If you’ve read my long-winded “About Melissa” section, you know that ballet has been dancing its way in and out of my life for the past few years. Since returning to Florida from Dublin, I’ve been unable to get myself a teaching job but I decided to go back and start taking class.
I go most Saturdays when we’re in town to an Adult Ballet Class. I am always amazed to find the class packed with (mostly) women of all different sorts from the tiniest little grandmother to those who may have danced professionally to those who slipped into their leotard and tights for the first time. Ballet is an extremely important part of my life that I have tried my best to grasp on to even as my family has grown and moved around the world.
I really regret not taking more initiative to take class when I was pregnant the first two times. My first pregnancy was hindered with an extended stay in the hospital for pneumonia, an overly stressful job and the primary care and eventual loss of my dear Nana, all keeping the thought of dancing from crossing my mind. My second pregnancy was riddled with a transatlantic move and adjustment to an entirely new culture. I tried a few classes when we first arrived but never found a place I really liked. Both times I was new to the area and had not yet established myself at a dance studio so felt weary of jumping in with baby on board.
Third time’s the charm! I made it a mission to go start taking class as soon as we were back in town and so I felt established in the class by the time I was pregnant again. I missed a lot of weeks during the first trimester when I spent my day laying on the couch in an effort to not pass out (throwing up was thankfully not an issue). When I finally got back into the studio early in my second trimester I felt really good. I was even balancing better than I had before I got pregnant, holding long balances at the barre and doing double pirouettes which had been eluding me since returning to the studio a few months prior. I was eager to continue dancing through pregnancy.
Then during my routine ultrasound I was told I had a misbehaving placenta and shouldn’t exercise (more on my placenta previa). Cue the holidays and taking full advantage of being able to laze around the house. Four weeks later I saw my midwife when she said it was probably okay to go back to class as long as I take it easy I jumped at the opportunity (not technically since jumping is still on the exercise black list). Wow, you cannot imagine the deadly combination of four weeks off from dancing and a baby and belly four weeks bigger!
I made it through barre and decided that was enough so headed home. My left calf cramped the whole way home while I tried to hold my clutch pedal in at all the red lights I missed. And the rest of the afternoon I feel like I was punched in the groin. Getting up from the couch hurt, walking hurt and the thought of going to bed and possibly feeling worse the next morning was terrifying! I am determined though, to go next week and the week after. I’ve let dancing go from my life too many times and know I will need another hiatus when the baby arrives but it is my goal to stay as active in dancing through pregnancy as possible because ballet has always been the one thing I do for me and only me and every mommy needs something like that in her life.
I love this picture taken at BDA. I miss that place!