A few new beginners joined the class last Monday. It results in a big group. Some are really new, while others practiced ballet as a child. When I look at those new faces, I involuntarily think about my beginnings at Bayadere, on November 1, 2017. When I came to that door at Bayadere, hopeful, and a bit nervous, dressed in sweatpants and a t-shirt. And rang the doorbell.

But let me first tell you something about the period that preceded this buzz of the doorbell.

As a young man, I was quite good at running and in good shape. But that good shape steadily declined during my study time, and so on after my marriage and the birth of my children. I came into the rush hour of life, busy shaping my life and family, raising children, working hard and building a career. Somehow I paid less attention to my ideals. Others would say that I was growing up. Finally.

At the age of 50, I reached a turning point. My children were growing up, my career was seriously in crisis, and I had health problems. I wanted to change. And return to my roots. It was time for Me again.

So 10 years ago, as a 50-year-old, I made a serious decision to start exercising again.

I bought an old racing bike and started cycling again. Every day I took long strolls with my German Shepherd. This way I laid a new foundation, my physical condition improved, as did my mental resilience. 

At that time my daughter joined jazz ballet classes; this challenged me to deal with that old urge to practice ballet myself. I started looking around for a ballet school, looking for a place to start as an adult. But that seemed impossible. 

I needed an alternative. And I followed that other young boy's dream.

Besides Nureyev, I, as a young man, was also intrigued by Cassius Clay aka Mohammed Ali. The dancing boxer. Mohammed Ali was an athlete with an attitude, with a mission and later on a role model.

Put briefly, I could not find a ballet school, and I went looking for a decent gym. 

I found a boxing school that suited me and I did not leave there anymore. I picked up one of the most intensive sports I know, boxing, later on, kickboxing and cross fit. In the last 10 years, I spent 15 hours per week on these various sports.

My physical and mental condition improved enormously in the past 10 years. I even now give training classes in boxing and cross fit. 

That is how I fought myself back up from that valley of my setbacks at 50. 

I hung a poster in my study from Mohammed Ali, saying:

"Don't quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion. "

Yet this poster has a post-it memo glued on it with the words: ballet. It is there, already 10 years

My ballet ambitions continued to gnaw.

In the past years, I regularly searched the Internet for a ballet school, because that gnawing feeling did not go away. And amongst other schools, I stumbled across Bayadere. This ballet school uses the Vaganova method of training. But no classes for me, it seemed ballet was not meant for me. 

Later on, I found Bayadere on Facebook and liked the site. I received updates from Bayadere occasionally. Then, 1 ½ year ago, suddenly there was that notice inviting adults to enroll in adult ballet classes.

I almost couldn’t believe this was real. My opportunity to really start with ballet! 

And after some serious injuries, I also knew that I could not keep boxing at my level.

I longed for a more controlled way of moving, exercising.  

So I signed in. On November 1, I was standing there at that door, ringing the doorbell.

For a trial lesson.

This week was kind of chaotic, but I still managed to join both dancing lessons.

After arriving at class Lyda en I started talking about Sylvie Guillem, a very talented ballerina. Lyda showed me some of her dances on youtube. Sylvie started at Paris Opera Ballet at the age of 19 in 1984 and was a protégé of Rudolf Nureyev. An exceptional ballerina, she has almost unbelievable fluidness in her movements and she is so flexible. She clearly defined a new era in dancing.

Lyda asked me if I wouldn’t mind her sharing my blog address with a couple of ballet schools abroad. I don’t mind, I want to share my journey in ballet, that’s the main reason I started this blog! And knowing that people from abroad are reading this, gives me more reason to put more effort into writing English correctly.

Ballet is much about body control. The conscious approach to every movement is essential to classical ballet. That’s why ballet attracts me, besides its artistic and athletic features. I consider it as a form of mindfulness.

I learned that strong and flexible feet are necessary if you want to enhance your dancing skills. So last Monday Lyda gave us a more detailed anatomical outline about the foot.

She told us about the arch, the curve under the foot, between the heel and forefoot. And about the instep, the bony structure on top of the foot. Ballet favors a foot with a high arch and a high instep. Plantar flexion of your foot lifts the heel and points the toes. 

This provides more momentum to jump higher from the diverse foot positions.

