Saturday, February 28, 2015

When I was a kid, going to see ballet dancing

When I was a kid, going to see ballet dancing was one of the highlights of any vacation. I just loved the way that the dancers moved. They had such grace as they leapt into the air! I thought that I had never seen anything else as beautiful. As I grew up, however, my fascination with ballet quickly began to wane. You see, liking ballet is not very cool if you are a boy. Boys are supposed to like tougher things like sports, or car racing. As a matter of fact, if my sister had not shown me a ballet video last time I visited her, I might never have gotten back into it.

It was a video of Swan Lake ballet. It was not a particularly well-made ballet video. The lights in the auditorium were too low, you see, and besides that it was a very old flick. Nonetheless, it really made me remember what it was like to see the dancing when I was young. Although some of the details of the dancers faces were lost, I could still see them leaping about as clearly as ever.

Seeing the ballet videos really made me want to renew my young passion for the dance. I bought several ballet DVDs, and watched them all over and over again. That simply was not enough to satisfy me. Although watching dancing on a ballet video can be fun, seeing it live is much better. I put my ballet video collection back and headed for the theater.

I loved watching the ballet. It was the Don Quixote ballet, done by the San Francisco ballet company, and it was a beauty. It was every bit as good as I remembered it. Perhaps it was even better. Certainly it was better than just watching a ballet video. But it left me wanting something else. It left me wanting to participate.

Unfortunately, participation was not an option. I had never been all that coordinated, and at any rate I was much too old to start a career in dancing. Nevertheless, I found a ballet workout video that seemed to offer a partial solution. It was basically a ballet video showing you a simple routine of movements that you could use as exercise. It allowed me to dance in the privacy of my own house, while getting a good workout. And a workout was just what I need. I watch that particular ballet video almost every single day.


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