I spent fifteen years of my life dancing. Everyone gasps at the show-stopper steps, but I’ll tell you a secret: the bedrock of ballet is the “transition” steps: the rather quotidian, easy movements that three-year-olds learn their very first class. A plie is a straight-up knee-bend. First position places your heels together, toes turned out, …
Practice Doesn’t Make Perfect
I grew up practicing ballet—fifteen years of plies, pointe shoes and pirouettes. I played Clara in the Nutcracker, got a chance to dance with the San Francisco Ballet in junior high, and got a whole lot of blisters. Ballet is an exacting art form. One class I took was literally called “Perfection”. Every class, we eyed ourselves even …