I had a lot of anxiety when I decided to join my first ballet class in over a decade. Last September, I impulsively signed up for Angela Trimbur’s anti-perfection Balletcore class in New York City after seeing a TikTok video captioned, “My inner child healing.” The dancers’ freedom and happiness in the video prompted me to attend the class, even though I didn’t know much about it at the time.
When Angela Trimbur walked into the room cosplaying as a snobby ballet company’s artistic director, I questioned my impulsive decision, wondering if it was a mistake. Despite my initial concerns, I soon realized that the intention behind her approach was for us to pretend to be rebellious dancers who were tired of the unrealistic perfectionist standards of traditional ballet companies.
The class began with a barre warm-up set to classical music and incorporated traditional ballet exercises with unconventional movements under the barre. We were encouraged to hold our fingers in a non-traditional manner as a sign of rebellion against the conventional ballet narrative. Instead of the intimidating techniques I remembered from my youth, we were instructed to walk across the room as uptight dancers in one of the exercises.
The choreography was inspired by the epic dance number from the movie ‘Center Stage’. We were not given specific counts or instructions about the moves but were instead asked to tell a story with our bodies. During the class, we learned not to be concerned with right or wrong timing, but to interpret the music and movements in a way that felt right to us.
In creating Balletcore, Angela Trimbur aimed to challenge the perfectionism that often plagues ballet, especially for adults. Her inspiration stemmed from her own disappointing experience in an adult ballet class that focused too much on technique rather than joy and expression.
Trimbur’s mission with Balletcore is to help people overcome the obstacles that have kept them from embracing the joy of dance. Whether someone has given up the dream of becoming a professional dancer, or they have been discouraged from taking dance lessons as a child, Trimbur wants her class to effectively dismantle the barriers that stand in the way of experiencing the true joy of dance.
I too have struggled to find my way back to dance, having disconnected from my body and resorted to intense exercise and control until I could no longer maintain it. Now, Trimbur’s Balletcore class is helping me heal and rediscover the joy and emotional expression I once found in dancing, without the pressure of perfectionism.
