Who wanted to be a ballet dancer when they were growing up?

[Xena]

Whether you have danced all your life or you have just started now, who had dreams of being a ballerina/ballet dancer when they were growing up?

 

I can never ever remember wanting to be a ballerina, even though I started ballet at age 5. I just went twice a week up until I was ~20. It wasn't until I was about 21 that I started to really understand and appreciate what I had learned. But I still never remember yearning to be a dancer. Maybe my mum might say different;) but the thought never ever crossed my mind that you could have 'ballerina' as your job title. Just call me weird. Now, ballet means everything to me, and secretly I wonder if I could have ever been one. No regrets though with what I did choose to do. Just happy to have the chance the now.

Jeanette

[Jaana Heino]

Weird enough, I have never really so much wanted to be a dancer as to take dance classes. When reading about dancers' biographies, or fictious novels about dancing, I am more interested about the descriptions of classes than I am about the performances, and as far as I remeber this has been so.

[old shoe]

I didn't want to be a ballerina either. I wanted to be a doctor. As a child I hated performing, but as adult I like it. It helps that contact lenses became more available in the early 1960's so that I can see where I am on the stage. :-)

[Guest Jeujeucda]

Hhmmm, honestly I've never actually wanted to be a ballerina. However, I did sometime daydream about being a graceful pretty fairy gently flitting around, dancing from flower to flower. Invariably the movements are all ballet.

 

On the other hand, I HAVE wished awful hard that I could've been a figure skater. Probably because I had access to TV watching the Olympics, whereas I've actually never seen a single ballet performance in my life! My parents just weren't the artsy type. Always had to be practical.

 

Having said that, today I still don't fantasize about performing or being a "professional adult dancer", if there's such a thing. I love ballet class for the discipline, the precision, the demand on my body. I love the challenge and watching my body change before my eyes, feeling the strain and gaining the strength on top of my natural flexibility. I love the fact that while I'm working so hard physically, I must hide it and look like I'm one with the music. I love the fact that the music is part of what I'm doing, not just some background noise. I love the beauty in ballet class, it's like a secret world, so removed from my regular life.

 

If one day I am good enough to perform, I'll be happy to share my joy with an audience. But in the meantime, I'm all the audience I need to love ballet.

 

Jeujeucda

[Boots]

oh.... I desperately wanted to be a ballerina when I was growing up!

 

I really did. I used to stare at pictures of the 5 basic positions in our encyclopaedia and try to emulate them. Unfortunately my parents couldn't afford classes and we lived in a very small town with no ballet schools anyway (and I doubt that anything within driving distance would have been very good anyway). So instead, I used to dance around on my own whenever my sisters were playing piano (piano was something that my mother encouraged me to do instead, but I was never very good). I have a picture of me from when I was 4 or 5 in some weird half 2nd half 5th position with my eyes closed - I think i was just kind of whirling around.

 

Anyway, when i went off to college I signed up for ballet right away - 3 days a week at the university. I only took it for 2 semesters because I found the teacher very intimidating and I felt like i was too old for ballet. Then, when I was 26 I moved and happened to be working close to a dance studio and I decided to take a "few" classes. And I haven't stopped since then!

[Guest mic31]

I never gave it a thought growing up...however if I could turn back the hands of time I definitely would. Nothing has sparked so much creative energy in me as ballet has.

[Guest pointe]

Yes, I did dreamed of becoming a ballerina when I was younger. I used to envy all my schoolmates who were taking classes and I couldn't, due to the deformity in my left ankle/foot. Mom was extremely protective of me, she still is now. It wasn't until I was 12 after completing elementary school that I finally begged my Mom for ballet classes and she relented.

 

I took classes and I remembered I was so ignorant of the ballet world then. It wasn't until that I was in college that I became more interested in the ballet world. I enjoyed classes all the time, although my teacher do not really pay attention to me (I finally left her this year for a new teacher). I feel that ballet gives me the chance to express my fellings better. I couldn't express myself very well verbally and through everyday body language but through ballet I could.

