Stillness in Ballet and in Life
I wasn’t focusing on dance, clearly, but I did take a few ballet classes while I was in Berkeley. During the adagio of one class, the teacher pointed out the importance of finding stillness for a moment, of creating a picture. When you pose for an imaginary camera, she explained, you draw in your audience, catch their eye and deepen the viewer’s experience of the dance.
Her comment resonated with me because my life had paused. I was being with my mother every day, sitting by her bedside, reading to her, playing her music, holding her hand and just being. But in the meantime I was taking a pause from my own life. Everything else stopped as I was deepening my experience with my mother. Until she found her ultimate stillness, I was also staying still.
I always think of ballet as a flow of energy that grows and reaches even in a pose. I’d forgotten that of course, like life, ballet threads energy between stillness and motion. It weaves distinct clear poses with swirling surges and within that fabric of movement, at times it must take a breath and be still. It isn’t easy to do this in a dance, to continue the flow of the dance yet find that split second pause.
Although I’m back in New York now, I’m still grieving my mother, missing her, remembering moments during this special time we shared, and moments throughout our lives. She was by no means a ‘stage mom’ but she did enroll me in ballet when I was a kid. She probably attended hundreds of performances and shows over the years. When I was a teenager, and she was in her fifties, she even started taking ballet classes too.
I’m thrust now back into the rumble of city life — rehearsing a reading of another play, helping with another opera, working, teaching, and getting back in touch with friends. Yet I’m taking with me, among many things, this last precious lesson she taught me, the value of taking time out to be still.
~Sarah
* Photo by David Hofmann via Upsplash
Please see the Classes page for my current teaching schedule. I’d love to see you at the barre!
On the Way to the Barre 
Oh Sarah, it took my breath away this morning when I saw your name in my reading feed. I know the power and meaning of this reemergence. You, as ever, breath poetry into everything you write, just as you do into all of like. I love you, my friend.
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Oh my god, Susan!! Such praise from a master poet as you are! Wow, I’m so humbled my dear!
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What a beautiful tribute to your mother; I was captivated by your authenticity.
Yes, stillness in life is as important as its opposite; both needed in full measure!
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What a stunningly beautiful post, Sarah. My heart hurts for you, but also rejoices in your strength and courage. Heartbreak is inevitable in this life; how we rise from it, our greatest challenge. You are an inspiration. Lots of love to you. xo
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Tanya, thank you so much!
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What an amazing thought that all peoples should heed. Take a moment…be still. The balance between motion and what comes between.
It is no secret that Rush is my favorite band. Their drummer, already a world-renowned virtuoso, took some time off to study under a man named Freddy Gruber. The first thing Freddy asked Neil Peart to do after watching him play was to feel the space BETWEEN the beats.
Motion…music…life…it is ALL waves energy. Feel the space between them.
I am so sorry for your loss, and touched by the story of how you connected with it. I will certainly remember this.
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Thank you so much for reading and for your lovely comment!
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The pause, the stillness to allow your life to catch up, or let go of a life… I know it. Almost surreal the whole world just didn’t stop too.~Kim
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Yes, that is exactly it Kim. So well put!
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