Why Ballet?
My previous entries have been blunt that I'm not your typical ballerina. So I think it's important to explore how it is that I ended up choosing ballet over any number of other varied activities that I could have chosen as a hobby.
I suppose I didn't really realize why I found myself attracted to ballet until I started watching the Winter Olympics last night.
As I'm watching the Olympics, I know without a doubt that if New Orleans had any remotely convenient ice rinks, I'd drop ballet in a heart beat for figure skating. (#sorrynotsorry?). For those who are local enough to know - Leo's Skate World in Baton Rouge is closing down at the end of the 2018 season, which puts ice skating even further out of reach.
I became a fan of figure skating young in the era of Nancy Kerrigan, Oksana Baiyul, and, my figure skating idol, Michelle Kwan. (#MichelleKwanForGold1998!) I could often be seen clumsily "figure skating" around my block on roller blades - the closest I could get to figure skating in New Orleans.
My family moved to St. Louis when I was about 8 and I remember begging my dad to take me to the nearby ice rink. I remember the exhilaration of my first wobbly steps, and cramming in every last minute of skating I possibly could - going around and around the rink all by myself - before the open skate session ended. I remember enviously watching the young girls in the center, that was marked off for "real skaters" to practice. Turns out, figure skating is super expensive, so aside from the odd free skating session, my figure skating dreams weren't meant to be.
I see a lot of figure skating in ballet. I even have the curiously bizarre habit of dropping out of pirouettes as if I'm landing a double axel. My ballet teachers hate it, but I secretly get a little spark of joy every time it happens. And get a bit perplexed at why my body naturally defaults to this position, as if I'd somehow managed to develop some phantom figure skating muscle memory.
In previous entries I've been candid about the fact that my interest in ballet is strongly in the technique and strength taught at the barre. Moments where I feel beautiful and graceful in the dance studio are rare (although slowly growing more common as my skill improves), but there is something about gliding effortlessly across the ice on a pair of skates that makes me feel incredibly graceful - even when I almost eat it getting overly ambitious on untrained spins and spirals.
Ballet has been a great way for me to connect with a sport I've always loved, but due to, ya know, life and stuff, won't really have the chance to pursue. Learning to use my muscles, to form the body positions, to develop the strength and flexibility to do moves so very similar to what you see on the ice is exciting. And I wonder, after 3 years of ballet training, whether it would improve my level of comfort on the ice - the next time I have the opportunity to skate.
Ballet is a beautiful art in its own right. And I don't, in any way, mean to diminish it's beauty, difficulty, and culture. (Seriously, my teachers would probably be scandalized if they read that ballet is my "close enough" solution to not being able to figure skate). But I also feel that my motivations and my path to ballet as a non-traditional adult beginner ballet are important to understand and to share.
I'm not a ballerina. I never wanted to be a ballerina. I don't know who Misty Copeland is, and the only ballet I've ever watched is The Nutcracker. But I feel so strongly about figure skating, that I will forever have a deep resentment to Tara Lipinski for beating out Michelle Kwan in the '98 Winter Olympics. And if this is the path that subconsciously lead me to look up adult ballet classes in New Orleans 15 years later, then I'll proudly own it.
I suppose I didn't really realize why I found myself attracted to ballet until I started watching the Winter Olympics last night.
As I'm watching the Olympics, I know without a doubt that if New Orleans had any remotely convenient ice rinks, I'd drop ballet in a heart beat for figure skating. (#sorrynotsorry?). For those who are local enough to know - Leo's Skate World in Baton Rouge is closing down at the end of the 2018 season, which puts ice skating even further out of reach.
I became a fan of figure skating young in the era of Nancy Kerrigan, Oksana Baiyul, and, my figure skating idol, Michelle Kwan. (#MichelleKwanForGold1998!) I could often be seen clumsily "figure skating" around my block on roller blades - the closest I could get to figure skating in New Orleans.
My family moved to St. Louis when I was about 8 and I remember begging my dad to take me to the nearby ice rink. I remember the exhilaration of my first wobbly steps, and cramming in every last minute of skating I possibly could - going around and around the rink all by myself - before the open skate session ended. I remember enviously watching the young girls in the center, that was marked off for "real skaters" to practice. Turns out, figure skating is super expensive, so aside from the odd free skating session, my figure skating dreams weren't meant to be.
I see a lot of figure skating in ballet. I even have the curiously bizarre habit of dropping out of pirouettes as if I'm landing a double axel. My ballet teachers hate it, but I secretly get a little spark of joy every time it happens. And get a bit perplexed at why my body naturally defaults to this position, as if I'd somehow managed to develop some phantom figure skating muscle memory.
In previous entries I've been candid about the fact that my interest in ballet is strongly in the technique and strength taught at the barre. Moments where I feel beautiful and graceful in the dance studio are rare (although slowly growing more common as my skill improves), but there is something about gliding effortlessly across the ice on a pair of skates that makes me feel incredibly graceful - even when I almost eat it getting overly ambitious on untrained spins and spirals.
Ballet has been a great way for me to connect with a sport I've always loved, but due to, ya know, life and stuff, won't really have the chance to pursue. Learning to use my muscles, to form the body positions, to develop the strength and flexibility to do moves so very similar to what you see on the ice is exciting. And I wonder, after 3 years of ballet training, whether it would improve my level of comfort on the ice - the next time I have the opportunity to skate.
Ballet is a beautiful art in its own right. And I don't, in any way, mean to diminish it's beauty, difficulty, and culture. (Seriously, my teachers would probably be scandalized if they read that ballet is my "close enough" solution to not being able to figure skate). But I also feel that my motivations and my path to ballet as a non-traditional adult beginner ballet are important to understand and to share.
I'm not a ballerina. I never wanted to be a ballerina. I don't know who Misty Copeland is, and the only ballet I've ever watched is The Nutcracker. But I feel so strongly about figure skating, that I will forever have a deep resentment to Tara Lipinski for beating out Michelle Kwan in the '98 Winter Olympics. And if this is the path that subconsciously lead me to look up adult ballet classes in New Orleans 15 years later, then I'll proudly own it.
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