I push open the door. It's the same door I've been going through for years. The carpet is blue and the stairs lead up several flights, though I've never been farther than the second floor. It's completely the same. It just feels different. I walk up the stairs and turn right into the door labeled Ladies' Parlor, where I turn left into the ballroom. The place is beautiful.
"Hey, you're here!" I jump. Once again, I remind myself that nothing has changed...drastically. Today is my first day of private lessons. I turn around slowly. It's Lorenna. "We waited up for you, come on." As she speaks, Lindy and Katri come out of the kitchen on the other side of the studio. After warming up to a wonderful, instrumental song called Opal Fusion, we get out the Thera Bands and practice ankle strength. After that, we go to get chairs (which we use in substitution for a barre) and do toe push-ups, followed by jumps and plies. I prepare myself for tondues, but instead we go over to a high table. Lorenna, Lindy, and Katri lean over on their forearms and I do the same. Thoughts are racing around in my head. I'm not ready to go en pointe. Don't we need more training? We don't even have pointe shoes. No, Lindy has pointe shoes. As I should have mentioned earlier, she's the teacher. If she says we're ready to go up on our toes all the way, we are. And it's not even like we're actually standing on just our toes. Since, none of us have pointe shoes we're leaning on a table. I slowly rise up to a demi-pointe(standard tippy-toes) and then roll up to a full pointe. I wait for something to happen something to go wrong, but nothing does, in the midst of my excitement and slight anxiety, I had forgotten that I have been dancing for 5+ years and was actually ready. I spend the rest of the practice dancing without worry.
