Press: Step Up to the Barre: Adventures in Getting Back to Ballet

By Elizabeth Gerber for StyleBlueprint I’ve been a dancer my entire life. My mom enrolled me in classes at age 2 to cure my painful shyness. Little did she know she had just crowned herself a “Dance Mom” for the next 16 years. My biggest dance dream came true when I made the Assumption High School dance team, and all those years spent perfecting and performing routines culminated with a state championship win. After wrapping up my high school dance dream with a bang, I decided to step away and focus instead on studying journalism and political science at the University of Georgia. Last month I decided it was time to come out of “retirement” and return to the dance floor. I made a quick trip to Kinney Dancewear for new ballet shoes, tied my hair up in a bun, and waltzed back into the studio. And, yes, I was more than a little nervous! Here’s my experience with getting back to ballet at Louisville Ballet School’s mind. body. balance. classes for adults.

Class #1: Beginning/Intermediate Ballet

You’d think that with my dance experience I wouldn’t be nervous about taking a beginning ballet class. Nope. There I was, sitting in my car fighting butterflies just before class started. This wasn’t the first time I felt this way before taking a dance class, but once I took my place at the barre and the music began, my body fell back into routine. I was honestly surprised I remembered the vocabulary and what to do with my body. What wasn’t surprising was that my flexibility was all but gone. The next morning I expected my legs to be extremely sore, but it felt like any other day after I hit the gym. Maybe I was more in shape than I thought (PHEW)! Read More