Have I Learned My Lesson?

After my lesson about pointe shoes, I had my first tap lesson last night. Hmm? Why did I need a lesson on pointe shoes? Oh, my daughter is taking pointe this year for the first time. There's a right way to attach the ribbons and elastic, and a wrong way to attach them. There's a good chance the dancer could get hurt if said items aren't properly attached. Also, the teacher wanted to fit the shoes on each girl because again, injuries can occur without the proper fit.

We got her pointe shoes at the same dance store as the other families, but for some reason, most of the families had ill-fitting shoes. One mom said her daughter tried on over 20 pairs before finding shoes, and her daughter's shoes were in the bunch that didn't fit properly. Only 2 or 3 girls of about 10 had their shoes fitted correctly. I'd be very unhappy if my daughter's shoes didn't fit right. You trust the people at the dance store to know what they are doing, especially when it comes to pointe shoes.

Anyway, my tap lesson.

The lesson was for adult beginners, but I was at a disadvantage on so many levels just tying my shoes. I mentioned that I tried tap years ago, but it wasn't a beginner class so I was always lost. Much has changed within my body from years ago, but it happened so gradually that I adjusted to it in my everyday way of life. It's not until you try something new that you realize how far off you really are. Also, I'm pretty sure that all of the other people had some experience tapping, even from childhood. My dance “career” ended when I broke my leg in March of first grade, and I was in a non-weight-bearing cast on crutches for 6 weeks. I never really made it past tick tock down and toe heel, toe heel.

As you can tell, I did survive the class, and my body doesn't feel any worse today. So far. How did I do? In a word, terrible! Some of the steps showed me precisely how bad my balance is. Some of the steps showed me that my coordination is sporadic; I'll get a step, then, bam! My legs say, “nope”. My mind was telling my feet "shuffle shuffle shuffle", but my leg was doing "shuf-fle shuf-fle shuf-fle". At one point, I asked for a barre because I thought that might help to steady my balance on the side shuffles. Didn't really help.

But you know what? I did it. I stayed for the whole class, and I actually got the hang of some of it. I might even be able to catch on more as the year progresses. Or not. I am, however, willing to give it a go.

Part of my problem is trying to get my body to move the way I'm telling it to move. My head keeps saying, “Oh yeah, piece of cake! We got this”. My body is saying, “Whoa, let's just take this a liiiiittle slower there, sweetie”. It may be due to the MS, or it might just be because I'm learning. Time will tell, right? I'm going to keep at it until my body just won't do it because you know what? I had fun, and it was something I did just for me. I didn't do it because I had to, or it was recommended, or my family would appreciate it, I did it for fun. For me.