Ballet: Eventual Gratification

One of my nine year old students who has been taking ballet since she was three told me that she was going to quit.  

“You don’t like ballet?”  I asked her.

“I like it.”

“Then why would you quit?”

“I want to try gymnastics and then do singing lessons.”

 I appreciate students that test out activities, one after another, after another.   I didn’t get that opportunity when I was a kid.  I had a strict upbringing of little choices:  Dance and Piano.  When I wanted to try acting, I wasn’t allowed to add it to my activities until I was cast in a Korean television show mostly by happenstance.  My one time appearance led to a regular role for three years on the show and my after-school activity count grew from two to three.

I give my mother even more credit for putting up with me during my pre-teen to early teen years when I was begging and pleading with her to quit ballet.  After I got my pointe shoes, my goal-oriented self wanted to move on to the next thing:  softball, cheerleading, hanging out with friends, anything else but ballet.

I had already won the fight to quit piano, so my mother was not going to let this one go.  She made a pact with me, “When I went to college, I can quit ballet.”  Of course, I didn’t.  By the time I was halfway through high school, I had a new appreciation of ballet.  I had no plans or hope to be a ballerina when I grew up.  I’ve always considered myself a “serious recreational dancer,” even when I was dancing with a company, I felt like I was the one recreational dancer with the group of professionals, most because I’ve always had other interests, acting, screenwriting, and film-making.  These were the hobbies that maintained my interest into my adult years.

     

There was one valuable lesson ballet taught me and I attribute ALL my past and future adult achievements to:  It takes a LONG time to be really good at something.  There is no immediate gratification in the world of ballet.  Ballet has a very special timeline, usually starting from a young age, increasing in flexibility, strength and ability as you grow older. It’s becoming a rarer and rarer find for dancers to keep at it (or many activities at that) from their wee years into their high school years and especially adult years.    

I tell my students (especially my older students) that want to leave, maybe bored or maybe wanting to try something new, “you’ll want to come back.” Or I’ll tell them the story of my mother not letting me quit, they usually roll their eyes and finish the story for me, “And then you didn’t WANT to quit.”  Yes, it’s true.  I tell them about how many ballerinas return to it after years and years.  I hear it all the time from high school students wanting to return, “I did it when I was five.” Or an adult professional, “I haven’t done it for 15 years but want to take classes again.”  I tell them about the siren’s song that is ballet that will call to you years after leaving it.  Of course, they don't understand just like I didn't when I was itching to do something different.   

I don't tell them that I've won screenwriting awards because of ballet. That I got my first major studio audition because of ballet. I've gotten hired to work on awesome film projects because of ballet. I went to grad school because of ballet. Or that I still take ballet classes. I don't tell them that ballet will make them a better adult, how it'll be ingrained in them to work very hard for their passions and goals, whatever they may be.  

So I just told the nine year old, "If you like ballet, you should stay, at least for a little while."

~ Miss Jenna

"I grew up studying ballet, I grew up honing my craft" - Janice Dickinson.