New Adventures In Daring To Suck

If you've studied with me, you've definitely heard me encourage you to dare to suck as part of a normal learning process.

My mom was a modern dancer and teacher, so my first dance class was literally in her womb. And throughout my life, in addition to taking her classes, I've loved taking classes in modern, jazz, African and Afro-Brazilian dance.

Well, last year, after 20 years of not taking any dance class, I felt a craving to get back to it and ended up going to my very first ballet class. My bestie and Secret Sauce bandmate, Esther Friedman had been going to this class for a year or so and had raved about it, so I gave it a try.

Photo by Richelle Brunstetter for Unsplash

It kicked my ass.

The teacher is lovely, as are all the students who attend, which helped make the whole experience great. I don't know most of the French terms used in ballet, so I was almost entirely dependent on watching the teacher's movements and doing my best to imitate them.

As I moved through the class, I was thinking, "This must be how my Guitar 1 students feel!".

Here are a couple of things I say to my students:

• Do you know why it feels hard to do this at first? That's because it feels hard to do this at first.

• I promise, the C chord will be your friend someday, just not today.

And like them, I figured that if I kept at it, I'd develop muscle memory and get better at it. Indeed, over the few months that I took the class, I did.

And, it was fun.

This week, I've decided I'm going to try the new Pilates class at my gym.

Wish me luck!

Peace, Janet