Making choices about being inspired over being intimidated got me to thinking. I realize that one of the reasons that making  good choices is easier for me is because of my teacher and my studio. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – who you choose to be your teacher is incredibly important. A ballet teacher can certainly be capable of teaching both kids and adults but let’s face it not all teachers have that ability. And just because a teacher is “good” – from a fancy studio, retired from a fancy company, has a huge following, has students going to YAGP and/or professional companies – does not mean that they are the right teacher for you! My awesome ballet teacher only teaches adult (well, and a occasional teenager but mostly as a private coach), his mission is to teach adults to learn ballet at a very high level, pure classical ballet. So right there, our missions match.

He offers classes that are built on his responsibility to you as a student and your responsibility as an adult to work together to set goals and then to achieve them in an atmosphere of encouragement and inspiration not intimidation and bullying. He doesn’t expect students to know everything out of the box… how do I know this? Because he has said “I don’t expect you to know this, it’s my job to teach you.” No subtly needed.  He’s also impossibly optimistic. I used to find it funny that he would say things like… and when you begin to do multiple pirouettes or… you need to have this as a strong foundation for when you go on pointe or… I’m going to do choreography to this music on you someday.  It just sounded crazy. Those expectations were things that I imagined but were too afraid to say out loud. But he is willing to say it out loud and now I don’t chuckle, I nod in agreement. And sometimes I even find the courage to say these things out loud myself and actually believe them!

I think that if we believe in ourselves and if we are able to find teachers who believe in us as well, that it becomes so much easier to choose to be inspired and motivated and to chuck those negative thoughts out the door! We all need someone to believe in us, I don’t think that we ever lose that.

I also really want to point out that my teacher is not supportive because I am so awesome. I am so not awesome. I am not in any way, shape, or form a natural dancer. I am short, short limbed, I have a chest and hips and relatively flat feet. I am built to be in a library not in a studio. But I love ballet and I don’t hide that fact from anyone. I love class, I work hard and I stay focused. I think that my teacher is so incredibly supportive because he is genuinely a good person and because he wants to help me achieve my ballet dreams.  A truly good teacher does not just support those students who are balletically inclined but all those students who love dance! I hope that you guys are all getting great support from your teachers as well but if not, I hope that you consider who you are entrusting to teach you because dancing should be wonderful – difficult but wonderful! And if you ever need an extra bit of encouragement, I hope you will drop me a note because I love cheering for my ballet-dancing friends! You all are an amazing and special breed – seriously, I am always inspired by you!

This week I finally met one of my Amazing Ballet Teacher’s new hires. He has been doing really well and hired two additional teachers!  Most excellent. The photo on the website is a performance photo so I didn’t recognize her at all going into class. She was just another girl taking class. Remember that I take class in West Hollywood so tall, thin, beautiful ballerina-girls is the order of the day in my hood. And, yes, sometimes it’s still hard to take class with all the models from American Apparel but listen, we all have to learn to make the most of what we have and be happy there. I sacrificed my body for a while to reach some important goals in my life and now I’ve got the time to work on achieving some goals on my body – so it’s all good.

Anyway… we start as all ballet classes start with simple tendus and warming up and I look over and think to myself – wow, that girl has gorgeous feet. Moving along with more exercises at the barre, starting to sweat, having a good time. Then we get to a combination with developpes and I almost break my neck as I turn in utter utter disbelief at the height and the PERFECTION of this girl’s developpes! Sweet Baby Jesus! Now let me say that there are some uber limber American Apparel models who are practically able to swing their limbs ALL THE WAY AROUND like a helicopter propeller – EVERYONE in Los Angeles (but me) takes yoga and pilates, it’s our LA religion. I still get confused with happy baby, hungry child, and downface dog dumplings. Whatever, no one should eat dogs even if you have hungry children – I dunno know.  But back to developpe girl… it’s not the height, which was magnificent, it was the perfection – beautiful, flowing, strong, and powerful. Really, I could have spent the rest of barre watching her do the exercises. I did occasionally eyeball her throughout the rest of class, it was amazing.

Turns out, magnificent developpe girl is the new teacher. Awesome! Bring on some of that! But I heard some of the other girls talking after class and they found it intimidating to stand at the barre next to her – they were comparing and coming up short. Listen, don’t compare – ever – to anyone! It’s a whole other thing if we were a bunch of dancers competing for a role but we are a bunch of dancers learning how not to fall down! I found her inspiring. I don’t really know how high my developpe will ever get. It doesn’t really matter because I want to work on having the most lovely developpe I can achieve in each and every class. And not just the developpe, everything, every step, every movement. It’s about my personal best and always trying to achieve better – my better, not someone else’s better.

In the end, guys, I think it’s a choice – to see beauty and be intimidated or to witness beauty and be inspired. I think choosing to be intimidated pushes us toward failure and despair but choosing to be inspired motivates us toward our own achievement of beauty. I hope you will always, always choose beauty.

~Let’s dance.