Personal Narrative: Lessons Learned In Dance

Day dreaming of the talents I have absorbed over the years, I thought about the process of learning something new, specifically in dance. When I was learning to dance on pointe, the thought of putting all my weight directly on my toes sounded excruciating. The effortless movement of the ballerina as she tiptoes across the stage was something I always wanted to achieve. I wanted to be blessed with the grace and poise of a professional. After seeing countless dancers in the upper level classes catch on quickly, I undoubtedly bought a pair of pink Grishko slippers for myself. I admired the satin pointed shoe as I laced on the ribbons with a needle and thread. They were perfectly crafted and ready to be broken in. I savored the new, untainted look

Once the shank was curved, we laced the ribbons tightly up our skinny ankles. The next step was to stand on them. Getting up would be easy, I thought to myself. I had seen so many ballerinas launch on their toes with no issues. To my surprise, getting up was more problematic than I had envisioned. Longing to fast forward through the necessary training, I hopped up and felt the bones of my big toe slam against the wooden flooring. “OW!” I exclaimed as I held my nearly broken toes. The other dancers and myself hobbled over to the wooden barre on the wall for the necessary warm-ups to begin class. My instructor, Jake, would walk around shouting things like “push up through the floor” or “roll through the foot.” At the time I was bewildered by the things I kept hearing. How the heck was I supposed to push through a hard wooden floor? I kept practicing and eventually it became easier and the motion of rolling through the foot became clearer. I started to understand the thought of using the energy from the floor to propel me up. The first few days were wobbly, like a fawn learning to walk for the first time. I would get up and fall over. It was hard to keep my weight over my toes and stand