{"id":9761,"date":"2024-01-11T00:25:55","date_gmt":"2024-01-10T17:25:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/loudhdtv.com\/?p=9761"},"modified":"2024-01-11T00:25:55","modified_gmt":"2024-01-10T17:25:55","slug":"dancing-for-joy-in-an-anti-perfection-ballet-class","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/loudhdtv.com\/?p=9761","title":{"rendered":"Dancing for Joy in an Anti-Perfection Ballet Class"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"drop-cap text-big text-gray\"> <span class=\"drop-cap__first text-dropcap \">I<\/span> was nervous entering my first ballet class in more than 10 years. Last September, I signed up for Angela Trimbur\u2019s anti-perfection <a href=\"https:\/\/angelatrimburdance.com\/classes-events\/balletcore\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" data-vars-event=\"body text\" data-vars-click-url=\"https:\/\/angelatrimburdance.com\/classes-events\/balletcore\"><em>Balletcore<\/em><\/a>\u00a0class in New York City on a whim after seeing this <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@sagebennett45\/video\/7210172969887239466\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" data-vars-event=\"body text\" data-vars-click-url=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@sagebennett45\/video\/7210172969887239466\">TikTok of the class<\/a> captioned, \u201cMy inner child healing.\u201d The look of release and joy on the dancers&#8217; faces as they moved intuitively to classical ballet music inspired me to purchase a spot despite not knowing much else about the class.<\/div>\n<p>When Trimbur first came into the room cosplaying as a snobby ballet company\u2019s artistic director in a black trench coat, I wondered if my impulse decision was a mistake. I soon realized the intent was for us to pretend we were rebellious dancers fed up with the impossibly perfectionistic standards of our ballet company.<\/p>\n<div class=\"\">\n<hr\/>\n<div class=\"experts-in-article noskim py-[24px] px-[40px]\">\n<p>Experts In This Article<\/p>\n<ul class=\"!ml-[18px]\">\n<li> <a href=\"https:\/\/angelatrimburdance.com\/\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" data-vars-event=\"body text\" data-vars-click-url=\"https:\/\/angelatrimburdance.com\/\">Angela Trimbur<\/a>, actress, writer, dancer, choreographer, and creator of dance classes <em>Balletcore<\/em> and <em>Thirteen<\/em> <\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>\n<hr\/><\/div>\n<p>The barre warm-up was set to Sam Smith\u2019s <em>Unholy<\/em>\u00a0and combined traditional <a href=\"https:\/\/www.balletbeautiful.com\/blog\/ballet-glossary-tendu\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" data-vars-event=\"body text\" data-vars-click-url=\"https:\/\/www.balletbeautiful.com\/blog\/ballet-glossary-tendu\/\"><em>tendus<\/em><\/a> (a ballet exercise where you extend your leg by brushing your foot along the floor) with us swinging under the barre like a monkey and using its end like a pole on which to grind. Our middle fingers were to be kept slightly separated from the rest\u2014but rather than pointing them downward, as ballet typically requires, we were encouraged to point them upward, like a subtle \u201cf*ck you\u201d to the rules, or as if to hold imaginary cigarettes. Instead of the anxiety-inducing across-the-floor combinations I remember from adolescence, here, we were told to walk across the room like an uptight dancer who \u201cneeds to take a sh*t.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"related-content \" style=\"\" data-module-init=\"related-content\" data-module-immediate=\"\" v-cloak=\"\">\n<div class=\"related-content__wrapper \" v-cloak=\"\" :class=\"{'is-loaded':isLoaded}\">\n<p> <span class=\"inline text-h5 text-seafoam-dark\">Related Stories<\/span> <\/p>\n<p> <related-content class=\"related-content__links\" parent-article-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.wellandgood.com\/anti-perfection-ballet-class\/\" current-title=\"I Danced With Reckless Abandon in an Anti-Perfection Ballet Class and Have Never Felt More Joy From Movement\" current-image=\"https:\/\/www.wellandgood.