The Doctor, The Wobble Board and Balance

Oh dear! It's been a little while since I've been on here. Exams, new online ballet and show prep have been keeping me busy and unfortunatetly my blog took a hit! But I'm back with a story that I've been wanting to tell you about for a few weeks now and it starts with me getting my covid booster at the doctors. Now this was the quickest vaccine ever and I was in and out within a couple of minutes but what was special about it is the doctor, unbeknown to him, was doing a little training for classical ballet.

I walked into the room and sat down and I noticed a balance wobble board on the floor beneath his feet. "I like your exercises board" I said to the doctor who seemed surprised I mentioned it. "Thank you he said, I use this when I'm on the phone to patients to help strengthen my core and improve my posture". "Wow" I said "I am a ballet teacher and I also use boards like this one to support with posture and prepare the feet ready for pointe work." "Maybe you could be a ballet dancer one day" I smiled. He looked at me and laughed before I continued, "If you start practicing the arms when you are on the phone to patients as well you could get really good!". And from there I saw the doctors brain ticking, you could tell he was thinking about it but instead he replied "You are funny Emily" and we both chuckled before I left the surgery. I have a sneaky suspicion that the doctor may have tried a couple of 5th positions whilst balancing on his wobble board that day, but disappointingly I will never really know!

I will never forget the doctor and the wobble board because it was a little sign that ballet really is all around us. It is true that even if you don't have a strict ballet training regime you can still benefit from the strengthening and flexibility that ballet technique brings.