BALLET BALLET BALLET!

It was no secret growing up that I was not a "prima-ballerina" . Ballet was never my favorite but I knew if I wanted to do any other types of dance I had to take ballet. As I grew older it got worse, I was always short and ballerinas were tall, I was muscular and stocky, ballerinas were tall and lanky. I knew it would never be realistic for me to be a ballerina but that doesn't mean I didn't work my butt off in class.

I constantly preach to my kids about how important ballet is and how I regret not taking it as serious as I could have. My studio owner would have different ballet teachers come in from all over to teach us and I was to take atleast 3 hours of ballet a week. (Unless my friends and I cut out and hid) . If I could go back and do it over I would.

I can see the difference in the kids who take ballet and those who don't. I can really see the difference in kids that work hard in ballet and take it serious and those that don't. This week and next I am subbing a couple of ballet classes while their ballet teacher is away and although I was never the star of swan lake I do have a lot of ballet knowledge. My body is killing from all the plies, and arms and releves etc. I totally forgot how much ballet takes out of you and I am not the 16 year old dancer I once was.

It was so much fun yelling at "my" kids that I have in contemporary, jazz, even hip hop. Its no secret that I'm loud, I blame it on my italian side and being from New York. For whatever reason most of my more advanced students do better under pressure (me yelling) than when I'm quiet. I'm not yelling because I'm mad or fustrated I'm yelling because it gives them that little push to go that extra mile. I hope they know its all out of love.

I don't want them to make the same mistake I did growing up with ballet classes. I want them to remember that the only thing they are going to get out of class is exactly what they put into it. Also, I'm teaching all next week so get ready ! ;-)