Let there be Growth in 2022

Once again, we walk into a new year.

We envision what could be, what we will try to achieve, what we will try to overcome, and perhaps let go of a little of what has been. In essence, we grow: shed, expand, regenerate, regroup.

Growth is inevitable and something to embrace. Although, it does not always have the nature of “something to embrace,” does it? Growth is more often like a wave that you ride, carrying you from here to there with the velocity of a silk ribbon being unfurled. It happens stealthy, sublimely, and at times with a whip of quickness (and discomfort). One day you wake up and you realize it has happened: you have grown!

Yesterday I had the joy of working with a young dancer. She is almost 13. When I first met her, she was an infant. I watched her twirl as a two-year-old in a tutu that I made for her. I watched her walk into her first ballet class, walk onto her first stage, and I have even had the privilege of watching her participate in a Bolshoi ballet program in NYC! Wow! She has grown! And, yes, ballet has hooked its lovely talons into her, as it has well done to me. So, working with her yesterday was interesting. Her legs are so long, her intention steely and determined, and her wanting to achieve that next level is palpable. I saw myself in her but, I saw something else in myself… I had grown. As she mimicked my movements, marking the choreography, I saw us dance in tandem, and I could feel her tension, but I could also feel my ease. I was at ease in my dancing. Time had gifted me with this ease. The way I rode that wave of growth brought me to this simple moment, this simple realization, and the gratification of an ease in something that I love. Don’t get me wrong… The steps in ballet are always a challenge, and a good one at that, but who I am as the one executing the steps is different, I dare say… better.

Our ballet and Pilates classes are little slices of life. How we handle ourselves in those moments reveals a great deal to us in how we handle ourselves in life. In class, there is intent to care for oneself, there is determination, there is discipline, there is grace, there is exhale, and yep, there is growth. Class by class we not only grow stronger in our practice and in our bodies, but we also grow as a whole person. It is this aspect of who we are that radiates our faces and ripples out from the ends of our fingers and toes. There is a joy in this. Growing is work, but the pay-off is fantastic!

Cheers to 2022 and the growth that awaits, the ease that growth will bring, and the joy of it all!

And... THANK YOU FOR A WONDERFUL 2021! We truly are not just a class, WE ARE A COMMUNITY (of growth!)