Autobiography Narrative

My name starts with the most recognized flower in the nation and the most common name of people, however, I am original. My name is Jasmine Alexander. The dream I have holds the most emotional and special moment in my life. In childhood, that's when I discovered I had the desire to dance. From that point on, that was all I ever wanted. This narrative will discuss the history of dance and how it relates to me, the hardship I had in finding a sound dance school, and how my patience led its way to find a dance school with a different outcome than others. The passion I have for ballet is not summarized, however, I had never worked with an instructor before also I had never danced before. The reality of this crippled the imagination of my dream of ever being onstage.

My parents and my two older brothers encouraged me, they also told me the pros and cons of being a ballerina. The things I had to sacrifice and gain in return, they were all stressful to me. Reaching my goals with obstacles in the mix was hard and still is mental. The best advocator I have is my mother and with her prior experience in ballet, it was even better. Whenever my mother would train me, she always told me to show her the five positions also show her my pointers. This has a connection with its history. Long before this era, ballet originated within the 15th century around the renaissance era.

This type of dance started in Florence, France, that was adored by many noblemen. When ballerinas danced on their toes, in France, it was called Romantic Ballet according to Christopher Muscato, it states The origins of ballet can be traced back to 15th century Italy, when the peninsula was in the height of its period of artistic, cultural, and scientific growth known as the Renaissance. It was in the tradition of early 19th century Romantic ballet that dancing on the toes, or en pointe, first became a standard part of the performance, reserved for female dancers. After a family discussion on matters dealing with money supply and proper attire, Mom and I went school hunting. The first school we came upon was local to our area. The school was small, and the inside had an office at the front and classrooms in the back where ballerinas practiced. My mother started communicating with the head instructor of the place, where she started to tell her all about my dream to dance.

The head instructor told my mother her requirements and standards for her class. My mother and the instructor made a deal where she paid her every month to teach me the basics. When I first started, my mother was dropping me off for dance class, I was running a little late, however, as soon as we arrived, we had to wait a whole hour for the instructor. Right then, my mother and I saw everything we needed to see. The ballerinas weren't wearing proper attire, they were all chatting outside the classroom instead of going to their next class, everything the instructor said they were doing they wasn't. The experience was more like high school than a dance school. For those reasons, my mother and I quit, we resulted back into finding another dance school.

Years later, I began to lose hope in finding a sound school and I began to believe it was more like a fantasy than reality. That is when mom came across a different school that was apart of a gym and another class, that was all in one building. The inside had old scuffed walls and an office in front. The ballet class was across from the office to the left. Once again, we waited for the instructor and once she came, we started to talk. The instructor started to ask me what my name and age is. I told her my name is Jasmine Alexander and I am 15 years old. The instructor then said, okay, you're fifteen, so you'll be learning with others around your age. My mother then jumped to the point and asked what her requirements and standards for her class are.

The instructor enlightened my mother on everything, however, something out of the conversation stuck out to my mother and me. The instructor did not care about what size the ballerinas were and she didn't mind if they come as they are. This went against everything she said she stood for, also, this went against the morals of a sound prestige school, we were looking for. The experience I had out of this one was not productive or sound. Months went by, discouraged is what I felt at the time. I thought I was never going to find a proper dance school, at least, that's what I thought. My mother took me to another school a few minutes up the street from our house. The school was in a neighborhood called Providence. The school was small.

However, in the inside it was huge studios, one after the other, it was truly amazing. We talked to the instructor and gotten a different attitude about how she feels about dance. The instructor educated me on the determination it will take. The instructor also educated me on everything I had to do in her class and what classes I need to get to the pre-professionals stage, where most ballerinas my age was. I enlightened the instructor about my passion for dance and it thrilled her to know such passion of mine. The instructor allowed me to have a free lesson of ballet to see how I adjust. With this, we were able to sit in other classes to see how things work. After this experience, my mother and I both said, this is it.

What I learned from this experience is you must put in the effort. My goal is to learn how to dance, as I said previously, ever since childhood I loved everything about dance and the making of it. Whenever a ballerina performed on stage, I knew that would be me. The hardship I had in finding a sound school that could teach me, was one of the obstacles in my way of success. However, I learned that patience and good deeds go a long way since we couldn't find a proper school at first, it didn't mean we failed. As others say, little progress is better than none. At many attempts I felt failure, however, I did not lose hope.

When I founded the school I was looking for, everything I have done paid off, going through the trouble of finding the school of my dream was worth it. The effort my family and me put into this goal made every move risky and challenging, but it proved after all tribulations were over, that anything is possible, only if you keep going forward and learn from mistakes, that is when success is truly accessible.

References:

• Christopher Muscato, https://study.com/academy/lesson/history-of-ballet-timeline-facts.html Prentice Hall, P.H. (2012).
• Prentice Hall Literature, Common Core Edition, Grade 11. Retrieved from: https://courses.jmhs.com/d2l/le/content/7390/fullscreen/13586/View

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