Dancer

Ever since I was a little girl, I've always wanted to dance.  I danced around my house so much as a child that my mother called me, "Dancer" more often than she called me by my name.  We were too poor to afford lessons for me, but now I'm in college.  This wonderful university offers dance classes, and I'm taking a beginner ballet class.  

My first class, which was today, was pretty disappointing.  My instructor is in New York with a show she's been working on, so she just sent a guy to take role and tell us to bring our syllabus on Wednesday.  We'll go over it then and learn about the history of dance, which he promised would be our only lecture this semester.  

One of the requirements of the course is to attend two dance performances.  Ordinarily, I would be pretty excited about that, but the lineup this semester isn't too grand.  At least, there's not much I've heard of before, but it's true that the performances could be wonderful anyway.  One of the options is at the Orpheum in Memphis, Tennessee (which is the most beautiful building I've ever seen), so maybe I'll try to convince my fiance that it's necessary for my grade that we go together!  I doubt he'll go with me, but maybe I can talk him into going with me to one here in our town.  

Thursday, we get to buy our dance clothes, and I'm so excited about that!  I wish I could get the gorgeous satin pointe shoes, but I won't be ready for those for quite some time.  I asked my fiance's sister, who has taken dance since she was tiny, what kind of shoes I should get, and she recommended canvas split-sole shoes.  Since they wear out pretty easily, I'll probably pick up two pair for the semester and order more if it looks like I'll need them.  We are required to wear black leotards, pink tights, and pink ballet shoes.  I hope I can get a leotard with 3/4 length sleeves, I think those are the prettiest.  The instructor didn't specify what style, but she may do so in class on Wednesday.  We can also wear a sheer black skirt, but I've heard that those sort of get in the way, so I think I'll skip that...unless they're really cute.  We'll see!  

The title of this blog comes from William Butler Yeats:  "O body swayed to music, O brightening glance, How can we know the dancer from the dance?"  I thought it was a neat quote.  Basically here I'll be documenting my experiences as an adult trying to learn the most beautiful art form there is.