Dancing out of my comfort zone

Herald intern Carina Kohn, 19, took an adult ballet class at The Dance Loft, in Long Beach, on July 15, to learn a form of dance she had never done, but always wanted to try. She was instructed by Willa Damien, who opened her studio in 1984.

Donovan Berthoud/Herald

Taking a ballet class, Kohn said, “showed me that being good at something does not have to be the prerequisite for doing it.”

Donovan Berthoud/Herald

• 
• 

Editor’s note: This week the Herald begins a summer series in which we asked five interns each to take part in an activity that they have always wanted to try but, for whatever reason(s), never have, and write first-person accounts about their experiences. This week 19-year-old Carina Kohn, who attends SUNY New Paltz, takes a ballet class.

I am not flexible. Nor have I ever considered myself to be graceful. I struggle to reach my toes at the doctor’s office. I’ve been known to trip over air, and I am the first to spill a drink on someone’s white tablecloth. So, when asked as a child what I wanted to be when I grew up, a ballerina was not on the list. It just wasn’t my thing — or so I thought.

I did spend a large part of my youth taking classes at The Dance Loft in Long Beach. I discovered early on that I was just coordinated enough to dance, and I liked doing it. I did tap, hip-hop and jazz in the style of Bob Fosse. I also explored a musical theater class and even dreamed of giving lyrical dance a go. Occasionally, a pirouette or two would sneak its way into one of my dance combinations, and while the other girls spotted their twirls, I would close my eyes and hope for the best. A poorly executed pirouette was as close as I had ever got to ballet, and that was exactly how I wanted it.

In retrospect, I realize that I assumed I wouldn’t be good at ballet without ever trying it. Although it had been about five years since I last took a dance class, I decided that it wasn’t too late to dust off my old dance bag and give it a shot.

Overcoming my fear

I called Willa Damien, co-director and founder of The Dance Loft — who goes by Miss Willa to her students — in early July and scheduled to join her adult beginner ballet class the following week on July 15. I didn’t even know a class like that existed until Damien informed me that there has always been a demand for adult ballet since she opened the studio in 1984.

When the day came, I was excited but also nervous. I didn’t know the first thing about ballet, and I feared that I was going to feel out of place. It had been years since I thought of myself as a dancer, and I couldn’t even remember the last time I stretched.