Love, Tess
Although we were unable to put on our annual recitals this year due to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, we were determined that the show must go on. So we went virtual! Together features some of our students from across the country, each dancing at home and yet still dancing together. You can watch our short show here: balletforallkids.com/together
Here is a letter from Tess, the daughter of our Founding Director, who is been with BFAK for over 14 years.
Hello to all of Ballet For All Kids and anyone else who might be watching this:
Welcome to Ballet For All Kids virtual show.
Ballet For All Kids (BFAK) is a fully inclusive ballet studio teaching classical ballet to people of all abilities.
When I write that down it sounds cold and unimaginative. But then, usually all definitions do, for all their words and their intelligent sounding bluster, they fail to bring to life what really makes something special, they fail to elicit that special something, that authentic uniqueness, that makes a thing itself, that keeps a thing from being in accord with the rest of its environment.
For BFAK (affectionately known as “beefack”) that something is very large. Perhaps it’s too large for words, definitely too large for the paper I have in front of me, but I feel like I’d be a failure if I didn’t try.
So what is BFAK?
Perhaps it’s our beautiful children whose spirits are so large and gorgeous that even after the COVID 19 tragedy struck and we had to go virtual, their faces on Zoom somehow leap off the screen and fill up the entire room, and for a moment it’s like they’re actually in the room with me.
And then I think back to all the years I’ve been in the studio with all the generations of BFAK children and adults who I’ve watched. Students come and go, change and evolve. I have watched how the struggle for a perfect Plié becomes easier. How each little face in the classroom lights up with the spectacle of Ms. Bonnie in a Leprechaun hat, and I look around at all the delighted kids and think, like the most perfect gourmet cupcakes, I could eat you all up!
Tess and Bonnie.
Or perhaps it’s the strength, the perseverance that somehow always prevails. In one of our ballets, we did the Little Engine that Could. Perhaps you’ve heard the story about the little train that just couldn’t make it up the hill, until it believed it could, and it did. We really are like that engine. How each child, adult and person struggles with such fierce grace towards becoming a more perfect dancer than they somehow inwardly already are.
Or perhaps it’s the inclusivity, the most overlooked part of BFAK, that we teach real, classical ballet to all people, that we have people with disabilities, people that are typical, all learning the same thing, nothing sacrificed, because we are all just people and we really can learn together.
Or perhaps, and maybe most importantly, it is the grace. The grace that every child, every adult, every person within BFAK shows, facing their challenges with some of the most gorgeous strength I have ever seen in a person, letting some deep, innate, inner quality fill them when they dance. Because grace is ballet isn’t it? We forget that, in all the regiment, the search for perfection. But really, ballet isn’t perfection, it’s grace – something different entirely, something that we all have, some deep, natural human quality, the ability to transcend.
For these things and so many more that are somehow unspeakable, BFAK has shaped my life. I hope I never have to know what the world is like without the Little Ballet Studio that Could in it. How much less would the world be with out beautiful dancers and the space for them to do ballet?
So for all of this, and for so much more that words just aren’t strong enough to capture, I am so grateful to be able to be a part of this virtual show today. I miss you all so much and what we can’t cover in space, we can certainly cover in heart and spirit. No distance, not six feet or 6000 miles, can ever shut that out.
So here I end what has become a love letter to BFAK. I hope you love our virtual show as much as I do.
Love,
Tess Schlachte