The Pleasures of Ballet Class

I returned yesterday to ballet class, where I had been absent for a year while recovering my health. When I began going to the ballet I quickly realized that the dancers on stage were having more fun than the members of the audience.  But I thought it was too late in life for me to become a ballet dancer, since training begins at a very young age.  My sister had taken ballet classes but no one had offered them to me , nor would I have been likely to take them if they had.  And ballet and dance was not a part of my excellent education at Exeter and Columbia (though one hopes that will change, now that Jennifer Homans, who wrote the wonderful history of ballet Apollo's Angels, has started a new academic center for ballet at NYU) so it was only word-of-mouth that got me to go to the NYC Ballet, where I had the exquisite experience of seeing George Balanchine at his most brilliantly creative.  It then occurred to me that I would enjoy ballet more if I took class and knew more about the steps and terminology.  At that point I was in graduate school at Columbia and saw that they offered ballet classes at the gym.  That seemed like a safe bet so I finally worked up the courage to take a class.  Of course I knew nothing about ballet class, not even what to wear, but the instructor was most understanding and helped me to understand what "flexing the feet" meant, as well as how one started the barre with the left hand on the barre, what "the inside leg" meant, and the basic terminology, from tendu to plié.  I ended up not only learning a great deal about ballet, I also grew to love the class for its intense detail in controlling one's body.  After the class ended I asked her about other classes and she told me the most important information about ballet class in New York:  if you are just starting out do not take a "beginner" class in New York because beginner classes can be quite advanced!  Instead, take a "basic" class, which moves much more slowly, and she suggested one at Peridance, downtown

At Peridance the teacher was from South Africa and a member of the old school, where ballet class was one of the last places where the teacher had absolute authority.  Not everyone responded to this positively but I thrived under her, learning enough to go from the basic to the beginning class after a few years.  In the beginning class we did jetes, pas de chats, sissone and other traveling steps where one could feel one was flying through space or suspended in the air.  Now when I attended the ballet I was much more aware of the different steps and how they were put together and I was even able to absorb some of the techniques used by the dancers and put them into effect in my own dancing.

Peridance closed and I started looking for another class and a friend told me about the 92nd St. Y, where one could try a class before signing up, and I have taken classes there now for more than twenty years.  The Y has wonderful teachers who are supportive of novice dancers while still offering rigorous classes.  The classes also include live piano accompaniment, which gives the teachers considerable flexibility.  They also have student performances once a year and I have participated in them several times, as you can see your classes actually leading to performances and you can learn something about how a ballet is actually created. 

The benefits and pleasures of ballet class are many.  I have found that when one is annoyed or upset about work a ballet class can be a wonderful distraction:  the mental and physical concentration take one away from petty problems into pleasures of the mind and the body.  The way ballet classes are structured --barre, floor work, adagio, allegro -- builds up strength, agility, flexibility.  And, of course, classes enhance one's enjoyment of ballet performances.