When I was in grade 5, I registered to take a ballet class for the second year in a row. Unfortunately there were no ballet classes available for my age group. There were, however, classes a few years younger and older than I was. The studio started me in the younger class, but quickly realized that it was too easy for me and decided to move me to the harder class. This, of course, was much more advanced than anything I had done to that point.
At first I was excited, if somewhat nervous, to be dancing with the older students, all of whom were around 2 to 4 years older than I was. It didnāt take me long, however, to realize how much further ahead of me they were. I had never tried most of the steps they were doing before, and because they were experienced with them, the class moved too fast for me to pick them up. My teacher regularly tried to help me, but she didnāt really have the time, in a weekly, hour-long class, to teach them to me at the relatively slow pace I would have needed. So I stayed behind the rest of the students, and didnāt really improve or enjoy the class.
Eventually, as we got closer to the year-end recital, the teachers realized that I couldnāt perform a dance with the other dancers in that class and ended up moving me to a jazz class. This was a much better fit for me as it was at my age level and I had taken six years of jazz classes prior to that year. Unfortunately, the jazz class was already about half way done their choreography for recital by the time I joined. As a result of this I had to enter later, about a quarter into the dance, and catch up on other parts that the other students had already learnt. This was better than having to perform with the older ballet class, but still wasnāt ideal.
After being confused and unable to do most of the steps while I was in the ballet class and then suddenly switching to a class that I could handle, I came to the conclusion that I hated ballet and decided never to do it again. However, two years later my family moved, and I had to switch dance schools. The new studio advised that I take a ballet class, along with the jazz and lyrical classes I wanted to take, so I agreed. At first I was behind in the class, but not so far behind that I couldnāt make progress. After a while I caught up to the rest of the students and realized that I really did like ballet. Now itās one of my favourite dance forms, along with contemporary.
This experience taught me how much one particular class can impact my opinion on a type of dance, or likely on any other subject. I think in the future I should try to consider whether or not I like or dislike something because of the way in which I experienced it or because of the thing itself. I also learnt that it is not a good idea to take classes that are too advanced to be achievable. I would advise other people to take classes at their level as well, in order to avoid giving up on something they may really enjoy.
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