A Ballerina's Story- part 2

                                           

 

Me with my teachers at last summer's ballet intensive.

Hello readers!

The turning point in my ballet journey was, I have to say, when I was accepted to dance at Victoria International Ballet Academy (VIBA) in Vaughan. This was a professional ballet school and my biggest dream was to get to train at such a school. It had come true! I was euphoric.

Miss Victoria Mironova was an incredible teacher to me. She is Russian and trains students in the “Vaganova” method which is a Russian influenced method. There are multiple methods, also called syllabus, that are taught in ballet. I know another popular one called “Cechetti” (don’t know if I spelled that right) which a strong Italian influenced method. But at VIBA, I studied the vaganova syllabus.

The training was incredibly challenging as it was supposed to be. I was in a professional ballet school after all! But I had to work ten times harder than the others who had been training there since their  tots years. I had to work on flexibility, strength and most importantly of all, memorizing combinations. Not just memorizing per say but even more than that: knowing, really knowing the steps. And here you had a young, 18 year old woman going on 19, raised to speak French as her first language so she should have no problem knowing the steps as the steps in ballet are all French words. Yet she was still struggling so much. At one point I thought, what am I doing here? I was almost embarrassed. Maybe I was too old to start training at a professional school. I envied the other, younger girls, who had sky high extensions and could learn and do all the right steps so quickly. I knew my autism was part of what was keeping me from doing what the others could. But I did not want that to be an excuse. With the drive to become a good ballerina, I strived.

Within a few months of dancing at the academy and longing to join the other girls in pointes instead of doing the combinations in demie-pointe (this means risen on toes but not fully), my teacher asked me exactly what I wanted to ask but was to shy to: “Do you want to try pointe shoes and dance like the other girls?” Of course I said yes, a quiet yes with a tone of excitement to Miss Victoria but a very loud, delighted and resonating yes in my head. I was going to finally dance with those special shoes I wanted since I first laid eyes on a pair! My first fitting, which happened with my own teacher, Miss Victoria, was exciting but oddly surreal at the same time. I slid my toes into one shoe, feeling my breath picking up and a tingling all inside my body. Then I put my other foot on another shoe and that was it. I don’t think I realized even just how big my grin was at the time. To be able to stand on the tips of my toes for the first time was incredibly magical. It's a feeling I will never forget.

All the girls- and boy- that I met at the Academy were always so nice to me. They welcomed me warmly on my first day and I immediately felt like a big sister to them. We built a special friendship together and the people at VIBA became my new family. Miss Victoria was not my only teacher. There was also Miss Elena who taught character and adult ballet and a younger dancer, Miss Anastasia who is a professional ballerina. Her best friend, Miss Lisa (Elizaveta) is also a professional ballerina and Miss Victoria's daughter.

I had many great opportunities to shine while at the Academy. I got to participate in many ballet productions of Nutcracker, Cinderella and end of year galas. I also was accepted to participate in summer ballet intensives with renowned ballet teachers from Russia who taught us wonderful ballet classes and ballet repertoire. At the ballet intensives, I met many new friends from around the world and, even just last summer, I had the opportunity to do pas de deux dance for the first time! Such great memories to keep.

Now, I have a full time job, so I am finding less time to dance more consistently and I've had to stop dancing at Victoria International Ballet Academy. But I have began a new journey, dance teaching, which consist of following an online course to get a certification and helping out to teach young dancers on Saturdays at a local studio named Somerville Academy where I have previously taken dance classes. I am also currently attending ballet class once a week on Thursdays also at Somerville so I am continuing to dance, keeping in shape and getting to still enjoy my life as a dancer.

This concludes part 2 of the post My ballet story. It is quite long. I apologize for posting late again, I am a day late. I will try my best to post on Friday next time. Until then!

Regards,
Cara