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Well-Mess_Feature_How-an-Anti-Ballet-Ballet-Class-Taught-Me-To-Let-Go-of-My-Perfectionism_feature-425x285_418x278_true_70.webp\" v-on:parsely-posts-loaded=\"onPostsLoaded\" start-date=\"2023-07-10\" tag=\"div\" inline-template=\"\" url=\"https:\/\/www.wellandgood.com\/anti-perfection-ballet-class\/\" secret=\"w5ztterVB03LGZJLfXS0hf3EvQBuFFIWew9hmVQxthU\" apikey=\"wellandgood.com\" limit=\"3\"> <\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"related-content__card mb-[10px] sm:mb-[20px]\" :class=\"{'related-content__card--full':posts.length === 1}\" v-for=\"(post, key) in posts\"> <a v-on:click.prevent=\"trackLinkGA($event, key)\" :href=\"https:\/\/www.wellandgood.com\/anti-perfection-ballet-class\/post.url\" data-url-source=\"related-content\" class=\"related-content__link\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" data-vars-event=\"body text\" data-vars-click-url=\"\"> <\/p>\n<div class=\"related-content__card--image bg-tan\" :style=\"{ backgroundImage: 'url(' + post.image_url + ')' }\"> <img :src=\"https:\/\/www.wellandgood.com\/anti-perfection-ballet-class\/post.image_url\" :alt=\"post.title\"\/> <\/div>\n<p> <\/a>  <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p> <\/related-content> <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Once we started to come out of our shells like we were, as Trimbur described in the class, \u201cpeeping out of our tight butt holes for the first time,\u201d it was time for the choreography\u2014which was inspired by the epic dance number at the end of my favorite dance movie <em>Center Stage. <\/em>But instead of learning the counts for specific moves, as we\u2019d be instructed to do in a typical dance class, we were told to tell a story with our body. \u201cThere\u2019s no right or wrong timing with it,\u201d Trimbur told us. \u201cIt\u2019s just up to your interpretation.\u201d In the first half of the piece, set to music by the quintessential ballet composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky, we imagined ourselves as ballerinas longing to break free. When the music shifted to Jamiroquai\u2019s <em>Canned Heat<\/em>, as it does in the movie, we let go of ballet\u2019s rigid rules and just <em>danced<\/em>\u2014not for aesthetics, but for joy.<\/p>\n<h2>The makings of an anti-perfection ballet class<\/h2>\n<p>Revolting against the exclusionary perfectionism that ballet requires and represents feels especially liberating as a full-grown adult, which is precisely the point. Trimbur\u2019s idea for the class came when she attended an adult beginner ballet class in New York City in the hopes of reigniting her childhood love for dance but ended up disappointed with the focus on perfect technique. As the daughter of a dance studio owner, Trimbur grew up dancing both in her mom\u2019s classes and at home, where she moved freely and intuitively. \u201cThat\u2019s when I felt the happiest, when I was dancing with my sister in the living room and creating performances for my parents,\u201d Trimbur tells me in an interview.<\/p>\n<p>When Trimbur started teaching <a href=\"https:\/\/angelatrimburdance.com\/classes-events\/thirteen\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" data-vars-event=\"body text\" data-vars-click-url=\"https:\/\/angelatrimburdance.com\/classes-events\/thirteen\"><em>Thirteen<\/em><\/a>\u2014a lyrical dance class set to pop-music favorites like Madonna\u2019s <em>Like A Prayer<\/em>\u2014in November 2021, she discovered that people had what she calls ballet baggage. \u201cPeople would be like, \u2018I want to come to one of your classes, but I haven\u2019t danced in so long, and I just can\u2019t step foot in another class,\u2019\u201d says Trimbur. These were the people who were constantly criticized or made to feel like they weren&#8217;t good enough in ballet classes as a kid, such that attending any dance class would feel like a traumatic experience\u2014and yet, it didn&#8217;t make them miss dancing any less. This feedback, coupled with her own disappointing adult ballet experience, inspired Trimbur to launch <em>Balletcore.<\/em><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Trimbur intends for <em>Balletcore<\/em> to chip away at the protective shells that keep so many people from the joy of dance.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Trimbur intends for the anti-perfection ballet class to chip away at the protective shells that keep so many people from the joy of dance, whether they\u2019re a former dancer who was forced to give up their dream of becoming a professional, or they were just discouraged from taking dance lessons as a child for one reason or another. \u201cThere\u2019s this weird block that people get in their heads at some point of their childhood when they were made to feel insecure about the way they move,\u201d says Trimbur. \u201cI encourage people to be rebel ballerinas\u2014I want the class to have this \u2018f*ck perfection\u2019 feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Her encouragement appears to be working. Regulars show up in ripped tights, and when Trimbur criticizes them for being late, they don\u2019t hesitate to throw the sass right back at her. \u201cI want people to embrace this rebellious feeling and release the people-pleasing part of their personality,\u201d says Trimbur. Looking around the studio, it\u2019s clear that rebelling against ballet can also act as restitution for those who were scarred by the dance tradition growing up.