It’s a Wobbleful Life
On realizing that steadiness is not a prerequisite to security
On our trip to New York, my friend and I decided to take a class in a Broadway dance studio — a heels class, my first ever. And the teacher said something during the warm-up that struck me.
She had us stand with our feet together, do a relevé (the ballet term for standing on the balls of your feet, as seen above), and then she asked us to hold that position.
I watched my feet wobble in the mirror. My upper body tilted in different directions. I bit my lip and clenched my fists as if that would help me keep my balance. Over the music, the teacher shouted, pushing us to stay on our toes. And as I fought to keep myself upright and steady, she said, “It’s not about staying still. It’s about adjusting.”
I’m not a ballet dancer, but in the golden days of my cheerleader core power, I’d been taught and trained on how to hold that position: keep your core tight, butt squeezed, and imagine a straight line traversing you vertically like a barbecue stick. The only acceptable state, I always thought, was to be in full control, aware of my body, rigid as a bamboo.
Was my dance teacher saying that the key is in one’s ability to adjust? Sure, that’s one way to turn this into a broader life lesson. There were a few…
