Monday is my ballet day, as it’s when I am doing my weekly ballet class. Today we did similar exercises. I felt that I could remember the movements and names better than before. I felt good about it. At the same time, there are a few exercises that I feel that I need to practice more, including balance and turning. It was hard for my legs to feel still when I tried to balance on the barre or at the centre. It was also hard for me to turn or travel. My head feels really dizzy afterwards. I think it’s a sign that I have not been an active person.

Today, the teacher also mentioned the class schedule for the next term. He mentioned the pros and cons of moving from the introduction/beginner class and improver levels at the start. He said that he would usually recommend students to repeat the introduction level. When some of us asked about it at the end, he did tell us that he felt confident about our progress.

However, I was thinking about repeating this level during the class before we asked him. And when I explained to him that I also wanted to start contemporary introduction and I’m scared that my brain would not be able to follow both of them. He recommended me to then add a little bit of things each time. He said that I could do introduction classes for ballet and contemporary dance next term, and then move to ballet improvers and repeat contemporary dance introduction. To be honest, this idea of progressing slowly but surely actually excites me a lot. As an impatient person, I never imagined that this could ever excites me, but it did.

I like ballet and contemporary dance enough that I want to do them forever (to be fair I don’t do other exercises anyway). I think since I’m planning to do it for at least two more years in London and longer regardless of staying in London or moving to another city/country. Repeating it for another term won’t be too bad. I will still be able to progress to improvers for ballet in 2026. I am not sure about contemporary dance yet, but my goal is to move to intermediate at the dance studio and the recommended duration is doing contemporary dance for three years. This means that doing contemporary dance beginner for one year and improver for two years won’t be a bad idea either.

Most importantly, I want to be on pointe one day without any injury and with the enjoyment of ballet. If I want to do ballet forever, I should not rush this. I am doing this for myself, not for any external goal or my age. I want to enjoy doing ballet forever.