Free Ballet Class

Yesterday Boston Ballet had an open house and a free trial class. So after I did my Kung fu Panda stuff, I satyed in Chiantown, walked to Back Bay, did Library, went to Clarendon street, ended up buying 99 cent Wendy's sandwiches, and then walked back in to do the class. There were two other boys in the class. My children were exceptionally well behaved compared to how they were at my Kung Fu class. (Actually Noah was pretty good during Kung Fu.) Also, my neurons kept firing as I saw how the class was run. How they didn't go over too much (although they said that this class was not a traditional Boston Ballet children's class) and how the instructor was really able to save energy. I thought with kids that small you had to keep the action intense. But it's not true.

When the running turned more obviously "ballet running" Noah stepped out and instinctively had an awkward "this is not for boys" type of feeling. (though the instructor was a man, albeit perhaps not necessarily straight.) Jonah however, took off and felt free and was really into it. I felt guilty when I got back home because I had had no intention of signing my kids up. (unless I could somehow barter ballet for Kung Fu) I just wanted to give them an experience. Of course I would want them to do ballet for social and flexibility reasons. (I remember to the summer camp through Boston Public Schools. It wasn't just fun. You get to meet a lot of girls.)

But Jonah really really liked it. I almost feel that were I not to give him this opportunity and support him in it from an early age, that I would be a bad parent. Noah is a sports guy.

Then Grace picked up the kids and I actually took the adults class, also free. In fact, I felt like I learned more in that hour than I had learned in my one or two years doing ballet as a child. Actually now that I think about it, it may have been three years. I stopped in 5th grade when I left the public school system and went into Nativity. I had just done ballet but it was just something to do. I never thought of it as something essential to me. Was that a mistake? It was there for free for me as a child if I stayed in the public school system. Perhaps I should have kept at it. I suppose I knew I wouldn't be that good at it. It wasn't Kung Fu. It didn't strike a chord in my soul. But still.

Anyway I started having all these memories of being at the barre and all that just being in that room. Had I been in that same room?

The adults class teacher was also a man. I was glad of that because there were no other males in the class and at first I thought people were eyeing me with suspicion. But then the woman next to me was quite talkative, with everyone and she really brought the whole group together with her social skills. I suppose people like that really are the glue of a good society.

Anyway, while ballet and Kung Fu are different, there actually are things you can learn from the one and bring to the other. In fact it was my practice of Wushu that gave me the balance and flexibility that probably got me in to the program through Boston Public Schools. And I noticed that my balance was not what it once was, and doing Ballet I began to see a lot of holes in my Kung Fu training  that I not only should have known about and examined more, but which were realistically able to be remedied at the playground or in the house while watching my kids. Of course there are reasons why my focus had shifted as I began to teach kids and as I began to focus more on the fighting aspect of a move. When teaching kids and being cute, I felt the need to make the moves obviously practical and deadly so as to distinguish what I was doing from a dance that did not have that sort of killer intent ingrained into it.

I got a free pass to go back one more time. I suppose I might just go back to ballet one day. When I have a high paying job, when I don't have to spend money on my kids. So basically, when I am an old man. Ha!

Well I will go back for the free class. And maybe I will talk to some of the Chinese Folk dancers I know and see if somehow I can barter Kung Fu for dance with Them. And that will be a good place for Jonah (and even Noah) to start.