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Not my images, both used with permission by subject
Here’s our latest Q&A section with this lovely adult ballerina - Janine from @janinesilberbauer on Instagram!
Very close to my heart this week as this beautiful ballerina is a fellow South African! I do love the United Kingdom but I miss South Africa so much.
I felt so inspired by how this ballerina has a flourishing professional career yet she blossoms in her passion - Ballet. May you be as inspired as I was by reading this weeks section.
1. Please tell us briefly about yourself.
My name is Janine Silberbauer. Pointe shoe lover and tutu lover, Bloch lover and Grishko lover, ballet clip binge watcher - unapologetically incorrigible about my obsession for ballet. I am 33 years old and trained in the RAD style up to grade 7 in Pretoria, South Africa. Other than ballet I love the sciences. I first did research and obtained a Masters degree in Genetics. I moved Johannesburg to study medicine 7 years ago. I am now a qualified doctor awaiting a post to specialise in Medical Genetics.
I take ballet 5x a week at our local, professional company; Joburg Ballet. These are open classes given by the artistic director to the public at an advanced level. If he is unable to take class, the professionals, of all rankings, in the company stand in to teach. It is an incredible opportunity whether it is a core member or a principal teaching. I find value in learning from all of them! You have the option to take class as seriously as you want. Most people come for fitness, I like to push for technique. It is just the way I enjoy ballet. Improving a step fuels me to work even harder! I also take a private class with the artistic director of the company, after class on a Thursday night to train for the vocational RAD exams. I never had a chance to dance these as a teenager or to do pointe work and it is now one of my goals to master as much of the content of these exams as possible.
2. What is it like doing ballet in your country?
In South Africa finding studios that offer stimulating adult ballet classes is hard. There are a few around, in the major cities, but a lot of people have to travel from far to visit our class. I am lucky because I live 10 minutes away from the Joburg Ballet studios. And the new job that I am waiting for is 1 minute away from class! I am convinced this set up is divine intervention! The adult ballet community is small. I met all of my best, Joburg friends in the adult ballet class.
In SA ballet is still seen as something that little girls do growing up. Most girls drop ballet at the end of primary school and very few continue after high school. At school I was teased a few times for doing ballet but nothing too extreme. Boys who do ballet (or any dancing) in SA have a very hard time and invariably get teased. Despite that, we do have men in class who take up ballet and love it just as much as the ladies!
3. How did you become interested in ballet?
I do not recall being introduced to ballet. I have always just had this intense passion for it. I must have seen it somewhere and completely fell in love with it! My earliest memory relating to ballet is standing in the kitchen begging my mom to send me to ballet class. She was only able to send me for classes when I started school. In that time we had watched a number of performances by the company then named PACT ballet and I still have all the programmes that I collected after each performance. I remember seeing Romeo and Juliet for the first time at age 10 and I found it so beautiful it made me cry! Unfortunately, circumstances outside of my control forced me to stop dancing at age 13. When I was able to take up class again I started looking for an adult ballet class in Pretoria but struggled to find a class that offered what I was looking for. When I moved to Johannesburg 7 years ago I joined the open classes at the company and finally got back to ballet at age 26! I then thought it would be just a fun hobby, maybe 2x a week at most, while I study to become a medical doctor. I very quickly found myself in every single class they offered. In 2015 and 2016 the artistic director asked me to fill a character role in Swan Lake and Giselle respectively. These were not dancing roles but I still got wear a costume and be a part of the company's seasons. Oh how I loved being on stage and had an amazing time with two of my friends who were also asked to be "Royal court ladies"! The best part however was for every performance when my small walk on role was finished (always Act 1) I would sit right behind the curtain in the wings and watch the professionals perform the rest of the ballet. It was so inspirational and I am still so honoured to have had those opportunities!
4. How do you feel you can use ballet to inspire people?
One of my favourite CS Lewis quotes is "You are never too old to set a new goal or to dream a new dream". I was heartbroken when I had to stop dancing at 13. However, I now have the opportunity to dance as much as I possibly can with the time that I have after work hours. Go out and make a start. Do that thing that you want to do, it is never too late!
5. How do you keep yourself motivated when situations or people get you down?
I mentally keep score of what I have learned and achieved up to date and compare that to a time before, when I couldn't do those things. I also think of a time when I had just learned to do something and realise that I am now able execute the step with more control, stamina or feeling. If you are conscious of the progress that you make then the sense of achievement will drive you further. If someone more advanced joins class I watch them for tips. Compliments from other people are great but quickly humbling when you fall flat on your face with the next pirouette exercise!
6. What tips can you give to people doing ballet or wanting to start ballet/dancing?
My biggest tip for someone taking up ballet as an adult would be to know that it takes a bit of time and work but that the pay off is so much greater than the investment. The problem with taking ballet as an adult is that you know what it should look like. Little kids can let go and enjoy the class because they are not so self conscious and worried about whether they look like a ballerina. Instead they just feel like a ballerina. It can be very frustrating to look in the mirror and not see the pretty lines of a professional dancer and get discouraged. But you don't have to look like a professional to enjoy it. You'll find great joy in meeting people from all walks of life who become like family, feeling fit, healthy and strong and hearing the most beautiful music ever composed. Sometimes classes are given to funky piano covers of modern pop and rock songs. The other day we did pirouettes to the Star Wars theme!
7. Who do you look up to and why? Internationally there are a number of beautiful dancers that I love watching. I love watching Marianela Nunez from the Royal Ballet. I love the little artistic nuances with which she executes a step. I also love watching young up and coming dancers. The technique and talent in the pre-professional and professional world is astounding!
Other than that I deeply appreciate all the time that the artistic director and his wife (also a previous principal in the company) give me. They even took me to buy my first pair of point shoes a few years ago! Nowhere else, would people of such prominence in the ballet community give adult dancers so much time simply because they love to dance!
8. What do you wish you were given as advice when you started dancing?
Do not cheat on any correction that your teacher gives you! It may feel alien or impossible to do something the correct way but take the time to develop muscle memory. Otherwise you will compromise strength and balance down the line and not be able to perform certain steps or progress beyond a certain point. It is also more difficult to override old bad habits than to form new ones correctly.
Let us know what you think and how this has inspired you by blog post or by email on: dancegrace2@gmail.com. Get in touch if you would like to be featured or know of someone.
Happy Reading xx
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