(selon le ballet classique)
I had one of those mini-epiphanies in ballet class last week.
Our ballet teacher, in her youth ("long before your time, darling"), was a former coryphée with the London Festival Ballet/English National Ballet. In the last fortnight we had one of those days where she wanted us to concentrate more on technique and less on falling over.
The class was a daytime Elementary-level ballet class. She was asking some of us to have our feet less parallel (=opposite of "turned-out") than we normally do, while executing a slow developpé^.
Technically, a developpé is hard to do without losing your balance or just keeling over. Because we don't want to embarrass ourselves in this way, some of us tend to execute developpés with our feet too turned-in, that is, parallel.
But our teacher said, in essence:
Don't worry if you fall over. It's better if you're doing the exercise correctly.
As long as you're trying, I see it. I notice your efforts to improve, & it's really only my approval that matters, because you're all different & have trained for different periods of time.
Don't worry about what anybody else in the class is going to think of you. They've all got their own issues or things to work on.
________________
Sometimes I think ballet class can be a bit of a metaphor for corporate Christian life.
I say this because, very often, we can worry about how our fellow Christians see us. Esp. if we come across as weak or ungodly in a specific area. Just like I feel sometimes in the Elementary and Intermediate classes, we are self-conscious that others might be watching us, judging us, comparing us to themselves. We are afraid to be honest if we think it won't look that good to someone else nearby. Or worse, that someone may misunderstand & misinterpret what we do. Or say.
Even though what matters most is *not* the approval of our fellow learners, but that of our Teacher.
Perhaps we shouldn't worry so much about how other Christians see us.
As long as we're trying in dependence on the Spirit of Him who dwells in us, He sees it.
He notices our efforts by His Spirit to improve, & it's really only His approval that matters, because we've all been believers for different periods of time..have different backgrounds..different struggles & trials..different experiences.
Perhaps we shouldn't worry about what anybody else running the Christian race with us is going to think of us. They've all got their own issues or things to work on.
"For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God?
Or am I trying to please man?
If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ."
GAL. 1:10
L/T.
^
What a "developpé is"
- NON-BALLETOMANES stop reading now (unless you want to die of boredom)
Stand on two feet, draw one foot up the shin (bending the knee of the leg attached to the foot you are using), then unfold the leg/fully straighten the knee at hip/waist height.
(See this example of a developpé done by a genuine ballerina. The 0:05 mark - she does 4 of them, each with a different partner.)
{EDIT - 14/12/2010: My ballet friends!
And our teacher on the far R.}
Apart from our teacher, from L-R you can see: Midori, Maria, Phyllis, [yours truly] and Vivian.
Photograph courtesy of my friend Emma.
~
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