Ballet

Seeing as everyone is going crazy over ballet because of Black Swan, I decided it was time I told you about myself and ballet.

I have been dancing ballet for many many years, and I always enjoy it, and although I was never good enough to go professional I have always enjoyed taking part in shows, exams and weekly lessons.

me in my ballet outfit x

I attended ballet school at a very young age with an inspiring strict teacher Mrs Lewis, it taught me to how to express my feelings through ballet and was a lovely time to escape school. 

My mum often watched with the others parents and it was lovely to dance in front of them all as we got older and the lessons became harder parents would sit out to give us the chance to concentrate.

As I got older, the exams got harder and I was awarded Merit and a pass plus for many of my exams, I only got 1 distinction which was grade 4.
Once I passed to get into grade 5 with a merit I was able to then buy ballet blocks, or points as you may know them, this is a hard piece at the end of the ballet show , this enables you to go onto point. 
(this hurts)


these are my ballet points

They recently had the bottom threaded back on as they wear off after a while this enables grip and protects the end of the shoe.


to protect your toes many ballerinas protect their feet with sheep wool at the end of the shoe

this is what it looks like on the end of your foot.. it is a bit random but it feels so much better than without and you can end up damaging your toes quite bad. 

When buying your blocks, it is often recommended you go two sizes smaller than your normal shoe size, this sounds painful, but it helps keep the show on your foot and it makes it easier to walk and point. 

 I didn't want to be the best, I just wanted to take part. A couple of my friends from the school went further and have been in many shows such as Black Swan and are now professional performers. 

I have been in many dance shows and I loved every bit of it. When Mrs Lewis left, Shelia Price took over she was an amazing teacher, young, fresh and creative but I missed the strict teaching and I felt ballet was no longer for me. 

While I was a ballet dancer, I was also a very competitive swimmer, and this confused by body while it was growing and often suffered muscle pains. Eventually swimming took over and I become broad shoulders from being a butter-flyer.  I felt I did not suit the typical ballerina and this put me off dancing for a long time and I focused on swimming for many years after with one weekly lesson in dancing. 

I then had to unfortunately give up ballet when I left for university and moved to Staffordshire, I also gave up swimming when I lost a friend.

 Since then I have I miss ballet, I miss the free dancing, The freedom to just let go, The skills you need to have in order to achieve. I hope someday when University life is over and I am settled I take up ballet again even if it is with adults only taking part is the best part.

I recommend ballet to anyone who enjoys expressing feelings through movement, who enjoys the sound of a piano and being able to move your body through the music. Who likes to be disciplined and learn at the same time. 

I often bought my dancing clothes from Dance Direct and if you are looking into dancing, ballet, street, jazz anything, take a look at this site for what you made need. 

http://www.sheilapricedance.co.uk 
this was my dance teacher.


I will add more photos when I have gone back to my parents and scanned a few in xXx






please leave a comment if you enjoyed this post or if you are a ballerina yourself, I would love to hear your story x