Adult ballet course

Venla, the service and administration manager at the Helsingin aikuisopisto, is testing the courses and decided to return to ballet classes after more than 25 years. This time, the test is a beginner's course in adult ballet.

My own dance history began with ballet lessons when I was six years old, over 25 years ago. I had begged my parents for a long time to let me go to ballet school, and finally my dream came true. However, the discipline and systematic nature of ballet did not appeal to my six- or seven-year-old self, and I stopped practicing about a year after starting it. I no longer remember what kind of expectations I had for the sport, but I remember the impatient state and boredom associated with ballet lessons, and the systematic training of basic positions and barre training did not seem very meaningful at the time. I had probably dreamed of the dull familiarity and graceful pirouettes of ballerinas, but I ignored the fact that the movements that seemed easy were the result of years of uncompromising training.

A return to ballet through many twists and turns

My short experiment in the world of ballet may have also contributed to the fact that my dance hobby remained on hold for almost ten years after I quit ballet. When I started dancing again as a teenager, this time with jazz and contemporary dance, dance sucked me in, and I never left the hobby. Over the years, I have practiced numerous styles, from African dance to buto and from oriental dance to twerking, but I could not start ballet again, which had been forgotten. Of course, I was more and more interested in trying it again, but the dates of the courses just never seemed suitable. I was very excited when I noticed that the institute's summer course was being organized on days that suited me for once.

Get the basics right in the first lesson

The first lesson starts on the floor. Our teacher Susanna Nurminen welcomes us and we sit on the mattresses. We find the right position for our backs and do leg extensions, ankle extensions and upper body bends in a sitting position. Soon we get to test the same movements in a standing position on the pole. This is starting to feel like ballet! Susanna tells us that the short summer course will cover exactly the same things as the weekly lessons for beginners in adult ballet. No prior knowledge is required, but it's unlikely anyone will get in if it's too easy.

During the first hour, we will get to know the basic positions of the legs and arms: the first, second and third positions will become familiar, as will the pliés that are performed in them. The faces of the fellow students show concentrated expressions, but smiles are also present. Susanna guides us firmly and encouragingly. There is also no lack of humor in these hours, and the air is anything but restless and bored, familiar from childhood ballet classes. In addition to ballet, Susanna also teaches the Klein technique, which focuses on body alignment, and this is her main interest in ballet as well.

It feels good to focus thoroughly on the positions of the forearms and feet and the soft movement lines of the limbs. The movements are done equally on both sides of the body. After an hour and a half, I notice that I have not once thought about work or other stressful things during the dance class. To my surprise, the discipline and organization this time feel rather facilitating and relaxing, and not at all burdensome.

Ballet doesn't have to be serious.

During the four courses, you can't completely avoid the basic terminology: allongé, tendu, tendu jetét, relevé and grand pliét become at least superficially familiar. In addition to the series of movements performed in place, we get to march and swish across the hall. Beautiful classical music plays in the background. Along with the ballet movements, we also take care of the body: the soles of the feet are opened with the help of massage balls, the shoulders are rotated and the muscles are stretched. I find myself focusing so hard on what I'm doing that my muscles feel stiff, but fortunately, stiffness can be influenced by being aware of it and trying to relax the muscle groups and breathe deeply during the movement. I also catch myself being serious from time to time, but fortunately I remember once again that the beauty of dance lies precisely in its joy. No unnecessary pushing and a smile on my face – this works just fine in the ballet hall too!

Finding the joy of dance

I may not have found my inner prima ballerina during this course, but the ballet course served as a good reminder that dance is indeed a thing of its own, where you can find lightness, joy, humor and expressiveness, regardless of the genre. The bodily experience of dance can be joyful and uninhibited, and the worlds of experience of very different types of dance movements actually differ surprisingly little from each other. In the communality of African dance, the bodily imagery exercises of Japanese buton, the wild shaking of reggaeton, the sensitivity of Argentine tango and the smooth lines of ballet, you can all find unifying factors. An authentic, untranslatable bodily experience and the sheer joy of experiencing movement are, at least for me, the factors that distinguish dance from everyday experience.

Text: Venla, Helsinki Adult Education Institute

Photo: Pieter Pienaar, Unsplash