Ballet Terms and How they killed my Dream

As we age we tend to get a little nostalgic about our lives, mostly on a rainy afternoon. It's a great time to reflect on not only our successes but also our regrets. There are a lot of regrets in my life but occasionally I like to reflect on the what if's.

One such what if goes something like this. What if I could have actually pronounced those weird sounding words in Ballet class? I might not have felt so embarrassed and shy. Heck, I might even have continued taking the classes. Yes, I could have been a ballerina, if only I could have pronounced "pas de bourree". As a young girl, I dreamed of twirling around a stage on my toes and being lifted in the air by a handsome prince, but alas,like many other young girls, my hopes were dashed by those cursed words. Ballet Terms have sidelined many a young girls dreams. My teacher would stand at the front of the class looking so graceful, wave her arm with such poise and say something that sounded like it was coming from Pepe le Phew, the cartoon cat. I would stand there looking totally confused, frozen in my spot, while the rest of the class began leaping and twirling around the statue that was me. The Ballet class that I had incessantly whined for and connived for soon became my weekly lesson in humiliation. Ballet became torture for me. It wasn't long before Ballet Terms killed my dream.

I did, however, read of one woman who actually over came the torture of not being able to pronounce Ballet Terms and went on to be a great Ballet Teacher. She recently channeled the pain of her early ballet years into an awesome training course called "The Complete Ballet Bible". In this Online Video and Audio Course, she not only teaches proper Ballet Technique but actually takes time to give you audio recordings of the correct pronunciation of the dreaded Ballet Terms.

All kidding aside, Anita Leembruggen is really on to something with "The Complete Ballet Bible". According to her "95% of people who start Ballet will fail miserably". That's a pretty scary number. I know if I were just starting out, or if I had a daughter or son in Ballet, I'd want them to have every chance to succeed. So my recommendation, (that's the recommendation of an old Ballerina wannabe) would be to make sure you and your child have every opportunity to learn the correct pronunciation of all those weird,and yet beautiful sounding Ballet Terms.

And while you're learning how to say "battement jette" you might also learn some great Ballet technique.