Holding your balance when standing on your forefoot (relevé) is another example of having strong and flexible feet. And a high relevé (the maximal range of motion) depends on the bony structure in the joint of your big toe.

So your feet need to be trained.

We start the lesson by doing some exercises at the barre. It starts with placement, with aplomb as the foundation. Soon we move on with a variation of the plié. Then tendu, followed by ronds de jambe, with special attention to flexing and stretching the feet

Later on, she tells us to move to the center of the floor.

The use of French words is very common in the world of ballet, think of words like plié, tendu, jeté, ronds de jambe. Those words imply carefully defined movements. These movements are there to be mastered. And when they are combined, the variety of dance exercises is infinite. 

Learning the basics of a new movement can be quite hard. I easily seem to forget the words and the combinations of the exercises. I really have to put more effort into staying more focused. Otherwise, I ‘ll be more like a poet, a dreamer with careful thoughts about ballet. Instead of being a beginner trying hard to become a dancer.

I need more training and I have to put more dedication to my training

I want to face and overcome that daily struggle to internalize those movements, to develop elasticity in my ligaments and stronger muscles. To become more proficient….. 

But it’s not easy.

This week lessons started again after the Christmas recess. I join 2 lessons per week, the adult beginner's lesson and the beginner' s + lesson. Usually, apart from me, there are 7 to 8 participants in the beginner's lesson, all women of various age.  I am the only male participant, and also the oldest.

After a busy day at work, I went to Bayadere. The prospect of ballet gives me that other mindset and that joyful expectation of dancing with beautiful piano music.

It feels good to be back in the ballet school again. I quickly change clothes and hurry into the classroom. It is my moment of freedom, those 5 minutes before the others come into the classroom.  I practice some moves and do various exercises in that empty space. For example, I exercise the turn, to be able to get used to turning. A month ago it was trickier than now. I am less dizzy. Little by little I am progressing in the movement.

As soon as the students enter the room starts Lyda class. Coming weeks  Lyda wants to emphasize on foot flexibility. This lesson we practice the elemental movements like plie and tendu. Rehearsing these over and over again gives me the opportunity to build up routine with the basic movements. This way I internalize a piece of ballet movement. 

One of my favorites is the ronds de jambe par terre exercise. That gives me a smooth feeling in the legs and hips.

At home, I usually prepare myself for ballet with some warming up exercises, taking about a half an hour. A ballet lesson without warming up is a lost lesson. It is my precaution against injuries, especially of injuries of my calves.

And yet my muscles and joints feel uncomfortably stiff. Usually, this is less a problem, but not after this holiday period. 

I rarely miss a lesson. But this is exactly what happened this week. After a busy day at work, I had an unexpected business meeting. So I regretfully missed my second lesson.

It really is an art to combine work and ballet in a good way.

My first blog

Here it is then, my blog. At last Lyda would say. 

Since 1 November 2017, I join ballet classes at La Bayadere, led by Lyda. Being a man of 58 years old I made the next move in my life by realizing a dream of my youth by starting to learn dancing ballet. I thereby transformed a long-held desire of becoming a ballet dancer to a first real and actual start at a ballet school. And start at point zero.

Soon after my arrival at La Bayadere Lyda made the suggestion to start a blog, to make other people participants in my new journey of discovery.

By now it is a year later, I needed some time to take this step. A bit with the feeling that I probably could have begun earlier with writing a blog. But my work, daily concerns and a piece of computer illiteracy made this step more difficult than I presumed.

So eventually after that first step to La Bayadere that brought me into the world of ballet, I now make my second step with presenting to you this blog. 

What made me move to ballet?

It all started with a documentary about the freedom dash Nureyev made in 1961 in Paris. I saw that documentary somewhere at the beginning of the seventies, in my early teens. And I wondered about his move. As a person, he intrigued me, his face, his expression. It was so full of expectation. And I knew he was a ballet dancer. But ballet was something of another world, a world I did not live in.

One day I decided then, I will look into this. And that one day would present itself 45 years later.

I intend to make you part of my journey by writing this blog about my experiences and troubles in mastering some of the elementals of ballet. I hope you will enjoy reading about my journey as much as I enjoy learning this beautiful art of dancing, called ballet.

As always, the magic is in the doing.

Thank you.