It’s never too late to start

I always think that if I had children, I would send them to all kind of classes outside school so they can learn dancing, martial arts, music, swimming and other sports. That is because I didn’t get to do all that when I was growing up. I always wish I would have done this, done that. BUT it’s never too late to start. I started learning how to swim when I was 25. I first played racquetball when I was 26. It was the first sports I had ever played though I had played a couple of badminton matches when I was young and being playful. So that was not counted as playing a sport. I wasn’t particularly good at either badminton or racquetball. I am scared of the ball coming at me at a high speed. And after a couple of bruises my husband gave me, I gave up racquetball, for now. Most parents will start their kids learning music as early as they can afford. I started learning the piano last winter (2011-2012). I learned it through books and free online lessons and under my husband’s instruction. I haven’t worked diligently at it so I am still at the beginning beginner’s stage. I love it that I am able to read music and play some very simple sheet music. Dance is somewhat like music. There are even baby ballet classes where babies learn to walk, run and dance at the same time. It’s somewhat an exaggeration but you get the idea. I started ballroom dance lessons when I was at college so I know a little of it. However the classical jazz class I am taking is a totally different animal. I started this class in the fall of 2010 and have been completely enjoying them. There are lots of ballet techniques with rich French vocabulary which I can’t make out the meaning despite my four years of studying French. It might help if I had a ballet dictionary and looked each pose up. Anyways, there are lots of different turns, jumps, hand positions, foot positions, and so on. I normally just learn it by imitating my teacher. She is a great teacher. She must be very experienced in teaching different age groups. Some students in this class act like a child, like me, just imitating, not much knowing what I am doing. Some act more like adults with dance experience. They would ask very technical questions in tiny details of each move. I mostly don’t care that much. It’s not a competition or even a performance. We normally work on a short routine and a long routine. Short routines are different every day so there is really no time for perfection. Meanwhile, we usually spend a couple of weeks on a long routine and move on so I will forget them right away to make room for the new routine. It’s a great fun listening to the music and moving your body with it. Once you do it, you highly appreciate the talents and hard work of dancers that you watch on stage or on TV shows like “So you think you can dance.” Now I can’t say that I CAN dance but I can proudly say “I dance”.