Coping with ballet withdrawal!

There’s no need to look at your calendar to see when summer ends; nature does that for us. The rain starts to kick in, the leaves fall to the ground and we start to re-introduce scarves into our daily wardrobe to ease us in to big winter coats. Many will dread this time of year. Gone are the summer after work drinks, the spontaneous BBQ and the last minute wax appointments and instead we shelve our Pimm's and pull out the Bailey’s. I have to admit that I love this time of year, not because of the cold or the dark nights, but because it means that ballet season can begin again.

By the time it hits May, I, like many other hardcore ballet goers, start to feel the strain and I’m ready for a break. God knows how the dancers feel. And I’m not sitting here crying because I see too much ballet, I’m well aware how lucky I am. But as the season nears its end, I look forward to the long separation I have from watching live ballet. Mainly because it builds up my thirst for it even more come October. What I find though is that around this time, every year, I start to feel a bit restless. Stresses at work start to kick in, my mood changes and I feel a yearning for something more. It happens every year and now I realise why. I’m having literal withdrawal symptoms from ballet. I rely so much on this art form to fulfill my necessary escapism. Perhaps it sounds a little pretentious, but where some play sports or video games, I go and see dance. What I find by the end of August is that I need an outlet, a hobby, something to watch so I can escape real life just for a couple of hours. I’ve always been this way and as a child I constantly wrote stories and plays about fictional worlds and characters. I was a dreamy, only child, a Pisces, with my head fully in the clouds, and not much has changed. If it’s all getting a bit much during the year, work stresses, the grey weather, politics etc, there’s nothing better than stepping into the theatre to see whether Lise will end up with Colas or if Odette will escape Von Rothbart.

Many people watch ballet and dance for different reasons. Some want to count every pirouette or observe every step, others want to see their favourite dancers on the stage and some go to treat themselves every once in a while. I go to step into another world, to watch the stories unfold and to feel the emotion that pours out from the stage. As I think about pouring myself a Bailey’s and digging out a scarf, I think about how much I am looking forward to this upcoming season of dance. Whatever the theatre and whichever the production, I’m sure I'll be taken to an exciting world.