Embracing the Dance Journey: Exploring the Styles Part 4 - Strength and Serenity: Learning from Ballet
Ballet is often said to be the foundation of all dance. (And, if you ever wanted to start a fight in a ballroom dance studio, just mention this little fact at your next dance class! 😂More on that in a blog coming soon!) Ballet’ focus on alignment, strength, and control creates a framework that supports every other style. For adult dancers, exploring ballet can feel both challenging and deeply rewarding: it teaches patience, mindfulness, and a quiet power that carries far beyond the studio.
The Foundation of Technique
Ballet emphasizes core strength, balance, and precision. Every movement - from a simple plié to a grand jeté - builds awareness of posture and body alignment. These fundamentals enhance not only ballet practice but also increase the ability to move gracefully in the space around you, and enhance timing and presentation. In other words, they give you a base for movement, which can come in handy in any dance style.
Ballet classes are designed in such a way that each new movement at the barre builds on the previous ones, culminating in center practice, where all the elements come together. Because of this, learning ballet allows your body to slowly develop all the necessary skills to be able to stand up to complex choreography later on.
Mindfulness in Motion
Ballet asks you to slow down and notice the subtleties: the turn of the foot, the lift of the chest, the elongation of the spine. For adult dancers, this attention to detail cultivates patience and self-discipline. Each repetition becomes a lesson in focus, helping you carry calm and presence into other aspects of your life.
Let’s admit it, ballet’s hyper-perfection can also cause frustration (and stress fractures, but we are getting ahead of ourselves here). As adults, we are often unused to not being good at something. After all, most of us feel pretty confident handling our jobs and day-to-day responsibilities of keeping ourselves and our families alive. And then you take a ballet class, and realize you don’t know how to stand…
Here is where mindfulness comes in. Slow down. Remember that you are learning a completely new skill - one that takes about 10 years to perfect for those of us who started as children. You, with your full-time job, and a lifetime of not using your port-de-bra, are doing amazing! Give yourself a break, and keep tendu-ing!
Practicing at Home
You don’t need a full barre or studio to explore ballet. Small spaces can work for basic exercises: plies, tendus, and gentle stretches. Even short, mindful practice sessions strengthen your body and improve awareness of weight, balance, and grace.
One thing that many people underestimate about ballet is how much physical strength is required for it. Even if you are just starting out, cross training is highly recommended, and your home space can be perfect for some pilates and ballet-specific exercises. Doing these at home will make you feel a lot more at ease when taking dance class, because your body will feel stronger and more ready for ballet’s demands.
Grace Through Strength
Ballet’s beauty lies in its combination of strength and serenity. It teaches you how to move with control while appearing effortless. Adult learners often find that this discipline nurtures confidence and resilience, both on the dance floor and in daily life. In other words, after you master a grand rond-de-jambe (see a demo here), nothing intimidates you in quite the same way again.
Ballet’s Broader Lessons
Beyond technique, ballet reminds us that growth takes time and repetition (so much repetition!). Every dancer progresses at their own pace, everyone’s progress ebbs and flows, and the journey is as meaningful as the performance. The calm focus, discipline, and attention to detail you cultivate in ballet enrich not only every dance style you pursue, but the way you approach life in general.
Feeling inspired to explore the world of dance?Dance Flavor offers live andon-demand classes in various styles. Don’t be shy - contact us with any questions, or to try a private class in the dance of your choice!
