An Ode to Dance

A short piece on something that brings me joy

It feels like an exceptionally heavy and dark time right now for a lot of people and it pushed me to want to share something a little more personal and meaningful here. I’m so grateful for this platform that feels like a breath of fresh air compared to other social media right now. Personally when going through hard times or shit moments I always try to focus on and think about things that bring me immense joy (trust me it’s not easy but training your brain to do this can be a gamechanger). When I was a child one of the things I loved most in the whole world was dance, I would dance almost every day after school in the living room or my bedroom, stringing together imaginary movements and choreographing sequences in my head that I would translate into my body. Whatever felt right, or came to me in the moment or materialised through the music. The feeling of creating movement with my body to sound was freeing like nothing else I had ever experienced, it was electric, it was magic, it was mine.

My Saturday morning ballet class was always the highlight of my week. I loved the ritual of dressing up in my ballet uniform, putting on my tights, the classic pink leotard, my little sheer skirt, leg warmers and most of all my ballet shoes, which were my prized possession. My mum was always there to help me to fix my ballet bun, her gentle hands would sweep my hair tidily into place with the finishing touch of bobby pins on either side and a healthy dose of hairspray. These days I still find myself drawn to this ritual of getting dressed up and am heavily influenced by ballet in my personal style. Something that despite becoming a major trend over the last few years with the emergence of ballet core, still feels very authentic to myself.

As I grew up, I continued to dance, more and more. It felt like no matter what happened that my love of dancing and my dance classes were something permanent, stable and safe, where creativity and expression just came naturally to me. Even when I moved to different countries and cities, even when things in life were challenging, or difficult, or falling apart. Everything would be ok, because I could dance and in those moments, I was free. Ballerinas are incredibly strong and disciplined, but also graceful at the same time, something that I actively strive to embody. My hero is Sylvie Guillem, I would devour videos and images of her for hours on end, to me she was the ultimate ballerina. She so effortlessly displays her strength and grace and is still a huge inspiration for me, even today. If I’ve had a tough day, If I’m feeling low or uninspired I can always watch Sylvie or I could just shut my eyes and create or relive routines in my mind and the magic will always be there.

Leaving you with some of my all time favourite dance inspirational images of Pina Bausch, Martha Graham and Swan Lake. I hope they bring you as much strength and joy as they do me.

Alice <3