There is one consistent factor, one unifying thread, among every serious teen ballet student I’ve ever met no matter their turn out, no matter their extension, no matter how many pirouettes they can do. It is no news that ballet students are of the most thoughtful and disciplined teenagers that exist on this planet (thank you senior company for making my job so easy), certainly ballet doesn’t attract just any kind of kid. But that’s not all of the equation. At Integral, all of our students are required to take ballet every semester, no matter what other elective they may be interested in taking (hip hop, tap, jazz). By now I have seen way too many bun-head converts (teens finding and loving ballet for the first time) to chalk all of this up to ‘the type of child that is interested in ballet’. Ballet changes people. Our most recent bun-head convert is starting pointe (a hard-earned advancement that requires a huge commitment to class attendance, building strength, catching up with years of lost time, etc). This achievement propels me to put this theory into writing.
Maybe it’s the constant ego-whooping a student undergoes in even the most successful ballet class. Ego-whooping is unavoidable because, as we recall, no one is good at ballet. No one. That’s the point, that’s what makes it beautiful. So you go to class every day, and get an ego-whooping, and you cry sometimes and you get hurt sometimes, and you vow never to take a ballet class again sometimes, and then you find yourself at the barre wondering why you subject yourself to it every day. And it changes you. And then you find yourself among the most disciplined, high-achieving, productive group of young men and women around. And you find yourself getting homework done in time to get to class, and you can concentrate longer in school, and you want to eat healthier, and you want to be cultured and poised and by the time you're in high school you can’t understand what your friends see in guzzling 40’s under the school bleachers, because “seriously guys, I have class”.
We are welcoming more bun-head converts every day at Integral. And it’s really true that dancers ‘turn out better’ in more ways than one. Not only dancers, but certainly dancers.
Maybe it’s the constant ego-whooping a student undergoes in even the most successful ballet class. Ego-whooping is unavoidable because, as we recall, no one is good at ballet. No one. That’s the point, that’s what makes it beautiful. So you go to class every day, and get an ego-whooping, and you cry sometimes and you get hurt sometimes, and you vow never to take a ballet class again sometimes, and then you find yourself at the barre wondering why you subject yourself to it every day. And it changes you. And then you find yourself among the most disciplined, high-achieving, productive group of young men and women around. And you find yourself getting homework done in time to get to class, and you can concentrate longer in school, and you want to eat healthier, and you want to be cultured and poised and by the time you're in high school you can’t understand what your friends see in guzzling 40’s under the school bleachers, because “seriously guys, I have class”.
We are welcoming more bun-head converts every day at Integral. And it’s really true that dancers ‘turn out better’ in more ways than one. Not only dancers, but certainly dancers.
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