The Swan Lake Ballet

    Last night my friend Emily invited me to a ballet. It was Valentines yesterday and the day before I had bought a little bouquet of flowers for my mom and little gifts for different people. I had made Valentines for my children and it was good. I was happy. My husband gave me a card for Valentines day and that was nice....but I just wouldn't have minded something more...not that he needed to do....just that I wished for my personal Valentines to be a bit more shiny. It was perfect when Em called and asked if I could attend the Swan Lake Ballet. I felt tired and didn't really want to dress up but I did. Happy Valentines to me :)
   So...I have gone to many a dance in my life. If you have not...I would highly recommend it. If you can sit somewhere relatively close to the dancers...all the better. However!!! I have not gone to a ballet since I started taking ballet myself! I remember the last ballet I went to was key in starting Emily and then consequently myself on our ballet journey. I remember her remarking that it didn't really look that complicated and I whole heartedly agreed. Well last night we were on such a different level in how we viewed that dance. Ballet is all about making things look incredibly graceful and effortless. So if you are innocent like we were it might be easy to be fooled. Ballet is so dang hard. It is easy to look like an elephant but a swan...pretty near impossible. Last night those swans were mind blowing. At one point one of the dancers did pirouette after pirouette and after about thirty I just didn't even know what to do!!!!! I mean she did about fifty. I can do about two and I am ready to keel over. After about three minutes she did twenty more!!!!!!! It was absolutely phenomenal!!!
   After the incredible performance two of the dancers and their director stayed for questions so we stayed to listen. When you see dancers from an Academy you are looking at years of pain, dedication, sacrifice and so much self discipline...a lot of time away from family and a very not normal life! You get this taste of beauty, elegance, and pure grace but the effort to make it all look that way and the dedication and ability to remember all the steps to each dance is genius!!!!! I was in awe, pure awe.
  My little relationship with ballet is far from serious. I am not dedicated at all in that I should be working on my feet so they are more flexible and my splits and the list goes on....but after watching that I wish I was.
Thanks for the boost Em ~ which was exactly what that was ~ it was so inspiring!