L'introduction

Going out of your comfort zone is an act that not every person is willing to do in fear of failure, and this unfortunately results in people having limited experiences. As someone who has never taken any dance classes I was a little hesitant taking ballet as a college class. Before I came to college, however I was determined to make an effort to try new things and as cliché as it may sound I wanted to expand my horizons. So far I believe I have done a pretty good job at achieving my goal and taking ballet would help me maintain it.

Being a part of the class didn’t feel quite real until I had actually bought my leotard, tights, and ballet shoes. Although I’ve never taken any dance classes, ballet does remind me somewhat of gymnastics, which I was involved in when I attended high school. Some similarities I found between the two are the use of leotards, the importance of connecting the steps, and the attention that your body requires. Although the leotard I used in high school looks nothing like the one I use now for ballet, the pattern is nearly identical. My gymnastics leotard was blue and made of spandex, while my ballet leotard is black and made of cotton. In gymnastics it was also very important to connect each step so the result would just be one fluid movement. By connecting the steps you avoid having a choppy appearance. In gymnastics, just like any other sport, muscle conditioning helps you achieve better results. The focus on your body is also relevant to both. For example, in gymnastics when doing a handstand you must remember to squeeze in your stomach and derrière to help you keep your balance. I’ve found out that when doing a releve for ballet the same concept applies to maintain balance.

Just like many different activities or occupations in life have their own terminology, I was looking forward to learning the jargon for ballet because I knew it was in French. Since I took four years of French in high school I was hoping having some background in the language would help me feel more comfortable while learning ballet. I have learned that so far I have found the terminology easy to remember, which makes me feel relieved. Since I was exposed to several French related experiences I am reminded of a famous impressionist artist by the name of Edgar Degas. He considered ballerinas one of his favorite subjects, which explains why they make up over half of his total work.Danseuse- Edgar Degas
Degas is said to have been intrigued by the artistry and power of movements the dancers portrayed. Not everyone assumes the previously mentioned about dancers. Some may believe that dancers don’t really work hard or that not much goes into performing a dance. Although I’ve never performed a dance in front of a crowd I have realized in the first few weeks of ballet that it requires effort and hard work. People have to acknowledge the fact that a single dance is composed of many steps, and that each step has to be executed properly in order to have a polished result. On top of that, all of the steps have to be combined in such a way that no gaps can be detected, and instead it can appear to be one continuous move. In order to achieve such a thing, practice is crucial and repeating something multiple times takes both time and energy. Another assumption that people may make is that to dance you must only practice the dance itself, but in reality you have to do other additional things that will help improve both the dancer’s strength and flexibility.