Dear Ballet,
By Sajel S.
Throughout my life so far, you have always been with me. I started dancing when I was three, and up until this past January, I hadn't stopped. I had always had an invisible thread linking to me to ballet. From when I started, I believed I was going to dance forever. Although that dream hasn't come true, I still feel like it has forever changed me.
My dance career was long and strenuous. I danced for eleven full years and I do not look back on it in a negative way. It guided me when I didn't want to do anything. It comforted me throughout rough times. It also brought me some of my greatest friends.
When my parents had me start dance, they thought nothing of it. When every little girl is three, they dream to dance on their toes and twirl in one of those fluffy tutus in front of a sold out audience. I was the same way. But when I began dancing, I could not get enough of it. I danced in my room, on the beach, everywhere I could. I performed for my own sold out audience.
A few years later, I became so entranced with ballet that I couldn't talk about anything else. "What do you want to do?" My mom might ask. "I want to go to the dance store!" I would reply. All I did was dance. However, I was very embarrassed about my passion. I didn't want people to know that I was just one of those girls who spun in class. I knew that ballet wasn't just a time to fool around, it was a time to loose yourself in the magic and work as hard as you could. Even though I have lost that magic now, it will stay with me.
The past five years have been especially hard on me and my relationship with ballet. In fourth grade, I had gotten en pointe. That is what every dancer's dream is, and I had accomplished it. From my current point of view, four years later, I feel as though I should not have been en pointe so early. Looking back on it, I think that I was a weak ten-year old and I could not dance for my life. But surprisingly, I was given one of the highest honors in a ten-year old dancer's life. It took the fitters three hours to try to find the perfect shoe, and my mom still compares it to Ollivander's wand shop.
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