Brand new adult student; it's terrifying, but I love it.

[Bill Hewitt]

Have any of you been terrified, stressed, and out-of-your-comfort-zone in ballet class, about to run out of the studio to either cry or throw up? And also embarrassed during the center work. I suspect it'll turn out to be another one of those classic "painful growth experiences".

 

(I suppose I'm exaggerating a bit, but I still feel that way after 10 classes.)

 

I can't quit, though, because I love it. I'm one of those new students who, half-way through his first class, was hooked. Addicted.

 

---------------

I've never danced before. Never even skipped or played hopscotch as a boy. So obviously none of this comes natural to me.

 

bill

[moreilly]

I know how you feel! I am highly critical of myself and often leave class upset at my performance, but sincerely and very much enjoy classes nonetheless.

 

Actually, I'm not sure where I saw it and I may have the exact wording incorrect, but I saw somewhere on this website that someone said it is helpful to remember that ballet is not about you or about the steps, it is about the dance. Thinking about that when I'm getting frustrated in class has helped very much.

 

Good luck in your classes!!

[Serendipity]

Oh heck, even those of us WITH experience can feel that way, especially when we figure out that we're in over our heads in a class!! LOL!

[TemptressToo]

Yes. When I started ballet in my late 20's. I was a bumbling fool through every exercise. Barre work, I'd just about get a combination (granted, with sloppy/questionable technique) and the combination would be over. I'd go home and practice, practice, practice...only to come back to the next class and the combination would be different.

 

I was hopeless in centre...the very last person to try something (and if I was forced to do it in a group, I'd apologize to my group-mates). Centre was the worse...

 

A couple years down the road and I've found things come much easier and when they don't, I've learned to laugh at myself.

[Serendipity]

My favorite in class phrase is "I'll get it....eventually!"

[dancepig]

One thing I learned through the years that has really helped me (well, actually two); No one is really looking at you, they are very busy looking at themselves - in the mirror, and they are worried what you are thinking about them, and two; everyone really likes the person who is not the best student. My favorite student of the week is the one getting the most corrections! I always learn from other students getting corrections. Enjoy the process of learning ballet!

[Ginniathezinnia]

I felt that way when I switched over to a pre-pro school when I was thirteen.

Heck, I had even lost all my new dancewear so I had to take class in a leotard that was wayyy too short for me.

(talk about self conscious!)

 

I cried throughout my whole first class because it was so difficult and scary, compared to my former teacher who was very gentle and familiar compared to my new setting.

It took me about a year to get truly adjusted, and now I'm ok with it. I still feel a little bit self-conscious if I come in late or if I mess something up really bad, but for the most part I've gotten used to it and the routine of class just feels like part of my instincts now.

Thankfully when I returned after a three year break last semester, I was not self conscious about wearing a leotard like I thought I would be. I think having to wear form-fitting dancewear is half the battle, if you can wear it and not even think about it during class, then I'd say %50 of the nerves are conquered.

It's normal to still feel that way after 10 classes though, and like you said, you love doing it, despite the anxiety you have about it right now.

You'll do just fine. Take your time adjusting, and if it makes you feel better, talk with your teacher about your anxiety.

Good communication never hurt anybody

[Over 50 dancer]

Bill, I started 10 months ago at 55 having never danced before - like you. And for most of the time I still feel like a total klutz who's getting it all wrong and will never be able to do any of it. Center work terrifies me! Every time I think I have the arabesque down I find I'm making a fundamental error and when I was asked to do an assemble for the class the first was ok, the second better, but the third - well the teacher said "we'll have to come back to that". Despite all the self-consiousness, humiliation, and frustration I cannot imagine not doing this and even if improvement is elusive I want to go back more after every class. Hang in there and remember you are almmost certainly better than you think.

[Bill Hewitt]

Thanks for all the comments. It feels good that I'm not the only one.

 

Yesterday I asked my daughter about this. (She's a dance major in college, and a dancer since a young child.) She said that's the way she feels every day of her life!

 

She also pointed out a couple of things about myself:

- That my style of learning has always been to ask lots of questions, and followup questions, and followup-followup... You can't do that in a ballet class. It makes me want to crawl up the walls in frustration!

- And that my default reaction to a stressful situation is to switch into my "class clown" mode. (Yes, even at age 49!) Structure, discipline, unfamiliar social rules... It all gives me the willies. Certainly can't do that in a ballet class!

 

Of course, something has been telling me this is a good growth opportunity for me at this time of my life. I can see myself a bit more confident even after just two months.

[dancepig]

I congratulate all adults that take class, it is something most adults are "afraid" to do, imagine that? One thing I've found, is I have to analyze everything, I mean everything, and this drives my teacher nuts. She's always telling me - don't think, just do - but I really can't. I need to break it all down, go over the information, process it, then do. Fortunately for me, the other older student is just like me. Now, on those evenings when it is just the two of us, I really do feel sorry for the teacher.

[moreilly]

I congratulate all adults that take class, it is something most adults are "afraid" to do, imagine that? One thing I've found, is I have to analyze everything, I mean everything, and this drives my teacher nuts. She's always telling me - don't think, just do - but I really can't. I need to break it all down, go over the information, process it, then do. Fortunately for me, the other older student is just like me. Now, on those evenings when it is just the two of us, I really do feel sorry for the teacher.

 

My brain functions the same way, and I have a teacher who is constantly reminding me to dance from the heart and not the head. As counterproductive as that sounds to my analytical brain, it really makes a world of difference in my ability to perform the steps. That frustrates and amazes me to no end!

[dancepig]

Oh - right - if you can, it's so much better to dance from the heart. However, I'm finding it more and more difficult to do this before I've danced the steps from the brain three or four times. My body really appreciates it when I can at least mark the steps first! But yes, it's very important to be able to finally dance from the heart - I totally agree with this.

[moreilly]

I think that's the eternal struggle for people with analytical brains in an artistic world. My boyfriend has a degree in physics and also plays percussion, and he has the same problem! Oh well, I'm used to not quite fitting the mold in anything I do...

[Balletlove]

I congratulate each and every adult who has taken up ballet classes and even more for those that have stuck with it!

 

I think all adults have a tendency to analyse (or over analyse) everything, children just tend to do without the same fear of failure or falling that adults have and thus it all seems to come so much easier for them. You do not want to see me in a pointe class now there is analysis to the extreme forget the movement that you are trying to execute I am first working out how I am going to get up onto pointe and how I am going to get down before I will even start to think about anything else!

 

I regularly feel in over my head and that is even in my regular classes I dont think that this feeling ever goes away, but maybe that is what makes the achievements so great when you get them.

[Ginniathezinnia]

My mom and I were just discussing this learning type today, the analyzer.

I have been this person some years and other years I have blended into the background as much as possible and not said a word the entire class.

I try to save all my questions for a private lesson so that I am not wasting everyone else's class time.

We are all unique, and we all do learn in different ways, and that is a good thing.

However, I think it's up to the student to figure out how to make their learning patterns work smoothly with a class.