In The Beginning
Talent.
A marked innate ability, as for artistic accomplishment. Natural endowment or ability of a superior quality. A person or group of people having such ability. A variable unit of weight
and money used in ancient Greece, Rome, and the Middle East.
It began with a simple English class writing assignment: Everyone needs to interview a professional who is working in a field you want to be in when you grow up.
What do you want to be when you grow up?
The answer was simple: a ballerina.
Pickings were slim for a professional ballerina in the small town of Richmond, Kentucky. I settled for the owner of a dance studio. The interview went something like this:
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How long have you owned this studio?
Twelve years.
How many students do you have?
Approximately seventy-five students this year.
And how many of your students go on to become professional dancers?
One student in every senior class becomes a professional ballet dancer. It takes a lot to become professional, not just training, but you have to really want it.
How old do you have to be... when is it...I mean, how old are the students, who become professionals, how old are they when they begin training?
Most begin around age seven or eight.
How old is too old to begin? I mean, if you wanted to be a professional dancer?
At the very latest, a girl could begin training at age ten. A boy could begin as late as twelve or thirteen.
So, if a girl didn’t start training until she was ... say... my age, thirteen. But she started studying really hard and took, maybe even extra training, like gymnastics or something too, then could she, maybe, become a professional dancer, some day, maybe?
No.
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Motive.
An emotion, desire, physiological need, or similar impulse that acts as an incitement to action. Impelling to action. Of or constituting an incitement to action.
Thus, my training began:
Chichetti One and Two, Modern One and Two, Adult Ballet in the Evenings, Tap. An eight week intensive in the summer. Chichetti Three and Chichetti Four, Pointe, Modern One and Two again, More Tap, Flamenco, Chichetti Five, Advanced Modern, more Pointe. Six days a week, during and after school, two to five hours a day for two years.
Exhaustion, frustration, muscle cramps, pain, blisters, soreness, fatigue, Charlie horses, tears, blood, blisters, ripped open blisters, pointe shoes, ballet shoes, tap shoes, pain, character shoes, tights, leotards, unitards, blisters, a flamenco skirt, buns, pain, pony-tails, bobby-pins, hair-pins, gel, hair spray, turn-out, extension, develope, plie, tendu, deglege, arabesque, attitude, pain, pointe shoes, blisters, pain.
Then there were the performances.
And the applause.
Lights, curtain, performance.
Applause.
College was the wake up call.
Being stubborn was not enough anymore.
I was disrespectful to my professors as well as peers.
I was full of myself because I started as a freshman in the advanced ballet classes.
I was a child.
I needed a spanking.
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Rain, you’re missing class. You’ve got an attitude problem. This has been the norm for two years now. We don’t feel you’re serious about dance. You’ve got a lot of talent, but we feel you’re wasting yours and our time as a dance major.
What are you saying?
We no longer feel that you need to be a dance major here. You need to find a new major.
No.
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Stubborn.
Unreasonably, often perversely unyielding; bullheaded. Firmly resolved or determined; resolute.
What do you want to be when you grow up?
A dancer.
Last Updated Friday, November 30 2007 @ 11:53 AM MST; 903 Hits 
