Sandra (38): I Love Ballet, I Have it always in My Mind, Every Day and Am always Correcting my Poise

Sandra´s Story, told by herself: About 3 years ago I restarted to train ballet when Lea, my eldest daughter, took her first ballet class. As a child I had ballet lessons for some 3 years in Mr Reinisch´s ballet school in Bruck an der Mur (Styria). I enjoyed the lessons when Mr Reinisch was training with us, he was always very motivating. I remember very well, there was one lesson I decided from now on to make everything as he explicates. It didn´t take very long and I was able to do the split. This was a big success. Many years later when I was still at the university I was always thinking about ballet because of its many effects on the body. I did a lot in the following 29 years – riding, swimming, playing table tennis, hiking … and I am still practising some of these hobbies, but nothing is so attracting and so spurring like ballet.

I love ballet, I have it always in my mind, every day and I am always correcting my poise and am always doing some “exercices”. For most of them I need the teacher´s tips, more space, a mirror and the ladies of my class. I feel not so good doing this alone at home, and there is a big accident risk when I am training in slippery socks. The other thing is that I have a job and there are the children and not time enough. Sometimes I can motivate my girls to train with me. Jana, my younger daughter, is looking forward starting with ballet in a year.

I have to confess that I have organised some extra time for ballet class twice a week. I am very grateful to my husband who helps me to be free every Tuesday evening. When I am bad tempered he sends me to a ballet class as he knows I will be good-humoured afterwards. I am totally concentrated there. When I enter the room there is only ballet in my mind and the training. I leave all the worries outside and get new energy for body and mind. It is not only a fitness training, it is much more, it helps me to keep my poise. And I like to be in the ballet class and to meet the ladies who became my friends. Friday morning I am free and do the training with advanced students who received me cordially. It is so nice when Monika and Ursula show me how to do a special “exercice” or rehearse a step sequence with me. I learn a lot from them. Any of them is very good in something and I always try to model myself on them. The students from the Friday morning class are very advanced, much more than me. Sometimes I have to bring myself to do like them. Then I think, “Never mind! I will try to do it as good as I can”. And even it doesn´t appeal that good it helps to learn. I have to rehearse before I am able to do a step sequence. No matter what will happen, if I will be good or do something wrong, I feel always pleasant anticipation on the way to the ballet school.

Doing the exercices at the barre in the Tuesday´s lesson I am better and very concentrated on myself. I enjoy being concentrated on my body and to be corrected by the teacher. It doesn´t occur very often in every day´s life that you exactly know what to do now. Our two teachers are very inspiring to spur us to throw the legs higher or the hold them longer in an attitude. I like to see ballet performances. The more I learn, the more exciting is it for me to watch the dancers.

Luckily we have excellent teachers, Mr Reinisch and Mr Turba, who are training with us. Both are so motivating. Mr Reinisch is challenging as a dancer and choreographer. Sometimes I think, “Dear me, I will never get it!”. Afterwards I am very happy that I tried everything and from lesson to lesson I become better with the step sequences. Mr Turba is the one who tries to spur us to do the exercices as exact as possible. I like this very much as the feeling of success occurs more often. Anyway, I like attending both lessons, it is always amusing and big fun. And it is a very big incentive to have two professional dancers (s. the photo above: Sandra far left and the two professionals right) in the class. I think for all of us. And it helps to keep up the most beautiful illusion of real ballet.