels (gaggles, pods even!) of local adults also interested in starting ballet. some of them had danced as kids but not since, and some were pretty much complete beginners like me.

today, after several months of slowly adding tiny complexities our barre exercises, we finally did rondes des jambes en l'air! oww! and yay! overall i feel like i totally suck at ballet so far... my feet are not as archy as i'd like (not to mention i have a broken toe that doesn't exactly bend) and i'm still very much working on my flexibility... but i'm having so much fun! i know i won't be in any kind of company or probably ever dance on stage, but my goals are to eventually get on pointe, and to dance all my life as long as i don't have some kind of debilitating injury. and if the broken toe means no ballet, i think i'll switch to tap! but i hope it doesn't come to that because ballet is kinda my jam.

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