You reach out gently to your \u201cpartner,\u201d the barre, extend your other arm in a graceful arc and try to hold it, palm elegantly facing you. You bend your knees slightly, do a few slow, deep pli\u00e9s, stretch your leg forward, to the side, and back \u2014 and the sweat starts to drip. But your posture straightens, your neck lengthens, shoulder blades move apart \u2014 and your back pain disappears.<\/p>\n
Half an hour later, you say goodbye to the barre and move to the center of the room. This is where you realize why the studio is named\u00a0Tasapisitasakaal<\/em>\u00a0(“balance slowly”) \u2014 because balance truly comes gradually. You stand, one foot on tiptoe, the other pressed into the back of your knee, arms overhead. At first, you couldn\u2019t hold the pose long, but thankfully, the lovely teachers have plenty of tricks that \u2014 miraculously! \u2014 really work.<\/p>\n Your mind engages and other thoughts fade when it\u2019s time to do turns where both feet start and end on the floor, but in between, you must spin on one. There are eight variations: right foot in front, left in back \u2014 you can turn left or right on either leg (four options). Then reverse: left foot in front, right in back \u2014 another four. Okay, maybe two aren\u2019t used, but you still have six options.<\/p>\n Now the teacher shows a combination: one leg, the other leg, one arm, the other arm, head… No way you\u2019ll remember that! But you will, if you focus. Beautiful music helps \u2014 it invites and inspires, and the combination becomes a\u00a0dance<\/strong>. You feel pure joy in graceful movement. Graceful? Yes \u2014 adult ballet seeks beautiful lines. Flexibility and high legs are secondary.<\/p>\n In the mid-18th century, the famous French dancer\u00a0Marie Anne de Cupis de Camargo<\/strong>\u00a0shocked polite society by shortening her floor-length skirt. Her ankles \u2014 oh, scandal! \u2014 were visible. She probably didn\u2019t dare lift her leg above 45 degrees. Instead of frilly bloomers, she wore leggings. But she could leap, beat her feet together in the air, create scissor-like moves, spin, and pose so gracefully that even\u00a0Voltaire<\/strong>\u00a0was enchanted. You reach out gently to your \u201cpartner,\u201d the barre, extend […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":729,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ballet"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tasapisi.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tasapisi.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tasapisi.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tasapisi.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tasapisi.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=874"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tasapisi.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/874\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":875,"href":"https:\/\/tasapisi.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/874\/revisions\/875"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tasapisi.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tasapisi.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tasapisi.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tasapisi.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nIt\u2019s said that even at 60, she glided across the stage like a bird\u2026
\nWhy not wish to be like her?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"