Getting back into routines, starting with dance

Now that the holidays are over, I am getting back into my usual routine. Tonight was dance class. I love the repetitive routine of ballet, knowing that every class will start with plies, move through tendues to then other exercises, and finally end with grand battments at the barre. Then we will move to the centre and do a series of exercises that will include ports de bras, some sort of steps and jumps, movements across the floor, and turns. Though the exact exercises will vary each week, those movements and the repeated corrections help us to build strength, flexibility, and - hopefully - some grace and musicality.

I have been dancing for a long time now. I started when my daughter was six and she is now 22. I took about three years off after injuring my foot a few years ago, but otherwise have been going weekly for almost 15 years. I have gone from rank beginner to the most advance class offered at my school, tried lyrical and modern, sometimes spent several years at the same level because I liked the teacher or the time was convenient, and now I’m back in a beginner’s class. Through it all, that same pattern - plies, tendues, ending at grand battment, moving to the centre to learn patterns, jumps, turns, and occasionally even learning actual repertoire. It is comforting, but also affirming as I get better at certain things, and throughout I get joy from pushing my body and expressing myself to music.

This is a photo from a few years ago, when I had a walk-on part in a Ballet Jorgen production of Romeo and Juliet. The auditions were for dance students but there were no age restrictions, so I auditioned with a bunch of teenagers and pre-teens. It amused me to cross this off my bucket list of things to try. I didn’t get a dancing part, but I did get to help with the publicity as I was interviewed on TV as well as for newspapers. It turns out, when I search on the internet, that the story was carried in papers across southern Ontario. https://www.insidehalton.com/news-story/4411483-lindenlea-mom-twirls-into-ballet-scene/


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