Classical ballet was a form of dance that bored me when I was a little girl. Maybe it was because I hadn't been exposed to much of it except for locally produced shows on television which seemed to show it as mere exercises instead of flowing movement which is what I love about it especially when accompanied by music.

I was fifteen when I watched the London Festival Ballet's production of The Nutcracker on television and it ignited a passion in me - for ballet - and later, other forms of dance such as jazz and modern dance. I realized then that I was too old to begin ballet classes but somehow - however the wheels seemed to turn in my teenage mind all those years ago - I finally decided to take up adult beginning ballet classes as well as jazz ballet at the ripe old age of seventeen. I didn't want balletcercise nor jazzercise or whatever they wanted to call those classes which seemed to attract housewives or older women who wanted to get trim. I wanted serious classical ballet and I was lucky enough to find a class that encouraged such an interest.

However, due to a lack of discipline, my attendance wavered then I dropped out completely although the passion was there. In my mind and heart, anyway. I was so consumed by it that I bought whatever book on ballet that I could find, videotaped dance programmes on television, visited the local library to borrow books on dance and ballet.

I studied off and on with a few different dance schools and a local ballet teacher with whom I studied with and sought advice from (she too had started late - at 15) even told me that I had quite a good body for ballet and I thrived on that ever since.

During my early twenties, I was most fortunate to discover that a local dance centre was holding auditions for adults with little or no dance experience and even scholarships were offered! I was in seventh heaven! Sure I was still rusty in my ballet movements, I knew the ballet terminology in my head but it was difficult to translate them into body movements especially as I had a difficult body to work with. Unlike some lucky adult beginners, my body was not naturally flexible. But the dance instructor - who had been an adult beginner himself - was very encouraging and treated us as serious students of dance. It was what I had been praying and waiting for.

I stayed long enough to enjoy as well as endure the sweat and hard work that went with dance rehearsals and then the school's annual dance recital. I loved every moment of it, every nervous, high-energy moment! For someone who would rather hide in a corner than make herself known to the public on stage, I enjoyed my moments on the dance stage. I enjoyed the end when the dancers in my group all held hands after the performance as the curtain came down and the darkened stage was filled with exhilirated yells and one of them was mine.

I am older now, in my mid thirties, and the passion isn't so strong that I want to eat, live, breathe, ballet, but it is still a passion. Yes, in my mind and heart, anyway. :)  And perhaps that day will come again when I will put on my leotard, tights, ballet slippers and take my place at the barre.