have you read Toni Bentley's "Winter Diary"? it and her book Serenade are my two favorite things i've ever read about ballet (but i didn't do it as a kid… i did some tap and some gymnastics). she's kind of insane but in a good way!!
(also fair enough on the footnote… i was thinking of religions but you're totally right lol)
Tap is the only dance form I've ever tried and absolutely hated, but it's occurring to me that the classes I took were taught by a ballet instructor... who made us learn in character shoes with heels... and made fun of me the whole time... Hmmmmm...
I really don't remember tap very well at all because I was probably like five or six. I remember liking the shoes, but that's about it!
I really like Toni Bentley… She had to drop out of ballet because of a hip injury IIRC and in one of the books she discusses how she got to keep the bone fragments, bleached them, and she keeps them on her desk. her books are kind of funny because it's basically all ballet and then one super infamous sex memoir lol. (which sort of feels like she's somehow still writing about ballet)
Not quite the same sort of thing: I was a very asthmatic child who didn’t really feel embodied (not sure I do even now lol) but playing wind instruments growing up helped expand my lung capacity and made me feel more positively toward my little lungs
I love that!! Harder to resent the constraints of being a physical entity so much when you become aware of the cool parts of being a physical entity. (repeating this like a mantra until my chronic sinus infection disappears...)
have you read Toni Bentley's "Winter Diary"? it and her book Serenade are my two favorite things i've ever read about ballet (but i didn't do it as a kid… i did some tap and some gymnastics). she's kind of insane but in a good way!!
(also fair enough on the footnote… i was thinking of religions but you're totally right lol)
I have not read either! Adding to my list now!!
Tap is the only dance form I've ever tried and absolutely hated, but it's occurring to me that the classes I took were taught by a ballet instructor... who made us learn in character shoes with heels... and made fun of me the whole time... Hmmmmm...
I really don't remember tap very well at all because I was probably like five or six. I remember liking the shoes, but that's about it!
I really like Toni Bentley… She had to drop out of ballet because of a hip injury IIRC and in one of the books she discusses how she got to keep the bone fragments, bleached them, and she keeps them on her desk. her books are kind of funny because it's basically all ballet and then one super infamous sex memoir lol. (which sort of feels like she's somehow still writing about ballet)
Lmao that's metal!! Ballet definitely self selects for Very Intense People
Also just read her wikipedia page... Of course she worked for ten years under Balanchine. Everything makes so much sense.
Not quite the same sort of thing: I was a very asthmatic child who didn’t really feel embodied (not sure I do even now lol) but playing wind instruments growing up helped expand my lung capacity and made me feel more positively toward my little lungs
I love that!! Harder to resent the constraints of being a physical entity so much when you become aware of the cool parts of being a physical entity. (repeating this like a mantra until my chronic sinus infection disappears...)
While my dance experiences were neither as positive as yours or as murderous as fiction, this resonates hard. "I miss being bad at it"-- what truth.
P.S. Percy Jackson ruled. Stay hatin :P
I think your quads are just right.
Thanks!!