 

Although I stopped ballet for four years (1994 to 1997), when I had the chance to continue classes (1997 in Australia), that was the most productive time in my life. I took classes in Australia from 1997 to 1998 and I LOVE it. The teacher is GREAT! From then, I knew that I would always dance no matter how hard it can get. Also, I'm always dreaming of becoming like Paloma Herrera, Darcey Bussell, and Julie Kent. I love these 3 dancers for their individualities that they project in their dancing. I still dream that one day I'll be able to do pointework despite the odds that are hard against me.

[Tracey]

Oh, I did so want to be a ballerina ! I still dream of what might have been if I had better feet!! I think that the realisation in my teens that I really wasn't going to make it contributed to me jacking ballet in. I wish now that I'd just carried on regardless, it would have made classes now so much easier :confused: !!

 

Tracey

[Guest beckster]

I don't think I wanted to be a ballerina (I'm far too sensible), but I did want to learn to dance. My friend had a book about the Royal Ballet school and I spent hours reading it at her house - I'm sure she was bored stiff of me! When I was 7 my friend invited me along to her ballet and tap class, which was held in a freezing church hall. I remember it really clearly, because when my dad got home from work he had bought me a leotard, and it was the same one that everyone else had. For a kid who always had clothes from jumble sales and other people's cast-offs, it was wonderful. Royal blue, made of really horrible rough nylon stuff, with 3/4 sleeves and a boat neck. For some reason I insisted on wearing a vest under it, which must have looked delightful. I did ballet and tap for awhile there until it got too expensive, but I loved it. And that was the end of my ballet career, until I was 22.

[Guest moralesr]

I have to agree with Jaana on this one. I too never wanted to be a ballerina, just to take the classes. I took them for one year when I was 7 and just loved it. Then I got the opportunity to take riding lessons and my family could only afford one or the other. There was no question in my mind, horses were the way to go.

 

[Guest mathiskewl]

I secretly wanted to be a dancer, but I also knew it wouldn't happen. I'm too much of a realist (like my father). I loved all forms of dance and BEGGED for as many classes as I could take. No matter how many classes I took, it was never enough. It still isn't enough!

[skippy]

I have wanted to be a dancer since the year dot. When i was eleven i asked my parents if i could go to full time ballet xchool and they said no as ther was no money in dancing, if i was still dedicated enough and showed the determination and promise then i could go when i was sixteen. I got to the age of fourteen and managed to convince them that it was what i really wanted and they finally said yes. One year later all my knee troubles started and i had to let my dream go. I tried again when i was twenty but after a thorough examination by a physiotherapist at a dance school i finally gave up going for performers career. Now i am just dreaming of becoming a teacher and my teacher informed me tonight that she wants me to take my RAD elementary at Easter:eek: :eek: . If i pass it i can start teacher training and be one step closer to my goal:D

 

Skippy x

[Jaana Heino]

skippy,

 

that's great news! Congratulations on this step forward! I wish you best of luck with preparing for the exam.

[skippy]

Thanks Jaana, I need all the luck i can get, I have to admit that i have taken it before but failed as my strength in the jump section was not quite up to it thanks to my knees but between now and easter my teacher and i are going to concentrate on this section and work out a regime to make me shine like i do in the other sections. If it wasnt for the jumps i would pass as i get good marks for everything else.

 

A quick personal question (excuse me for being ignorant) is Helsinki near where you live. I go there sometimes with work and every now and then we actually get a day off there.

 

Skippy x

[Guest podiumstar]

Up until I was about 12 years old I wanted to be a ballerina and just thought that I would be! *LOL* Then one day a friend of my mother's asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I replied (as I always did) that I wanted to be a ballet dancer. She said something along the lines of "No, no, what do you really want to do?" and something in her tone gave me the impression that my dream was unrealistic, that people didn't generally become professional ballet dancers and it certainly wasn't going to happen for me. From that time onwards I doubted myself and my dream and two years later, I gave up classes. Now, this woman's comment isn't the reason I gave up dancing but it certainly started the process in my mind that wanting to be a ballerina was probably just a childish dream. I remember to this day how shocked I was at her comment - it really made me question what I could do when I grew up! I had always just thought that my dream was appropriate! This woman was a school teacher and a very down to earth person. I wonder if she thought she was helping me to "grow up" by making me face the reality that I would more than likely have to choose a "real" profession one day. Was she cruel or was she kind...?