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Ballet Wordie

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What has ballet done to me? I used to be a wordie, you know, like a foodie, but with words. Then I wrote a dissertation, got tired, stopped dancing, and seemingly ran out of words. The world has been a quiet place. I’m not complaining too much about that. I’ve longed for some peace and tranquility in my brain. I’ve even had moments when I’ve envied my cat and her small, dark cat cube hidden away in the corner.

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But the longing to dance has returned, the need to step into the studio and be whisked away by the music and the sound of my teachers voice is again a steady and strong pull. And with dancing comes the return of my words. No dance, silence. Dance, words. It’s like movement is creating thoughts and shaking them loose to spill out in letters dancing across the page.

Who would have imagined? I’m a ballet wordie.

Embrace the Ridiculous

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I’ve been a very bad blogger. It’s not that I’ve had a lack of things to talk about but that I’ve had trouble putting things into words that I’ve wanted to share lately. This is extraordinarily strange for me because words are my thing. I guess that I’ve had to sort some things out for myself first.

Over the years – yes, I have a bad habit of holding onto things for YEARS – I’ve had many a discussion about this whole ballet thing and sometimes feeling rather like a nutter. Taking ballet at my age – nutter; crossing the world to watch ballet and take beginning ballet classes – nutter; waiting at the stage door like some starry-eyed teenager – nutter; throwing work suits into a storage drawer to make more room for my ballet stuff – nutter! The argument against nutter is fairly simple, why is it nuts to do something that you love? But let’s face it, lots of people do things that are a huge waste of time and energy (and money)  just because they enjoy doing it… take curling for an example, what’s up with that?!

So I’m sitting in a coffee shop with Carboy talking about a ballet performance that I’d really like to see but of course it’s around the world and we just got off an international flight and I’m trying to work my teaching and lecturing schedule around taking ballet class and going to ballet performances and the words that are coming out of my mouth are sounding really ridiculous even to my own ears. And I shake my head and state what I think is the obvious… “I shouldn’t keep doing this, it’s ridiculous.”

And then Carboy says this…

“Embrace the ridiculous. You should keep doing crazy things. You were doing crazy when I met you and you haven’t stopped yet. It’s a good trait. You make crazy work for us. If it weren’t for your willingness to be ridiculous we wouldn’t be where we are now. We need to do more ridiculous things, not less.”

First of all, you can’t have him, I’m keeping him. Second, yes, there is no denying the ridiculous. It is ridiculous and I am a nutter. It’s okay, I’m making it look cute. Why shouldn’t we embrace ridiculous things, crazy ideas, and eccentric notions? Isn’t that what creativity and innovation are all about?! The balance to the ridiculous is that it is often that which is also brilliant, beautiful, and amazing. I have had so many AMAZING, INCREDIBLE, INSANE experiences because of ballet. I have made so many WONDERFUL, FABULOUS, NUTTER new friends because of ballet. Ballet has been the most brilliantly ridiculous choice that I’ve made in my adult life!

So watch out! If you see a short American nutter embracing the ridiculous, that’ll be me! Things are about to get all kinds of crazy up in here!

Let’s dance. All will be well. Even the ridiculous.