Today’s featured adult ballet student is from South London…

1. How did you first get involved with ballet and what attracted you to it as an adult?

Just over 4 years ago, I was going through a period of re-building my life, regaining control over who I was, and trying to fill an emptiness inside of me.

My therapist at the time suggested that I should think about finding an activity that would help me connect with myself and others, he listed off some options, and one of these was ballet. I initially scoffed at the idea knowing how uncoordinated and inelegant I was, coupled with being the owner of 2 left feet, besides, I had never shown an interest in ballet as a child, although in fairness the opportunity had never arisen to try a class back in my youth.

However his suggestion nagged away at me for a number of days, I had always admired and respected dancers, particularly ballet dancers; for their commitment, grace, beauty and ability, they were something to behold. Should I dare to actually venture into this world at my time of life? So I Googled for a local adult ballet class, and sure enough, up popped a studio close to me in Dulwich South London, which offered complete beginner classes, and I duly signed up.

Now I would admit that at the beginning of that very first class, I thought “what on earth am I doing here”, a 36 year old woman out of her depth and out of her comfort zone. But by the end of the class it was like someone had turned on a light switch, it was the most amazing hour of realization and discovery–ballet was the one thing that had been missing from my life. A spark had been ignited within my soul, and it has burned there ever since.

This spark has now grown into a fully raging inferno of burning desire and near obsession to become a better ballet dancer. The last four years have seen my interest steadily grow from one class a week, to two per week, and now up to the point of I would happily dance 8 days a week if such an extra day existed. [Read more…]