So, I went to my first ballet lesson in 20 years today. It was an interesting experience, not least of all because the class was conducted mainly in thiscountryese and the teacher and all of the other students made a concerted effort to translate things into English.
The thing with dancing is that you don't actually need to understand the language that it's being taught in, because it's completely physical. At one point I tried to explain that I understood here (in my head) but not here (in my legs). There is a vague memory of all these movements and positions, but my body has forgotten them. But hey, it's been twenty years and I've been through a bit of a physical trial since I last attempted a jump and plié.
It was enjoyable, especially when the endorphins kicked in. But mainly it was an exercise in discipline. For many reasons. I'm not sure I would try this in my own country largely due to self-consciousness. But here I'm already a curious abomination when I enter the class, so what comes after is uphill. I have serious physical limitations, but there is that seriously determined core within me to make me keep at it. And being the much larger western lass gives me a lot of leeway in terms of teacher expectation. Which means I basically come out winning.
It's also fascinating in terms of staging. I'm currently, for my sins, undergoing a TYLEC* pilot at my place of employment and we looked at staging last week in terms of language teaching. Ballet, or indeed any kind of dance class has a very careful staging necessity - if you want to be able to perform the dance you need to warm up the requisite parts, learn the basic moves, elaborate these moves and then eventually put it all together. Which is exactly what staging is all about. The parallel between this and language learning is uncanny and something I suspect I should share with my tutors.
All fun and educational in many ways. I'm still on the endorphin rush, but suspect I'll be in pain in the morning. Regardless, I'm going back next week. Western Abomination of a Physical Wreck has a mission...
*Teaching Young Learner Extension/English (not sure which) Course
singing is sooooo much easier than dancing.
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