Pandemics,Pliés & Progress
A huge thank you to one of my amazing adult dancers Amy, who squeezed time into her busy schedule to write an incredible ballet story….
My name’s Amy, and I’m a 25 year old living in London. I first started dancing with Emily in the first lockdown.
I’d never been to dance classes before and am by no means a natural dancer, but the ability to dance (well, at least) has always been something I’ve wished I had. I loved watching ballet, but for me it remained something very much to be watched rather than participated in. Besides, having reached my mid-twenties, I thought I’d somewhat missed the dancing boat. How wrong I was!
During May, when I began dancing with Emily, everything was little strange. About a month previously I’d been prematurely graduated from medical school due to the coronavirus pandemic and had just begun work as a junior doctor. On top of this, we were all still adjusting to a new lock-down way of life. I heard about Emily’s classes and felt that I was fairly sure they wouldn’t be for me, but I’d give them a go.
And straight away I loved it! All the positions were so well explained and demonstrated I felt like I was really able to get to grips with them. That’s not to say that there weren’t many, many mistakes, but Emily was amazing at talking me through tricky bits and correcting me. There’s also something to be said for trying it from your lounge; to me this felt much less intimidating than joining an in-person ballet class. And it was such a lovely group of people! All ages, all muddling through it together. I felt a real sense of achievement as tangible progress was made as the weeks went on. We always finished with a big dance we pieced together bit by bit at the end of each lesson, which was a brilliant way to chart our collective progress.
I loved it so much, I kept going after the first set of sessions. It’s been a bit of a crazy year to say the least, but regular ballet lessons have provided me with a much needed routine. They’ve been a constant throughout, and a very relaxing, yet motivating one at that. I always feel brighter after my Thursday evening ballet.
