Ballet

First Ballet Recital - I was a daisy.

According to my birth certificate, I was born December 21, 1960. But I’m absolutely sure I was “born again” twelve years later, on an otherwise ordinary day in Miss Madeline’s ballet class.

This rebirth, characterized by a “quickening spirit,” happened toward the end of class when Miss Madeline instructed all of us to waltz across the floor. 

By then, I had had four years of ballet training, and until that very moment, the waltz was nothing more than a complicated series of maneuvers — arms doing one thing, legs another, all while traveling across the floor, and turning in counter-intuitive directions. That day, I started waltzing as a timid, dutiful, lack-luster ballet student. A few seconds later, I stood on the other side of the room, covered in goosebumps and certain that I would dance forever.