<\/p>\n<h2>Losing myself\u2014and my connection to my body\u2014to movement<\/h2>\n<p>When I started dancing at age 15 (too late by typical dance standards), I quickly realized I didn\u2019t have the body for ballet. No matter how much I tried to lengthen my limbs, they would only stretch so far. Thankfully, I was at a performing arts high school in Toronto that was a rare utopia of acceptance. Instead of trying to get a seat at the restrictive ballet table, I leaned into dance forms that I was told better suited my body, like contemporary and jazz. I was critiqued on my technique, but I never experienced the kind of traumatic criticism that is stereotypical of ballet.<\/p>\n<p>Dance had always been cathartic for me, but somewhere along the way, I lost the plot. At my university, dance classes were too expensive, so I started going to the gym instead. For the first few years, I found the same release through exercise.<\/p>\n<p>But eventually, working out became my <em>only<\/em> form of self care. When life started to feel more out of control, I began to force control on my body. Three gym visits a week gradually turned into five, and soon enough, I was going every day. After <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wellandgood.com\/learning-to-be-alone\/\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" data-vars-event=\"body text\" data-vars-click-url=\"https:\/\/www.wellandgood.com\/learning-to-be-alone\/\">my mom suddenly died<\/a>, I filled the void by going to the gym twice a day\u2014once for a workout and the other for a yoga class. Movement shifted from being the portal through which I entered my body to the portal through which I escaped it.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Movement shifted from being the portal through which I entered my body to the portal through which I escaped it.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Coupled with the increase in exercise was a decrease in eating\u2014another means of enacting control when I felt like I had none. Eventually, I was so disconnected from my body that I <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wellandgood.com\/eating-disorder-support-groups\/\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" data-vars-event=\"body text\" data-vars-click-url=\"https:\/\/www.wellandgood.com\/eating-disorder-support-groups\/\">lost too much weight<\/a> and needed to quit exercise entirely. In the three years since, I\u2019ve struggled to cope with difficult emotions without movement. Now, my goal is not to control my physical being but to embody it.<\/p>\n<h2>Healing my relationship to my body in Angela Trimbur&#8217;s <em>Balletcore<\/em><\/h2>\n<p>While I\u2019m still learning how to <em>be <\/em>in my body, I\u2019m approaching exercise cautiously. But Trimbur\u2019s anti-perfection ballet classes don\u2019t feel like exercise; they feel like the reason I fell in love with dance in the first place: It\u2019s emotional expression through movement.<\/p>\n<p>It was while jumping like a kid in Trimbur\u2019s class\u2014my knees not cushioning my landing like they used to, but my smile impossible to contain\u2014that I realized I\u2019ll never reach my current goal of embodiment so long as I strive for perfection. The two are incompatible. Watching\u00a0<em>Center Stage<\/em> as a young girl, I took away the deceptive idea that striving for excellence and impeccable beauty will make me happy long-term, even if it\u2019s tough in the moment. The problem with the pursuit of perfectionism is that, much like the continuous pirouette in the movie\u2019s final scene, it has no end. It\u2019s <em>never <\/em>enough.<\/p>\n<p>In <em>Balletcore<\/em>, success is measured not by your technique or how well you remember the choreography, but by how much you\u2019re able to let go and be comfortable with yourself. \u201cThere\u2019s no correct way to look; there\u2019s a correct way to feel, and that\u2019s being completely okay with what your body does,\u201d says Trimbur. \u201cIt\u2019s so sad to think there are so many people who are holding themselves back from the literal joy [they could feel] if they just stopped thinking that they have to look like a Beyonc\u00e9 back-up dancer when they move.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I know what Trimbur means. I\u2019ve attended other dance classes as an adult, and while they are certainly more therapeutic to me than going to the gym, I still get in my head about not looking cool enough. In <em>Balletcore<\/em>, being weird and uninhibited and just totally yourself<em> is<\/em> cool. \u201cI want people to laugh, to feel silly, and I don\u2019t want it to be taken too seriously,\u201d says Trimbur.