In the Running

Chapter 2: Isaac's Lesson

Isaac had some better suited clothes for working out under his suit, so he didn't waste any time changing. "Ok, in your last lesson we worked on a lot of barre, so I thought since we don't have much time, we'd just do center. I'll give you a few minutes to warm up though so you don't hurt yourself."

Isaac stretches, then does the first few barre exercises. After about ten minutes, he was ready. I look down at my watch-we have about forty five minutes left.

He already did tendus, so I started him on some adagio because time in kinda tight.

"Ok, the first thing you will learn how to do today is called a developé. You are going to start in fifth position, bring your foot into coupé, bring it into passé, and move through attitude to straighten it." I did an awkward-looking developé so he gets the idea.

I give him my go-to adagio combination and turn on the music. He performs it, and after he is done I give him some notes. He was determined to do better, so I let him redo it.

"Sauté, sauté, sauté, sauté, now in second four times. Four changements and finish." We moved onto jumps. We started with that simple warm-up combination, and slowly built up the difficulty.

I swear, this kid must be constantly watching ballet-no one is ever this good. I can give him lessons for now, but I can't take him all the way. He needs better training and I think I have a solution, but more on that later.

I move him onto turns. I ask him to show me a turn to get an idea of what I have to work with. He goes straight into a double and almost makes a triple. I have officially lost all faith in myself. My entire career has just been ended by this kid. Goodbye, I can't anymore.

Hey! Don't go! It was a joke. We finish off the lesson with a grande allegro. Then, we head to the bathrooms to make it look like Isaac hasn't been dancing before he heads back to his car. I tell him goodnight and then it's time for me to go too.