Good Heavens, now we're blogging!

And by we, I mean me. I'm not British.. Although I do at times refer to my ballet school as we. I sometimes say we are going to do this....when really I mean me, I specifically am going to do this.... because I am the one running the show, after all. And I am the one writing this blog, so really what I mean to say is, good heavens now I'm blogging!

Ballet and talking don't really go together. Ballet, being an art steeped in tradition, one of which being true old school teaching where the teacher speaks and the student only listens, likes quite a lot to retain it's history. One of the ways it does so is through it's teaching which instills respect, discipline, and quite often silence.

Ballet and writing are rumored to go together just as well, as the ballet world likes to retain it's secrets. I suppose everyone likes a little mystery, to leave something to the imagination. And ballet itself is rooted in the ethereal, greater than real life- so to spill the secrets is to spoil that illusion. Oh, sorry I mean that reality.

Of course it makes sense that speech is not encouraged, as ballet is an art of movement and music- not speech. It is about the story that can be told by the heart, the imagination, and the spirit, rather than the mouth, as these things often show themselves in speechless ways.

All that being said, I was never very good at keeping my mouth shut. In ballet class I learned to keep it shut and be obedient. But, I could never quite learn to keep my eyes from giving away everything I was thinking. I was often known as well for my technique as I was for not only finding fault with how ballet was being taught, but voicing my dissatisfaction. I didn't agree with how things were done. Didn't agree with the horrendous injuries that I and my peers were supposed to just accept as part of being a dancer, and didn't agree that 'there's nothing you can do'.

And lookit me now! Running a ballet school that flies in the face of tradition as well as what everyone else is doing currently. Of course, things are different now than when I was a student. However, not that different. If that were the case, I wouldn't have needed to open my own ballet school.

It's not easy to be the first person on the block to make a major change. Hard to say hey, I'm doing this even if I'm the only one doing it. Seeing everyone walking in one direction, and stopping and walking the opposite way. People like being second. Being second is safe. It's easy to do something once someone else has done it first and broken a path for you.

Well, that's about it. In closing I'd like to say I have a big mouth, and I happen to like being first. I also write a lot. Shame on me.

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