Alors on danse

When I was little, my mother enrolled me in ballet lessons at the age of 2. I did ballet (somewhat reluctantly, amid on-off phases of really loving it) until I was 17 years old. At the same school, with the same teacher, and pretty much the same girls I'd always been in classes with.

I ended up stopping when I was at uni deciding that I just didn't have time for it anymore, and traded my twice weekly classes for a gym membership. Recently though, I have returned to the school I went to for 15 years to do adult intermediate classes once a week. To be honest, I was a little skeptical at first - worried that time had sweetened my memories and I may not actually enjoy it as much as I was hoping to. Nevertheless, I braved my first lesson a few weeks ago and haven't looked back.

Having had 6 years off I now realise just how much strength and fitness is required - and how much I took for granted when I used to at worst get a case of 'jelly legs' by the end of class as a teenager. Now I get aching muscles within the first 15 minutes, in places I didn't even know I had working muscles! But I'm loving every minute of it. The part I get really excited about is going to buy new ballet shoes and leotards and one day maybe i'll even don my tutu and pointe shoes once more...