Gazet Van Antwerpen on a visit to Ballet Workout!
“Wonderful to dance ballet with my daughter” – by Katrijn Serneels
Antwerp –
Taking your first ballet class at 36, along with your daughter? “Why not, I also learned to dance with my mother,” says Tatevik Mkrtoumian, founder of Ballet Workout. In four days, all spots were sold out for her first Mommy&Me.
Ballerina Tatevik Mkrtoumian could dance before she could read. “My mother and father were both professional dancers and as a child I learned to dance from my mother, I must have been no older than five or six. I’ve always had fond memories of that. Why not give a ballet for mothers and daughters together? That was an idea I had been walking around with for a while.”
“Delightful to dance ballet with my daughter”
This past weekend was the day, the first Mommy&Me ballet workout could begin. As if they had agreed, the moms appear at the apple in black sports outfits, while the daughters are decked out in pink tutus. “Elyse asked me that right away when I said we were going to dance ballet together: if she couldn’t wear a pink tutu and shoes. But I didn’t have those at home right away, so it became a red skirt,” says mom Kathleen (33). “Because ballet involves a special hairstyle, I put both my and her hair in a bun.”
On yoga mats
Kathleen is not an ex-ballerina. “No, I’ve never done ballet before. But Elyse is six now and I wanted to see if this could be a good hobby for her. When you enroll your child in the academy, whether it’s for dance, drawing or painting, you hang on to it for a year. While you don’t even know if they are going to like it. That’s why I thought this would be a nice idea, to dance ballet together. That way I’ll know right away if it’s something for her.”
A piano melody from The Sound of Music makes all heads turn to Tatevik. She, with her bright red ballerina shoes, recites the steps and indicates the rhythm. Stocking feet tread on the wooden floor, legs swing gracefully into the air. On yoga mats, the legs are further warmed up: cycling in the air, crossing your legs like scissors… The mothers imitate Tatevik, the daughters their mothers, because they are not always tall enough to see Tatevik properly over the heads. “From the age of six, the girls can join their moms here to dance; I was that age too when I started,” says the teacher.
“Delightful to dance ballet with my daughter”
Radiate happiness
Should there be no classical music on, you might still think you’ve ended up in some sort of aerobics class. Until the first notes of Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker resound. “Imagine standing in front of a room full of people, coming to watch you,” Tatevik says. “And that you are all flowers. Your petals will open and turn… Left right side back two, left back two and sharp turn and on!”
“Delightful to dance ballet with my daughter”
Mama Kathleen loses count for a moment as the step combinations get really complicated, but little Elyse keeps dancing with a smile and doesn’t care about a faux pas more or less. “The most important thing you have to do as a ballerina is to radiate the happiness you feel, so that the people watching you feel the same,” Tatevik says. In that regard, Elyse succeeds with flying colors.
Then the music of The Dying Swan swells. Among the dancing moms, Elisabetta’s graceful silhouette stands out. “I did ballet from the age of four, I loved it,” says Elisabetta Marcucci (41). “I didn’t think I would start dancing again after my girlhood. But here, fortunately, I can. And it’s also special that I can share this with my daughter Caterina, who also follows ballet. We will definitely come back again.”
“Rather hip-hop”
Annemie (36) usually does pilates. “Or I’ll go for a walk. But actually I’ve always wanted to do ballet. Only my mother wouldn’t let me, she’d rather we went swimming or played basketball: ‘real sports’…”
When Annemie saw the announcement of Mommy&Me, she didn’t hesitate for a second. “My daughter Ana Lucia has been following dance for some time. Too bad I had to wait until I was 36 to take my first ballet class. Had this existed earlier, I would have come to follow it sooner.”
Daughter Ana Lucia (10) is not a big fan of classical ballet music. “I like funky music better. Or hip-hop.”
“Wonderful to dance ballet with my daughter”
Tatevik feels that the introduction to classical music is just an added value of ballet versus basketball or fitness. “It’s a form of culture, not just exercise. And there’s the artistic aspect, you’re interpreting a role, letting your body tell a story. Dancing together also creates a bond, which can further strengthen the trust between mother and daughter.”
While the mothers and daughters are changing, Elyse is still tripping over the dance floor, exuberant. “She has a taste for it,” says Kathleen. “My thing it’s a little less anyway, I can feel it already, I’m going to be all stiff tomorrow… And those passes went so fast. Elyse will still want to come back, with a pink skirt next time. But if I have to dance with her again then too…?”
www.balletworkout.be
Photos: Kioni Papadopoulos
