06 June 2012

Everybody Dance Now!

Ahh, the '80s...
I took my first ballet class nearly 24 years ago.

I took my last ballet class nearly 10 years ago.

Until Monday night.

Ten years ago, I was 18. I was in college and I was a ballet dancer. Granted I wasn't as good as I could've been and heaven knows I didn't have the right body type by a long shot, but I loved it. Then, in the middle of class - ironically the first time where I actually felt like I was excelling in my small jumps (I'm not a jumper!), and it wasn't just me, the instructor had even just told me I was doing better than before - I landed a jump, felt a pop and a tear and was in some of the most excruciating pain I could imagine.

I had dislocated my knee. It realigned itself on it's own, but the ligaments & tendons were trashed.

On top of the physical pain, I was an emotional wreck because I had just gotten back my full strength from some sprained ankles the previous semester.

It was hard that year, I changed majors and had to deal with the fact that I wasn't ever going to be the dancer that the 4, 8, and 12 year old versions of me dreamed of.

In my one attempt to do some light dancing for a friend's project my senior year I repeated the injury and had to have surgery to relocate my kneecap. Fun, fun!

I went to physical therapy until my insurance ran out. Then I'd work it on occasion when I went to the gym. It has never been as strong as I would have liked, but I didn't want to think about the injury, so once my knee was functional I just stopped working.

All of this explanation is to tell you what a big deal it was Monday night when I went with a friend to the first full class I've been to since the original injury.

While I was horrified at the lack of discipline in the classroom, it was nice to be back at a barre. My body remembered what to do much better than I expected, however, I was surprised at how much strength I have lost and it was pretty frustrating not to have my body respond in the way I wanted.

I'm OLD!

And I'm sore. Gloriously sore. So sore I almost can't walk tonight. But the right muscles are sore. I can feel the defined stripes on rotator and flexor muscles that have essentially gone unused and forgotten for the past decade.

I'm insane, I know. But pain is bliss.

I don't know that I'll stay with this studio after the summer classes are over, but now that I've tasted dancing again and I know what level class I need, I'm sure that I'll find a class somewhere. I thought I'd lost that part of my heart...but maybe it was just on a break.

If you want to hear more about my 2 (not always) sleeping babies and the rest of the family you can follow us on Google+Facebook, and Twitter! 

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...