The Dance Primer

I’m the fifth of six children in my family. My parents were teachers, so our income was not the kind that a family of 8 (plus a live-in Grandma and usually an exchange student to boot) could live on with luxury. My parents did have an appreciation for extra-curricular activities, but there was a budget to follow. The rule: you could take one class/do one activity at a time - as long as you practiced every day.

I started with piano lessons.

However, not too far into first grade, the local gym was offering inexpensive ballet lessons and my mom asked if I’d be interested. Of course I would! Ballerinas are so beautiful and graceful. What little girl wouldn’t want to be a ballerina? Plus, my piano teacher wouldn’t let me show her the songs I made up, which hurt my feelings.

We went and purchased the pink tights, pink slippers, and an adorable pink leotard with a little bow under the collar. I went to class and began learning. First position, Second position, Third, Fourth etc. There was a recital coming up, and we were going to learn our first routine.

I can remember the words of my teacher on the last day I attended class. “Now you, and you, will do cartwheels across the front here.” Wait a minute… cartwheels? No way. Ballet had pretty movements, leaps and lifts, but cartwheels? How ungraceful and ugly. She never even asked if I knew how to do a cartwheel… which I didn’t. That was a dangerous trick! What if your head got banged up along the way? No way was I doing a cartwheel.

“Mom,” I asked, “can I go back to taking piano lessons?” She didn’t even show me if she was upset for the wasted outfit she had purchased. What a nice mother! I ended up sticking with piano lessons all the way through college, and finally found a teacher who would listen to my own songs. I went on to study music composition in college…

Funny, though. These days, I go out dancing more than I play the piano. I can do a cartwheel, but I still wouldn’t want to see a one in ballet.

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“A Ballerina in the Making” by Shopping Diva on flickr.
“Cartwheel Outtakes” by BrittneyBush on flickr.