Bellying up to the barre

Yesterday I hit the Pilates class at the downtown L.A. Fitness where the teacher hands out memoranda.

The teacher is named Colleen and she looks like a dancer. She has that kind of lean and perfect appearance. She also has you using the Body Bar as if it were a ballet barre. You hold on to it and do plies. Yesterday we had to do this plies while sweeping our arms over our heads in the manner of ballet dancers.

I was like Pennario's friend Tamara Toumanova, the dancer in the picture up above! Yeah right, as Leonard would say.

But anyway, at the end of class, the teacher reads a meditation, usually something, you know, liberating or empowering. She even gives you a piece of paper with that day's quote written on it. This class's memorandum was something about how a lot of people go through life doing what they think they should do and doing what people asked them to do, etc.

It wound up: "What if you went through life doing what you were born to do?"

And you leave pondering that.

That closing question leaves me in a kind of quandary because me, I happen to have been born to dance. I am like one of those starstruck ballerina tutu girls.

I like to dream I am a dancer. And I actually work on my form. Doing every plie I tried to sweep my hand over my head with my fingers just right so it looked nice. I have in common with Pennario that I, ahem, happen to know some eminent ballet dancers too, including my friend Gary Marino and also the great Joseph Cipolla who was one of the leading dancers in England's Royal Ballet. Once at UB I got to see Joe dance and he was amazing and I remember noticing how even little things, just the way he held his hand or moved one finger, would make a big difference. Hence I emulate that.

It is funny, all the things you carry around in your head, you know?

All these memories and memoranda.