With Mother's Day coming up, I wanted to pay homage to the women who may not be our biological madres, but, still care and push us to grow so much, they need their flowers too.
A round of applause and big hugs for our dance teachers!
This reaction video features a variety of short form content from the ballet internet highlighting the realities, funny moments, and cute habits that these women have on their dancers' lives.
Even amongst dance teachers, they also joke that they are therapists & caregivers outside of also teaching us how to tendu and plie.
And the relationship with those who teach us how to leap & turn can also be sticky when some of the behaviors may not be so sweet on first glance. Ballet is notorious for its strict Russian ballet teachers, and a great clip of Joy Womack is a great starting pointe of discussion for this. It leads us to think about a greater question that exists outside ballet as well, but in other high-demand disciplines- what are the sacrifices required to achieve greatness? Is it abuse moonlighting as care? Is it just a cultural difference? Would we know who Miss Womack is without this push that led her to be the first American ballerina to get that Russian contract?
While we like to keep things light and positive here, it's also totally valid to think critically and come to our own conclusions! They say it takes a village to raise a kid - and dancers are lucky enough to have their dance teachers as part of that tribe!
Share your dance teacher stories in the comments with us, in celebrating an early Mother's Day!