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s no correct way to look; there\u2019s a correct way to feel, and that\u2019s being completely okay with what your body does.\u201d \u2014Angela Trimbur, choreographer and creator of <em>Balletcore<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Since attending several of Trimbur\u2019s classes over the past four months, I\u2019ve noticed the pre-class nerves shift to excitement\u2014I\u2019ve started to look forward to the nearly two-hour container in which I can feel as free as a kid again, and even more, to the post-class confidence high.<\/p>\n<p>Trimbur tells me she notices people become more comfortable with themselves the more classes they attend. The first-timers are distinguishable, she says, by their athletic wear, while the regulars play the part, showing up in colorful leg-warmers, tutus, and ballet shoes. \u201cThere\u2019s a whole evolution I see visually,\u201d Trimbur says. \u201cI think the transformation sometimes hits after; the class is still working days later because you\u2019re still processing and thinking about it, being more and more gentle with yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While I\u2019ve yet to embrace my totally uninhibited, messy self outside the studio, I\u2019ve noticed a shift in how I treat my body. Practicing being more at ease in my body in <em>Balletcore<\/em> has helped me relearn embodiment and how to listen to my body\u2014I now rest when I\u2019m tired and don\u2019t push myself like I used to. Making mistakes and being intentionally imperfect in class has made me less perfectionistic in my work, too. I don\u2019t proofread my emails anymore, and I release my writing and photography into the world even when I feel like it could still be better. (After all, it could <em>always<\/em> be better.) \u201cThere\u2019s a freeness that bleeds into everything when you\u2019re more gentle on yourself,\u201d says Trimbur.<\/p>\n<p>Other<em> Balletcore<\/em> regulars tell Trimbur the class has made them more playful outside the studio, and they\u2019re not beating themselves up as much in their jobs and relationships. \u201cThey\u2019re not taking themselves as seriously anymore,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<p>It turns out being gentle with yourself is contagious, as Trimbur herself finds her anti-perfection ballet class to be like therapy. \u201cIt\u2019s very healing for me to feel like I can help other people heal, too, because I\u2019ve learned how to do that by being gentle on myself,\u201d she says. \u201cKnowing that the class is letting people live their lives with a spring in their step makes me feel like I have a purpose\u2014this is the happiest I\u2019ve ever been in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>At the end of my first <em>Balletcore<\/em> class, we cooled down to Mandy Moore\u2019s <em>I Wanna Be With You<\/em>\u00a0(another\u00a0<em>Center Stage\u00a0<\/em>classic) and were told to freestyle across the room. \u201cNo one\u2019s watching,\u201d Trimbur assured us. At first I was skeptical, but once we started twirling around the space, she was right\u2014no one seemed to be looking at anyone else, much less passing any judgment. After such a therapeutic class, we were just more at ease in our bodies, moving not to look perfect or to look any particular type of way, but to feel free.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div data-type=\"_mgwidget\" data-widget-id=\"1675549\">\r\n<\/div>\r\n<script>(function(w,q){w[q]=w[q]||[];w[q].push([\"_mgc.load\"])})(window,\"_mgq\");\r\n<\/script>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I was nervous entering my first ballet class in more than 10 years. Last September, I signed up for Angela Trimbur\u2019s anti-perfection Balletcore\u00a0class in New York City on a whim after seeing this TikTok of the class captioned, \u201cMy inner child healing.\u201d The look of release and joy on the dancers&#8217; faces as they moved &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":9762,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/loudhdtv.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/loudhdtv.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/loudhdtv.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loudhdtv.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loudhdtv.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/loudhdtv.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9761\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loudhdtv.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/loudhdtv.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loudhdtv.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loudhdtv.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}