By Noreen McGill
For a moment, I knew. I was graceful. I was all beauty in movement, at last, a ballerina, light transcendent.
The 50 years slipped away when I pulled on my pink tights. The spider veins, bumps and sunspots from my legs and the grand bunion disappeared as my foot slipped daintily into the sweet pink slippers. I was 7 again.
The elastic strap of the slipper bit my Achilles, that soft tender skin. I remembered my 7-year-old self worrying at it, rubbing it raw in rebellion. Ballet was for the fine, cultured, decorative girls, not me, a wild tree-climbing, frog-catching woodland thing. I did not believe I could be beautiful, graceful.
That changed last ski season. I was sidelined as a result of a summer waterskiing incident that resulted in compression fractures in my spine. I found ballet. My first experience as an adult was the Ballet for Balanceclass at The Pico Sports Center at Killington’s Pico Mountain. The class was taught by Judy Dardeck. Her spirit radiated energy and grace. She moved with freedom and abandon.
I explained that I “washed out of ballet in second grade.”
She said, “We all did.”
There was hope for me. Dardeck’s playlist was eclectic, ranging from Bob Dylan to Imagine Dragons. Dardeck spends the coldest months of winter in Florida as a ballerina dancing in the southern sand. When she left, I thought my life as a dancer was over. But she encouraged me to attend The Vermont Center for Dance Education in Rutland, where Stefania Nardi, artistic director, offers adult ballet.
I was terrified. I learned from her artist’s profile that she began dancing at 9 years old, she attended the teacher training program at the National Academy of Dance in Rome Italy where she earned her degree in teaching ballet, and she’s certified to teach all levels of the American Ballet Theatre® National Training Curriculum. I was intimidated by these amazing credentials.
All my fears returned. The worries of the 7-year-old returned: I’m too big, too awkward, too heavy on my feet. The worst feelings came from my 57-year-old self. I’m too old, my body has been too damaged by my life — the car accident in 2005, the breast cancer and mastectomy in 2008 and the water skiing incident in summer 2019… But when she introduced herself as “Stefy” and I joined the other dancers, I knew. I was home.
Upon entering the studio, I thought, “What magical being dwells in this enchanted place, and does it really exist in Rutland, Vermont?”
The walls of the narrow stairway and halls are filled with images of dancing mermaids, jellyfish, magical creatures, pixies, sprites all created by Stefania Nardi for the school’s annual ballet performances. Each costume seems to express her passion for costume design and love of ballet arts. Nardi is brilliant. She dedicates herself and her talent to creating beauty and sharing her gift with everyone.
My first class included a few of my Pico classmates and some new friends. We ranged in age from 30-something to nearly 80. We moved together with joy and laughter, each of us finding our inner ballerina.
Nardi taught us the most poignant final exercise, the “Reverence.” She guided us to imagine ourselves wearing lovely tutus, our hands gracefully hovering over the tulle and sparkle. Motioning us to move our arms as if gathering a magnificent bouquet of flowers, she instructed us to look gently at the flowers, move slightly forward and extend our arms and gesture a release of the flowers, giving the wonderful flowers to the audience. She encouraged us to imagine saying to the audience, “This is for you.”
She turned to us, demonstrating the move, saying aloud as she gracefully extended her gift, “This is for you.”
In that moment, I realized I wasn’t too old to wear a tutu. I knew that I was, and am, exactly the right age. I gratefully and joyfully accepted her gift of the imaginary flowers, along with grace and the love of ballet.
Beginner adult ballet class is taught at The Vermont Center for Dance Education on Saturdays at 9:30 a.m. Beginning March 13, intermediate Adult classes are held on Saturdays at 11 a.m. and Wednesdays at 9:30 a.m. Ballet Balance classes will resume at the Pico Sports Center on Fridays at 9:15 a.m.
