Your inspiration today - Returning to Ballet after 10 years

Today, I did something I hadn’t done in almost ten years; I stepped back into a ballet studio.

I started ballet when I was four years old and practiced for two decades. Ballet shaped my posture, my discipline, my way of seeing the world. And then, life shifted direction. For 10 years, I didn’t dance, but I took that time to experience new sports like surfing, skate, and tennis. But today, I returned.

It wasn’t just any class; it was a professional-level class at Tanzhaus Zürich. Walking into that studio, surrounded by dancers who seemed effortlessly perfect, I felt a mixture of nostalgia, excitement, and surprisingly calm.

Because this time, I wasn’t there to prove anything. I was there to enjoy.

And as the music began and the first pliés unfolded, I was astonished at how much my body remembered. The rhythm, the coordination, even the muscle memory of certain movements; all quietly sleeping inside me, waiting to be awakened. I followed along, sometimes clumsily, sometimes gracefully. But I was there, dancing again.

Our teacher, who was wonderfully welcoming, said something that struck me deeply. While explaining how to move on stage, she reminded us:

“In ballet, the movement and the lines your body creates never really end. You always elongate, just a little more. That elongation is what keeps the movement alive for the audience. The moment you stop, when you think there’s nothing more to give, you’re dead on stage. But there’s always a bit more, a breath, a few millimeters…”

That idea — there’s always a bit more — stayed with me long after the class ended.

Because it’s not just about dance, is it?

In life, too, we reach moments when we think we’ve given everything. That there’s nothing left to stretch, no more energy to offer, no more beauty to express. But maybe, just maybe, there’s a tiny bit more inside us. A breath, an inch, a spark… the kind that keeps us alive, connected, and moving forward.

Ballet taught me that perfection isn’t the goal… aliveness is.
And aliveness comes from that small, quiet decision to elongate, to reach a little further than comfort, to give just a bit more love, presence, grace.

Today, I didn’t just return to ballet. I returned to a part of myself that knows how to elongate, in movement, in heart, in life.

And that, I think, is what keeps everything alive.

You have just a bit more to give, and this is going to keep things alive for you!

—
🩰 With love from the studio,
Stavrina Art Lab