Just have fun! The first thing you need to know about Ballet for Absolute Beginners at Sydney Dance Company, a 90-minute drop-in class, is that it's actually designed for people who have already done four Introduction to Ballet classes. Don't worry though. If you've dropped into the class like me, a genuine absolute beginner (the nearest I've come is plucking a plastic ballerina off a cake at a child's birthday party), Mia assures it's possible to keep up even without knowing the names of the positions. Ankle socks, striped or not, are perfectly fine footwear for an absolute beginner.
This is very encouraging of Mia, but I have my doubts. Classical ballet, according to the Sydney Dance Company, is characterised by a standard vocabulary of steps, poses, and graceful movements including pointed feet, rising, jumping, stretching and spinning. It is strengthening, disciplined and stylised. I, on the other hand, am a huge fan of lying on the couch and playing word puzzles on my phone. With Mia's encouragement, I join a barre (a wooden bar) where there are already two people with excellent posture, wearing ballet shoes. In contrast, my feet are in striped ankle socks. Which is perfectly fine, for an absolute beginner. We do it once more to music: mostly spritely piano pieces, although Christina Aguilera's Beautiful' does feature We start with simple exercises: heels together with feet and toes pointing out to 180 degrees (first position), bending the knees (plie). Imagine there are floaties under your arms when you hold them in front of you, Mia calls out. We come up on our toes and raise our arms above our heads, which results in a bit of wobbling at first (for me). The first 45 minutes of the class are exercises at the barre that become increasingly difficult. We learn short sequences involving pointed feet, bent knees, swooping feet, and correspondi
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