I have been lucky enough to teach hundreds of aspiring ballet students in the last few years and impart to them the secrets of prima ballerinas and world renowned professional dancers.
But... before I tell you how I can help improve
your dancing, let me start off by telling you how I got here and why I
am writing this.
It all started at my first ballet class.
I had no idea what to expect but like many
others, I always wanted to be a ballerina, so I built up the courage and
finally made it to a class. When I arrived I quickly realized everyone
else had been dancing at least a couple of years already and here I was,
the newbie, standing in the middle of the studio not even sure if I was wearing the correct ballet attire.
My mother had never danced and
knew nothing about ballet, so I couldn't ask her for any advice. Like
many other mothers, she really wanted to help but she just had no idea
know what to do for me. You could only imagine
the embarrassement and intimidation I felt as a teenager standing all by
myself in the dance studio with all these experienced dancers and
caring 110% about what everyone else thought of me.
The teacher must have seen how nervous
I was. She came over and started asking me some questions about how I
found the studio and what I was looking to get out of ballet class.
Being a little old to be starting ballet I got the impression she didn't think I was going to be around very long.
She showed me a few of the basics so I could at
least keep up with everyone else before they got into the advanced
stuff. She then addressed the entire class and we started our warm-up at
the barre.
"Let's Start With Pliés" Called Out The Teacher.
That I could handle. Although I had the
gracefulness of an elephant I at least could bend my knees. I only just
survived the rest of the barre by watching the others in front of me
and trying to mimick them as best as I could.
Then came centre practice with temps lié and
pirouettes. Apart from not having a clue what these movements were, I
could hardly balance on one foot in a pirouette. The teacher was telling
us to snatch our foot to retiré, spot our head, use our arms, relevé
right up onto demi pointe and hold our centre tight. This was all a
little overwhelming because I didn't know what half of the words she
used meant and I was still just getting use to the plié.
Then came allegro and she called out things like
battement jetté, changement, and pas de bourrée. I was totally
overwhelmed with all this french stuff. My dream of becoming a beautiful
ballerina was very quickly fading away.
When I got home after class I burst into tears
and felt like giving up. It was just too hard. I could never see myself
becoming a beautiful ballerina. I now understood why so many girls drop out of dancing.
Somehow I managed to pull myself together
I returned to ballet class the next week and asked the teacher "What can I buy to help me get better?". She looked at me with a saddened expression on her face and said, "There's nothing currently available that will really help you improve. You just need to keep on coming to ballet class."
Unsatisfied with that response I
nagged mum to buy me books so I could teach myself how to be the
ballerina I always wanted to be. To my dissappointment, my teacher was
right. I found a few good tips here and there but nothing really made
the difference for me.
After not finding anything that could really help
me I just kept going to class and I worked hard at improving. I
progressed through the ballet syllabus achieving honours in my initial
exams and constantly pushing myself to work harder.
I worked SO hard that I achieved the award "Top In Dance" for both my senior years at school.
I kept dancing for years after school and ended up becoming a teacher myself.
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