Good morning!
Today
I’m writing you with a very nice cup of warm Dirty
Chai Tea by my side that although it
might not sound as appealing I’m telling you that
Celestial Tea made a darn good job on
this one because I couldn’t be more in love with tea than now.
(Special thanks to my aussie girlies who
introduced me to these magnificent goodness)
Anyway,
today’s topic is my ballet history. Who doesn’t love a good story
time? So if you want a good read, grab yourself a good cup of tea and
get ready to share this little chat with me!
So
I started dancing when I was six. But don’t think I was already
directed into ballet. Actually it was quite the opposite. I started
out doing spanish dance because, you guessed it, I’m from Spain and
a usual practice is to put your little toddlers into flamenco
lessons hoping they’ll slay at the
next “Feria de Abril”
with sevillanas. But
my parents weren’t one of those. I was the one to ask to go to
dance lessons actually!
My
reasoning to start was that I got too
bored after school time because I usually finished my homework quite
fast (tell me what kind of hard homework
a six year old toddler might have, but in my perspective I was the
next Einstein that needed to keep herself busy ‘cause school
standards were too low for me, duh) and
a lot of my friends where doing after school activities such as judo,
English lessons, painting or you know, typical after school
activities. I tried to get into rhythm gymnastics as I always found
mesmerizing and the trial lessons weren’t bad but we were too many
kids together rolling a ball on our backs and maybe doing some
stretches which meant being bored like 90%
pf the lesson. Also, I
was told that you should actually start
when you’re like three because apparently by six it’s much harder
to develop flexibility. (Spoiler alert:
IT’S FAKE NEWS and I will dedicate
some words to this aspect in the future)
So
thanks to the advice of my primary’s school porter
I went to his daughter dance school to have a glimpse of what dance
lessons looked like and I was blown away. I remember that I was very
excited to try it out and seeing the little girls moving around in
the room to the rhythm of music I don’t know why, but it really
touched me somehow.
So
I started with the dancing lessons, first doing some “modern” and
like introduction to ballet which was basically doing butterflies on
the floor and then jumping around the room. But very soon I started
with my spanish dance lessons and at the time I was actually quite
pleased but I remember that I never liked it as much as the leo and
tights moments of that introduction to movement class. I also
remember that my mum bought me a ballet video and it was the Coppelia
ballet. It was a Kirov Ballet version (imagine
how old it is) and I just loved it.
From that moment on I decided I really wanted to do that.
Me at one of the firsts spanish lessons
I
know, by now you must be thinking “A six year old toddler already
thinking that she’ll become a ballerina for good it’s like any
other kid saying he’ll become an astronaut and then they’re
something completely opposite and probably more common than that”.
And you wouldn’t be mistaken but I must say that I was a bit of a
weird kid and I knew for real that I would do everything to make it
happen. Guess stubborn was one of the
traits written on my genes.
And
since that moment I kept going with the dancing lessons in this
small, neighborhood dance school run by the daughter of the school
porter’s where I went to until I got ten. That is when the first
twist comes!
Resuming
a tiny bit everything (although I’ll
probably write more about every stage of my training
in different posts) I entered a
different primary school where they
combined dancing with formal school education and later on it would
help me prepare myself to pass the entry exams of the conservatoire I
wanted to attend to when
I got twelve. I needed to prepare another entry exam for this primary
school and it became my very first audition which was a very
interesting experience that I can maybe comment in a different post
sometime in the future.
After
three years at this school I moved into the conservatoire (yes,
I entered but not for classical dance)
and later on I changed the specialty I wanted to study for classical
dance which was a long story and with a lot of hard work behind for
different reasons. But I made it and I was every year more and more
convinced of my decision and absolutely NOTHING could stop me at that
moment.
My classmates and I on my last year studying there.
The
career in the conservatoire (because
yes, it’s a career and gets you a degree equivalent to a university
bachelor’s degree) lasts six years
but when I got into my fifth year (actually,
when I was in my fourth year I started already but let’s say that
the fifth year was the definitive one)
I started auditioning for foreign ballet schools as I felt that
unfortunately Spain was not as opened to the european ballet style or
the world at all (another topic I might
talk about in the future) and for other
reasons as well, but getting to the point, my auditioning adventure
brought me to Germany to keep on training and perfecting my technique
while I’m getting a second Bachelor Degree and now… Oh, now it’s
that time that all dancers really want to experience and at the same
time they fear so much: AUDITIONING FOR COMPANIES.
Yes,
I got to the point of actually looking for a job and although it’s
my first year of auditioning and I haven’t been able to attend as
many auditions as I would’ve liked to for many different reasons,
I’ve personally been learning so so much that I can’t wait to go
to the next ones. (And here it goes
another subject I may address on yet another future post)
I just think that every audition gives you a glimpse of the real
world out of the school bubble and I’ve learned
tips and tricks that I know that no school will ever be able to
actually teach you because it’s one of those things that you learn
because you experience them on your own skin.
And
for today I think it’s enough story time and I introduced briefly
my personal ballet training story. Also, as you can see I left a full
list of future post ideas during the writing of this so feel free to
tell me which idea was the one you would like to read the most so
it’s one of the soon-ish posts I write.
Now
it’s time to finish enjoying Easter Monday and I’ll probably go
for a nice long walk near the river to charge the batteries for the
week ahead while reading a good book. (I’m now reading the classic
“Fahrenheit 451”).
Have a lovely day and see you tomorrow!
Love,
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