Le Ballet Bleu Blog
For many years, I did not like ballet because I saw it as rules and stuck shapes.
That was taking the class.
I always loved watching it. Adored it, really. True grace, defying gravity. That is what I saw ballet as, but I did not feel that way when I did it.
Many years of being told my body was not right for dance, or apparently anything worthy at all, my body learned that it was stress. My body knew ballet as an ultimate test, one that I would always fail simply because of the way my body existed.
I can tell you, that is not the case!
Many times in my life, I have turned on Nutcracker music, in any season. The music is brilliant. I always thought the entire symphony was a note on the human experience.
There can be so much wonder. So many exciting rhythms, accents, explorations, and adventures. Even in your own living room after the Christmas party!
Anyway...
I have always loved the fantasy of ballet. The harmonies of grace and power. Grace is power. Power is not always graceful, but I wanted to work towards that. I wanted to levitate in a leap, grow roots and become the floor as I walked. That is what makes dance different. Holy. Imagination. Magical. Just like the magic of a blossoming flower.
No longer did I want to live in that stuck way, experiencing ballet in shreds of fear.
Instead, I wanted to fly.
I wanted to tell stories through movement. Stories I did not even understand, but could feel within.
I knew that taking ballet more would be great but a mental revolution was in order.
Ballet refines everything, from stance to movement. That's a lot of stuff!
Fast, slow, slower, super fast... you get it.
One ballet class barre can feel like putting on an amazing album. Intros, outros, long tracks with a grit. It is all part of it. The experience! No skips, just all play.
Ballet has become more beautiful for me through inspirations I have had the gift of knowing, working for and learning from. The true blessing is the journey but what a gift artists are! Through every day practice and patience, through many days "not feeling the best" but still coming in to figure out the lemons.
The lemonade got sweeter, somehow even more organic! It started to become sparkling sangria! Ballet started feeling better, better and better. Even with critique from inside and outside, it was finally a class I could run to. That I could go and just jump into, with joy!
I could give everything to these combinations and connect with divine, not to dismay or distraught expectations. In my old perspective of ballet I felt frustrated. My new perspective of ballet was constantly shifting, evolving, blooming. Alive!
le Ballet Bleu, bloom as you
Cheval Lavande, gallop beyond