Turning Split Soles

Backstory -

When I was younger, I did ballet and ice skated. After a year or so of learning both, my parents had me choose between the two. At the young age of 5 I choose to continue in ice skating. For a long time I would look back on that decision and regret the choice, because the adult in me wanted to be a professional ballerina, or at least some modified version of that. It haunted me for a long time, I held resentment and dreamed of the life I had thrown away as a child. Melodrama followed me, as I dreamt of this opportunity that had been taken away from me. It took giving birth to my daughter and enrolling her in ballet to realize how ridiculous I had been. My parents wanted me to pursue one thing and excel in it, I got it now, as a parent, I understood what they did. I may have been young but I was given the choice, it was MY choice, and I CHOOSE to skate.

Teaching my daughter how to skate was the first time that I truly realized how valuable my 16 long years in ice skating was. Outside of just being able to skate, ice skating taught me some valuable skills. It taught me discipline, the importance of physical fitness, creatively, balance and the art of movement. It took me a long time to realize that the decision 5 year old me made, was the right decision for me. I also realized that there was nothing stopping me from learning how to dance Ballet at an older age, so, that's what I did. Inspired by my younger self and my daughter who is also in ballet, at 33 I started too!

This is my journey to re-discovering ballet at an older age!

Finding a Studio -

I started this journey by doing research on ballet studios within my area. My plan was to make a pro and con list of the studios- including reading the reviews, researching the dress code, location, price and time of the class. My search ended quite quickly as the amount of studios that offered adult ballet classes near me was next to none, specifically, TWO! You read that right, only 2 studios near me that offered adult ballet classes. I stuck to my plan and read the reviews for both studios. I called the studio's and spoke to them to get a feel for the environment, flexibility they offer and level of support. The date and time of the classes at both studios where very similar, nothing to compare here. The locations, while in opposite directions where between 16-19 min from my house, so overall not a major factor. The price of both of the classes where about the same as well. What differed, was the dress code. One studio had a strict dress code that consisted of tights, leotard, skirt, ballet bun and ballet shoes (obviously). The other studio, was a bit more relaxed. The dress code consisted of either the same as above, or you could choose to wear leggings, a tight fitting top, hair out of your face, and ballet shoes (obviously). The latter studio also had the option of a hybrid class so if you where sick, or couldn't make it to class, you could do the class from home. With me having a young daughter and a baby, this seemed like the best option. It allowed me flexibility of my busy schedule, and allowed me to wear my yoga gear that I already owned. Since this was a new hobby, I didn't want to spend a bunch of money getting started. If this was something I was going to continue, then I would invest in specific ballet wear.

With the studio being narrowed down, my next task was researching and narrowing down on shoes, how hard could this be?

Shoes -

Read my next post for that process, and what a journey that turned out to be!