Sonja (45) – Since I was a little girl I was dreaming of ballet

Impression before class: Sonja is the “apparition” on the left.

I was sixteen years old when I took first ballet classes*. Since I was a little girl I was dreaming of ballet (which girl did not?). As we lived then in a small village in the mountains it was hard to reach a ballet school. When I was sixteen I was able to organise this myself and I started training in the Ballettschule Reinisch in Liezen, Styria). My dreams had come true! Two years later I moved to Graz to study at the university and was very happy from then on to take regular ballet classes.

Dancing means very much to me, much more than only exercising. The older I become the more I realise how important it is and how dear I hold it. In “my dotage” I am even thinking about how I could manage it to work as a ballet professional …

Practising ballet means to me training the whole body. It is a very good feeling – you learn a lot about your muscles, about posture and it is a big challenge to combine body and mind. Watching a ballet performance makes me living in a dream world . I prefer classic, opulent and old fashioned representations to any others.

*I am 45 years old, started with classic dance in the age of 16, paused for some years with the training (for the career, later to be with my two children). 4 years ago I restarted ballet and have since then been training regularly.