Dear Diary, My Ballet Story

Since I've branded myself as a "late beginner", I realize that it might be confusing in future posts if I refer to experiences I've had dancing before this blog was made. To clear up any confusion that may arise, and to tell my story as a dancer since I haven't seen many other dancers with similar stories, I'm making this blog post to take you all through my life and explain my ballet story.

the beginning

I first started dancing as a toddler. Like many young girls, I took ballet classes at a local theater. I don't remember much from this time since I was very young, but I do remember dancing in The Nutcracker as a mouse and a party girl. I have a story from one of the Nutcracker performances that I would love to tell you all in another blog post, so stay tuned!

performing arts camps

I never intentionally quit ballet. At around the age of 6, my family moved to a new town and I was never signed up for ballet lessons in this new city. However, throughout elementary school I did get the chance to participate in performing arts summer camps. I did some dancing at these camps, but it was never anything serious, and I much preferred acting.

In middle school I would be reintroduced to ballet. One of my best friends in 6th and 7th grade was a ballerina and she would tell me about her ballet lessons all the time. Ballet seemed interesting and I remembered enjoying it as a kid, but I thought I was way too old to do it.

stretching for scorpion

If there was one physical activity I can say I grew up with, it was yoga. I've been doing yoga for as long as I can remember. Although I never really liked sports as a kid (I remember enjoying artistic gymnastics, but I was older than the other kids in my class and that made me self conscious and caused me to quit around 6th grade), I loved yoga because of how relaxed and grounded it made me feel.

My freshman year of high school I found out about a yoga pose called a scorpion. At the time it was probably the most fascinating thing I'd ever seen and I was obsessed with learning how to do one. I started stretching my back every night and watching YouTube tutorials for how to improve back flexibility and how to do an elbow stand. This side of YouTube was also home to lots of dance videos, and I started watching dance channels like Poonam and Priyanka. I know this still is not ballet, but I promise we're getting there soon!

contemporary ballet/modern dance

The summer before my Sophomore year of high school I told my mom that once I got all 3 of my splits (left, right, and middle) flat to the ground I wanted to start taking ballet classes. I was still interested in bharatanatyam, but I had a growing interest in ballet and figured it would be easier to find ballet classes in my area. I didn't get my splits by the end of the summer (mostly because I wasn't stretching my legs consistently), but I still decided I wanted to try ballet. My mom signed me up for modern, not classical, but I still had the most fun I'd ever had doing a physical activity. I was worried about being the oldest person in class, about not being as flexible as everyone else, and about the other girls being snobbish and not wanting to talk to me. None of my fears came true! Everyone in the class was friendly and we were all in the range of 8th to 10th graders, so I wasn't the oldest either.

I did modern dance for about 7 to 8 months, and in that time I only missed 3 classes. Dance class became the highlight of my week and for my birthday I got a ballet barre in my room. I began taking my stretching more seriously, but I wasn't practicing or doing strength training at home yet. I had two recitals during the summer of 2018 and while I was extremely nervous, the second I got on stage all of my fear evaporated. For those brief moments, I didn't have any problems going on in my life, even the tiredness I felt towards the end of the performance didn't hit me until I was back stage again. I was telling a story without saying a word, I was connecting with a room full of people and with the dancers I'd spent months preparing for this show with, and I was having the time of my life. That was when I officially fell in love with dance and decided I wanted to start taking it seriously.

classical ballet

My recitals took place during Ramadan, so after them I took a break from dance for the rest of the month. However, that didn't stop me from constantly bugging my mom about signing me up for classical ballet lessons as soon as possible (sorry mom!!). After Ramadan, I decided to try an adult's open ballet class in my area. Because I was an beginner/intermediate in modern dance I thought I'd be able to go through an intermediate class without a hitch. I was wrong. Classical ballet and modern were like two different worlds and while I could recognize some of the movements and vocabulary, for the majority of the class I was at a loss. I came out of the class embarrassed, but seeing what the other dancers were capable of doing even when they were decades older than me really inspired me and helped me feel better about starting at a late age.

In late July, I began taking private ballet lessons once a week. They were fun, but my teacher advised that I should try taking group lessons. I auditioned for a pre professional ballet school in my town in August and got placed in level 5, where I would have to go to the school multiple days a week. Unfortunately, at the time that didn't work out. Instead I got to take classes in the school's supplemental program for two hours every Monday.

This is how I've been training from August up until December, taking two hour classes every Monday (or making up classes on Fridays if I was sick or injured) and an hour of private lessons twice a month. In January I'm going to start taking level six classes, which meat for two hours on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, and then all day on Saturdays. The new schedule will definitely be an adjustment, but it's one I'm ready and excited to make!

Although my ballet story is very different from most of the other dancers I've seen, I think it's important to tell. When I started dancing I'd never seen any successful dancers who'd started the way I did. I want to give others in my position something to look at and see that they aren't alone. Even if you haven't seen anyone else do what you want to do, that doesn't mean it's impossible, it just means that you're going to be the first.