Dancer tips

My experience as a ballet dancer/the end of an era

Hey all, thank you for everything! It truly means the world to see all of the support each and every one of you have given me!

I apologize for my absence, but I thought I should hop on here and let you all know; after 10 years, I had to quit ballet.

It truly was one of the hardest choices I've ever had to make, and I miss it every day. I miss the jitters before a performance, I miss the feeling of working so hard on a step and finally getting it just right. I miss the costumes and the friendships.

But all good things must come to an end, and I feel so incredibly blessed to be able to have danced in my life for so long.

I remember very vividly the day I decided that I wanted to be a ballet dancer. I was around 6 and 2 of my best friends at the time did ballet. My mom got me a ballet book from the library that had pictures of these gorgeous dancers in the most amazing costumes! And they were on the very tips of their toes! I knew that was something that I was determined to do. And I did it, and loved almost all of it.

For the past few years however, it has become increasingly hard to find motivation to keep working my hardest. Everything went downhill in February of my freshman year of high school . My class was learning really intense choreography on pointe for our spring show. I had to do a saut de chat, and ended up landing on the right edge of my box and rolled over it. This resulted the tearing of a ligament in my foot, and I was unable to do pointe for a few weeks or a month (I don't exactly remember).

I then got a back injury. Which took me out of class for another month and a half in October of my sophomore year.

These two injuries and limited time in class put me way behind the rest of my classmates/ friends, and I'm not going to lie. It was very frustrating. I didn't want to go to class. I couldn't see reasons to keep trying my hardest. I couldn't do anything right. I wasn't as good as anyone else. I wanted to do the spring musical at my school but couldn't. I couldn't do anything with my friends. I could only work 2 days a week.

Because I was so behind, I got very limited spots in choreography. And that was frustrating as well. All I wanted to do was dance and perform. And then...we all know what went down in March of this year.

We had to move to ballet zoom calls because of COVID-19. But I work at a grocery store, so there was a panic for a few months where I was working for 10 hour shifts 5-6 days a week. I couldn't attend class at all. The summer came and went and my work schedule was absolutely insane. I had to time to be with friends, let alone work on the technique that I missed out on.

By the time class started last week, I hadn't had my pointe shoes on, or done any technique for about 6 months.

Then I got my school schedule for my senior year. This first tri I am in our advanced mixed choir, AP Biology, AP government, AP literature, DC macroeconomics, and college algebra.

Even though I didn't want to quit, I had to realize that it was going to be detrimental to my mental health to continue dancing 5 days a week or more.

I will never forget all of the amazing things that I've learned this past decade (hehe). In dance you make friendships that last a lifetime. You learn how to push yourself to your limit, and then beyond that. You learn how to work for what you want, because we all know that nothing we do is easy.

Never give up on something that you love.

An era has come to an end, and I have found inner peace in that. I will still answer any questions you may have, if you ask them in the comments! Feel free to PM me if you need to talk! You all are absolutely lovely, and I want to thank you again for all of your support <3

Know yourself, push yourself, and keep dancing

~tiffani163