So… seriously, center work always makes me nervous. The barre is really very comforting to me, plus I don’t have to look at myself dead on in the mirror. So I’m in class on Monday and we are doing a very simple combination and I get sweat in my eye and the next thing I know instead of glissading (is that a word?) I’m watching myself do some sort of bizarre bunny hop in the mirror with my one good eye. It was so funny, I made myself laugh and then it was downhill from there. I thought the bunny hop was hysterical but the flapping around after that was simply tragic! I kept going despite looking quite the fool and realized that one can completely relinquish all sense of decorum and dignity and still survive ballet class! We live, we learn, and as my ballet teacher says… it’s just ballet!

I’ve learned a lot of cool ballet steps and what to call them in French. I now know what convertible tights are (and it has nothing to do with topless-ness), I can sew using dental floss, and I can now stretch my butt muscles on purpose! But I’ve also learned a lot of important lessons that transfer to other areas in my life and I thought I’d share them with you.

1. You must start your journey on the right path. Finding the right teacher is imperative to setting a correct course. You and I deserve to share in a love of ballet with a great teacher, not experience traumas from bad teachers in the name of tradition, being old school, or under any other guise which are all excuses for bad teaching. This is where we get our foundation, make it a solid one and a joyful one.
2. Bring it. Bring your A-game from day one. Leotard, tights, be on time, be ready to focus and work hard. It is by our choice that we go to ballet class, so let’s make it good. For most of us, this is our only time to “be on stage” so let’s dance!
3. Start strong, end strong. It’s easy to be distracted by how we look in the mirror at the beginning of class and its easy to start losing energy as we tire toward the end of class. But the best classes are had when we focus on the dancing and keep it going until that very last pliè.
4. This is a mind-body-spirit experience, use them all, you need them all. Ballet is athletic, cerebral, and artistic; it asks all of you and its worth it!
5. Be confident in your ability to learn. It’s hard to show confidence when you focus on all the things you don’t know and can’t do, but we can and will learn. Refer back to #1, if you’ve chosen your teacher well, you can also be confident in his/her ability to continue to teach you well. Together you will learn to dance!
6. Be patient, growth takes time and is accumulative. What you don’t know today, you can know tomorrow… or the day after, or next month. What’s the rush anyway, we have all the time in the world to dance.
7. Fail forward. Mistakes are part of learning. It’s better to try and be corrected than to never make the effort and never know. In many ways, corrections are better than praise. Praise makes you feel good but a correction helps you grow!
8. Make friends and build your own ballet community. There is something to learn from everyone. A community creates collective growth. Besides, you’re all there for the love of ballet, maybe you have other things in common too.
9. Reflect. Take time to think about what you’ve done and what you’ve learned. Find a sweet little cafe, sit in the sun, have a latte, and write in your ballet journal. Not only does it help set what you’ve learned in class in your mind but it’s a great way to extend the ballet class glow and over time, you’ll be able to see how far you’ve come.
10. Share the joy! Ballet makes you happy, maybe it could make others happy too! Sharing happiness is good for the soul, yours and everyone else’s.