April

Goal: Take Ballet Lessons

If you know me, you know I love to dance. My formal training is limited to two Irish-step dancing lessons and a semester of Latin Ballroom dance but that has never stopped me from breaking it down on the dance floor. What I lacked in technique and beauty, I made up with pizzazz.

Now, I’ve always admired ballet. My mom and I would go see The Nutcracker at the Oregon Ballet Theatre. Nothing mesmerized me more than ballerinas. Never in my wildest dreams would I think I could just take ballet lessons.

Turns out, anyone can just take ballet lessons. I attended an adult beginners class at NW Dance Project. NW Dance Project happened to have a class that began in April. I intended on dropping in for the first three classes before heading out to Peru in May. I only ended up attending two classes. Nonetheless, I learned a ton.

My Ballet Journey

Supplies

• Ballet slippers and leotard — I got mine at The Leotard
• Classes, $15 per class — NW Dance Project
• Enthusiasm

Takeaways

1. I like doing ballet???
2. Can you believe I’ve lived in my body for 20+ years and never used it to move how I did in ballet? Ballet is a new language for body movement. New ways to hold yourself and new combinations of angles. It was crazy to use myself in an entirely new way.
3. I felt like I moved beautifully for the first time. I have a peculiar walking-stride that is choppy and my dancing, while fun, is anything but beautiful. So for the first time, I felt like I was elegant and graceful.
4. Doing something out of your comfort zone is rewarding. I was surrounded by a bunch of other nervous first-time ballerinas/ballerinbros which made me feel less nervous. The class expectations were low and we all had a good sense of humor about how bad we were at ballet. It was fun walking into a place where no one knew me or had any expectation of me.
5. You can do anything once. This is a lesson I keep learning. Even if I had hated ballet, one class would not have wrecked me.

Update (2020)

Since taking those two dance classes, I’d been thinking about going through the whole 11-week beginner ballet class. Starting in January of 2020, I took 10 classes before the studio shut down due to COVID-19. It was nice having a couple classes under my belt from 2019 so I knew a little of what to expect.

I had a great time over my 10 weeks and I never would have done a whole program had I not been challenged to take a few classes last year. Turns out trying new things is good? Who knew!