Try out a one credit dance class, it might just make your semester
At age four, my parents decided that they would enroll me in a very common activity for young girls: dance. More specifically, I was put into ballet, tap and jazz classes where we would practice doing the butterfly stretch, tap our feet in different combinations that our little selves were too uncoordinated to do and dance onstage to songs like “Here Comes The Sun” and “Joy To The World.” As I grew older, I continued to take dance classes after school but I narrowed down my interest to just ballet. I took ballet for a total of 10 years and performed in a number of recitals as well as performances such as Cinderella, Snow White, the Wizard of Oz and more.
My ballet career came to a halt when I was fifteen years old. My love and enjoyment of ballet was starting to dwindle as I was entering high school and I ultimately decided that it was time to end my 10-year-long streak full of ballet. As much as I loved ballet, my experience was also very complicated. What started as a little girl wearing tutus and dancing around with colorful scarves in her hands eventually evolved into a girl who faced the common struggles that dancers face. Feelings of not being good enough, the discomfort that comes with staring at yourself in the mirror more often than most and the constant critique of one’s body. So as I said, when high school rolled around and it was time to register for my studio’s ballet classes again, I decided that my time with dance was over.
Little did my fifteen-year-old self realize – my time with ballet wasn’t actually truly over. Throughout the past five years, I’ve gone through phases where I really missed ballet. There were periods of time when my TikTok For You page was flooded with videos of young dancers or more specifically ballerinas showing off their wonderful talent. At times I regretted the fact that I didn’t stick it out with ballet and wished my fifteen-year-old self could have toughed it out a little longer.
This past September the feelings of regret hit me harder than usual and I decided to do something about it. I started looking online for adult ballet classes back home. I knew that the Boston Ballet, a ballet company ten miles away from my hometown, offered them. The only issue with that was that I would have to wait until I was home on breaks to attend them and I was ready to start dancing again immediately. While I was searching on Google, a link for UW-Madison’s dance department popped up. How funny was it that I didn’t even think to look at what Madison had to offer. I found Dance 105: Ballet I on the registrar and it happened to fit in perfectly with my schedule. I enrolled and that was that. I was back doing ballet again.
Now, I was in no way in proper shape for ballet. Throughout high school, I still remained active playing various sports and worked out weekly in college. However, the strength and balance you need in ballet is so specific and I had lost it. I was okay with that though – I didn’t care that I wasn’t going to be some super talented and perfect ballerina anymore, I just wanted to dance again.
Ballet 105 was absolutely perfect. Every week we came, we danced, and it was incredibly relaxing and therapeutic. There were never any feelings of stress or of not being good enough. It was just a room full of students who were either similar to me and hadn’t danced in a few years or some students who had never danced before and were there to learn and give it a shot. As every student can understand, school is always hectic and stressful. One night you feel like you’re doing alright and the next you’re holding back tears as you study for an exam. Aside from academics there can be stresses on relationships, jobs and internships and just the overall struggles that come with being away from home. Every single week, I had Dance 105 there to calm me down and make me feel a little bit better when everything was too overwhelming. Not only was I fulfilling the void that I felt from missing ballet, I was also doing something that cleared my head and made me feel good.
If you’re an ex-dancer and missing your old hobby or if you have never danced before and are looking to try something new, I can’t recommend taking a one-credit dance class enough.