Ballerina
Julie Joy O.
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Poetry is my favorite form of creativity. You know why? Poetry's magical. It's no ordinary writing. It dares me to break free from the safe strategies of my cautious mind. It is a magical art, and always has been -- a making of language spells designed to open our eyes, open our doors and welcome us into a bigger world, one of possibilities we may never have dared to dream of.
And that's why when I received an email from my humanities teacher, I thought I'd share a little bit of that magic. In my way. A ballerina's perspective, if you will.
I wanted to write an essay originally, and simply compare dance with humanity. But as I began to write I realized there were plenty of fun similarities to play with. There was a little more freedom that I could mess around with. The way we dancers spend all day on pointe shoes, in pain, but continue to dance. The way it's so beautiful on the outside but can be quite agonizing on the inside. Thing's like this inspired me to write more like a dancer. Similar to a waltz, I wanted the poem to represent a ballet piece, something that I could see myself dancing to. A cadence, that was almost Beethoven-like. After writing a first draft I found myself quite sad. I was reminded of a time where I was so joyful- ballet was my pure bliss! But after covid- I couldn't dance anymore and it broke me from the inside out. But somehow this poem provided for a little bit of healing. A little bit of light on stage.
After I finished a third draft I found myself feeling magical once again. I expressed that dance is not just something you do on stage, but in life. Sadly we dance around those around us attempting to meet the best performance. Life is simply a dance. Maybe not a ballet piece, but more of a Jazz or contemporary. We all dance for some odd reason-whether we like to or not. We all put on a performance when we don't need to. So even though I stopped twirling on stage, I still find myself twirling at home, at school, or even when I'm writing- trying to find answers to some of my biggest questions about humanity.
Why do we continue to dance, when it's okay to be still?
I am so happy I am able to submit this poem. A little piece of me. With a load of questions.
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Creativity is a language that everyone can speak and understand. While often overlooked, creativity is very similar to music. Not everyone understands the meaning of each beat or note played, but at the end of the day, we all love what comes from it. Creativity is simply just our universal language.
