Pas de deux
Hey all...friends and anonymous readers. I've got a new laptop. Hooray! But as I've discovered, new laptops that don't come with Microsoft Office are disappointing. Should've gotten a Mac! They don't come with Office software and they aren't ashamed to admit it. Is it considered piracy if you borrow the setup discs from a friend? I already know the answer to that question. Right now I'm trying to decide if I like Gnarls Barkley or not. A lot of people seem to, seeing as how the song "Crazy" is the #1 download on Itunes. I think it's definitely a cool sound but do I like it? Ehh. I don't know yet. Gnarls Barkley may be an aquired taste like pomengranate juice. Or cheap whiskey mixed with cough syrup.
Have I told you that I'm taking ballet this summer? Who haven't I told? it's a course that I'm taking so that I can get certified to teach dance in schools. Even though I taught it last year at Alvarado, I wasn't certified, so my students couldn't get a P.E. credit. Hard to explain, but if you really want to know you can read up on the No Child Left Behind Act. Anyway, I love this class. My teacher is a British woman who has used to dance with the Royal Ballet company. She's been teaching in the states for 24 years. We have class 3 hours a day everyday for a month. It feels great to finally get ample exercise. To say that I've improved a lot is a gross understatement. At this time last year, I was completely new to ballet, joining the class at mid-semester and feeling like the biggest loser in ballet history. At any minute I expected one of the better dancers to turn to me and say, "Who let you in?" It was so bad that on several occasions I would leave class early so that I could run to the restroom and cry. Forget asking the teacher for help, because I was so lost I didn't even know which moves to ask for help on. Ballet is also a lovely vocabulary of hard-to-pronounce french words. By the end of the class, I'd learned two things:
1. "When in Doubt, turn out!" (The answer to any ballet question)
and 2. Just because you're good at gymnastics doesn't mean you'll be good at ballet.
I'd also like to mention that I took a hip-hop class right after ballet every day. That class was fun, and made me detest ballet even more. What right did ballet have to be the root of all dance, demanding perfection from all body parts? The truth is there are two kinds of dance in the world: ballet, and everything else. Jazz, modern, tap, and other dances are just formed by breaking the rules of ballet.
A year later, I'd consider myself one of the better dancers in my ballet class. It happened because I got a year of classes and crazy french vocabulary under my belt. I no longer cry in stall #3 or hide in the back of the room. And yesterday I noticed something else, something a little troubling. In class, I don't talk to anyone. Could be because ballet is so serious and takes a lot of concentration. Here we are, buns in our hair, noses held high enough to drown in the rain. But buns aside, honestly, I wonder what happened to the old me, the me that had to give myself a pep-talk before every class, the me that felt proud when I learned even one skill. The old me has been replaced with a more confident me. That's good. What's bad is that I can't remember what it felt like to be lost, so I am hardly an encouragement to the girls in my class who are lost. I've admitted that I wasn't such a hot dancer last year, but I wonder if they believe me. Last week, I was at the front of the class as we worked on our new routine. At one point, I messed up really bad, and everyone behind me messed up, too. They'd been following me...ME! Didn't they know that I hadn't been dancing long enough to lead? How could they be following my steps? I think that sometimes people will follow anyone who has confidence enough to stand at the front of the class. And they trust that person because it means they don't have to know the routine for themselves. I know this because I usually stand at the back of the class, my eyes concentrated on the feet of a better dancer.
Wow, another metaphor. It's amazing how everything can have spiritual implications. I apologize for always making metaphors. It's a theatre thing; you learn in directing class that every play has a metaphor and that's how you tell the story.
And now I'd like to clarify a few things about ballet: We don't wear tutus all the time. Tutus are only for big, Nutcrackeresque performances. Thank goodness.
It's also not cool to wear your leotard over your tights, as I learned last year. (That's so 1992. ) Instead you wear your tights over your leotard and a pair of ballet shorts (much like volleyball shorts) over that. Leg warmers are very fashionable, but nobody's really sure if/when to wear them since it's Texas and 100 degrees all the time. During the summer you can wear whatever ballet clothes you want, but in the school year it's black leotard, pink tights, pink ballet shoes. And by pink, I mean, "pale peach", which is a color that is only used in ballet because every other person in the world realizes that it is the most bland, unflattering shade of pink possible. It's a pink that is frequently used in bridesmaid's dresses and hospital lobby wallpaper. The color of the font is the best I could come up with.
Thank you for reading. I hope this has been as much fun for you as it has for me.
posted by Heather at
7/25/2006
1 comment(s):
You crack me up, Heather!! :)
By
Malaysian Debster, at
3:04 PM
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