Middle-aged dreams: 50 years old and in ballet shoes

Young people usually have an advantage and at least have the necessary training time. But Ms. Trinh put on hard-toed shoes when she was in her 50s.

Những giấc mơ tuổi trung niên : Tuổi 50 xỏ chân vào giày múa ballet — *Ms. Trinh is full of life in belly dance - Photo: NVCC*

Anyone who has ever attended ballet class has longed for the day when they can dance in pointe shoes, stand on their toes, and do pirouettes (spinning movements on one leg) like a real ballerina. Young people usually have an advantage and at least have to practice enough. But Trinh put her feet in pointe shoes when she was over 50.

Happy to see myself moving forward a little bit every day

Ms. Nguyen Kieu Trinh studied fine arts, was a painter, a reporter and currently works for an English newspaper, a job that has nothing to do with dancing. Dancing was a childhood dream that she did not dare to pursue, a hobby to relieve stress in her youth. In middle age, it is a catalyst for her to explore new things and challenge herself. The adult ballet class at Kinnergy Center that Ms. Trinh is attending has more than a dozen people, most of whom are quite young. There are a few students of school age but most are adults who have gone to work. Ms. Trinh is in the "elderly" group of the class but is not the oldest student. The class has a few foreign students. They live in Vietnam and do jobs unrelated to art, but looking at their movements, you can see that they have practiced ballet for quite a while. This group of "elderly" people have something in common in their demeanor. It is a peaceful and calm look, a kind of "meditation" in the space where they dance. This is quite strange because everyone thinks that ballerinas (professional ballet dancers) need to learn from a young age and have to go through hard training, considering it a career that requires a goal to constantly strive for. People like Ms. Trinh are not like that, they do not seem to practice hard to become someone to compete or build a career, but they look inward to find joy. But that does not mean that the training of non-professional ballet students like Ms. Trinh is easier. On the contrary, to make even a small progress compared to young people, they will have to work much harder because at this age, their bodies find it difficult to achieve flexibility, openness, and musculoskeletal stability. "Those who like excitement may find ballet boring. The hardest time to overcome is the basic lessons, when in a class most of the time we will practice with the choreography, practicing the same "monotonous" movements over and over again. I had to overcome the despair of not being able to master even the simplest movements, and no matter how many times I practiced, I still didn't see any difference. It took a long time to be able to move a little bit forward compared to my previous self," Trinh said.

Sitting and observing her and her students during a practice session, I realized that it was not easy, especially the movements that required flexibility, stability and good balance. "Look at the 17-18 year olds, I dance very badly," Trinh said during a break in the practice session. It is true that looking at young students, you can see their youthfulness, but looking at Trinh and some students aged 55-60, you can see that they are full of positive energy. "I am not afraid of anything, because I am not trying to be equal to young people who have reached a higher level than me. I just practice to try to surpass myself from yesterday," she said. Trinh started practicing ballet about five years ago, but has only practiced more regularly in the past two years. From going to practice when she had free time, she later arranged her time to prioritize regular weekly classes. Most non-professional ballet practitioners can only practice in soft shoes. But Trinh put her feet in hard-toed shoes after a few years of getting used to ballet. According to her, to be able to walk and dance in hard-toe shoes, you need to have strong enough ankles to stand firm. "You have to have enough practice time for it to endure, if you are impatient, you can get injured right away. When wearing hard-toe shoes, your toes will also be very painful, even if you have been practicing for a while. Scratches are inevitable," she confided. Because it is very difficult for non-professionals, not everyone can wear hard-toe shoes. At Kinnergy, the students who practice hard-toe shoes are quite young, so many of them jokingly said, "Maybe Ms. Trinh is the first woman in her 60s in Vietnam to practice hard-toe shoes!". She sees it as a challenge for her to overcome and also a gift for her efforts.

"It's never too late"

Trinh said this when looking back on her dance experience. Starting her dancing journey in her twenties, Trinh learned dancesport, then belly dance before coming to ballet. "Dancesport was just a game that stopped early. Later, when I returned to dancing, I wanted to find a form that I could dance alone because I was afraid of physical contact with strangers. I also liked to learn lady style with Latin dances because of its attractive and bustling music, but then I chose belly dance," she said. According to Trinh, the difficulty of belly dance is to create soft, curvaceous movements of the body, especially the technique of separating each body part according to different movements. She shared that with belly dance, she had a journey enough to... confidently study and interact with friends. But with ballet, even though she had been "exploring the wilderness" for 4 or 5 years, she knew she was still taking her first steps. "Why did belly dance change to ballet?", answering this question, she said that belly dance and ballet have many seemingly opposite points. One side is a dance originating from Eastern culture with the ideal beauty of fertility. The other side is produced from the West with classical and learned music, worshiping elegant beauty. An improvisational dance, full of curves, expanding in all directions like proliferation, belly dance seems to be opposite to the high-reaching, tightening postures, the soft but extremely strict movements, the soaring but extremely tight movements of ballet. "But as a dance enthusiast, I know that ballet will complement belly dance a lot. Because every dance needs a basic foundation, and ballet is the complementary foundation. It helps the muscles and bones become stronger, more stable, and have better balance", she shared. According to Ms. Trinh, whether it is belly dance or ballet, behind each dance is a whole sky of music and cultural knowledge. And perhaps for middle-aged people, the attraction is not only in the dance but also in the things behind it. Curiosity, discovery, constant learning and the journey of self-renewal are probably the factors that attract people of Ms. Trinh's age...

The girl with "flared mouth, peanut knees, and broom legs" is different now.

Trinh said she loved dancing since she was little but did not have the courage to "confess" to her parents because she was self-conscious about her "flared mouth, knobby knees, and slouchy legs" body shape, as her grandmother often teased her. It was just a joke from adults, but little Trinh at that time thought she was not suited for dancing and could not dance. In Trinh's mind at that time, dancing was something beautiful but out of reach. "Actually, I could not imagine that one day I would be able to do what I loved since I was little, let alone dare to step into a ballet studio and pursue it for so many years. If I did not have passion, it would be very difficult to pursue it," Trinh shared.

____________________________________ "I used to be good at many things but never thought I could hold a paintbrush, let alone paint lacquer. But I tried and started to have a passion for it." Next: Don't be afraid, just try

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Source: https://tuoitre.vn/nhung-giac-mo-tuoi-trung-nien-ky-cuoi-hoc-tieng-anh-o-tuoi-53-sau-con-dot-quy-20241017223304051.htm