How did I start my ballet?

I started doing ballet at a young age. I can't remember exactly how old I was, but I remembered vividly going to a local ballet school and I loved it. What I loved about ballet at that time, was the pink/blue leotard, pink socks and pink ballet shoes.
However, I know why I think I love it so much, - it's because it's beautiful. It's a beautiful form of dance, that allowed me to be graceful.
It's also the most difficult types of dances as it's often a challenge to coordinate the movement of head, hands, arms, legs and feet. Apart from the ballet movement, the discipline; the structure of the classes; the strictness; the rules; the coordination of all my limbs; it was actually the feeling of being at the barre, with other girls, wearing the same-coloured leotard, doing the same thing - that I love the most. After just about a year, my mother has pulled me out of ballet, due to some myths that had convinced my mother that ballet was no good for me.

She enrolled me into kids’ aerobics or some kind of kids’ dance. Ballet, at that time, was considered a very expensive form of activity. So, to save money, I followed her guidance and did the other dance activities than ballet. After some years, I knew that I was missing something. I was missing ballet. I was missing being at the barre, doing the ballet steps. Almost every night, when we have dinner, I would be dancing ballet around the dinner tables and finally I was brave enough to tell her that," Mum, I want to continue my ballet".

So, at the age of 8 or 9 years old, I re-joined the ballet class at the same local school. I was very happy to be wearing an old, frail and loose leotard and a very old bright pink tight; I was just happy to be in the ballet studio and doing ballet again. The old, loose leotard did affect my ballet, so I managed to convince my mom to buy me a proper leotard. The years went on and I was happy to be learning some character works with character shoes and tarantella dance.

When I became a teenage, my parents moved us to Singapore to continue our high school education. In Singapore, I was determined to continue my ballet trainings, and I was enjoying it even more.
After high school, I went to Melbourne to do my undergraduate degree. I stumbled upon a ballet school in Eastern suburbs - Ringwood Ballet Group, that I love to this date. My ballet was progressing very well there because I was training intensively, completing my Higher Grades exams and Vocational exams with Distinctions. I also performed and participated in school's annual productions, such as sleeping beauty, Cinderella, and so on.

After completing my Double Degree for my undergraduate degree, I continued studying a Graduate Diploma in Technology with some part-time jobs. At that stage in my life, I continued the studying that led me to landing a traineeship job with IBM in Sydney where they also sponsored my 4th Undergraduate degree.

Long story short, I was hired as a fulltime employee after my IBM traineeship, busily working on a corporate job that gave me enough income comfortably to travel overseas. Ballet wasn't my priority at that time, in fact, I was getting side-tracked into learning and doing other styles- jazz, hip hop, contemporary, lyrical, which I find more interesting and liberating than ballet.

 After my traineeship, I also met my future husband, and we travelled and worked in Tokyo. After I have a daughter, there was a calling to do a ballet teacher training and to get more serious in re-training my ballet. I started focusing on my ballet more seriously and by the end of 2017, I have completed my Certificate in Ballet Teaching Studies (CBTS) and now a qualified Registered Royal Academy of Dance (RAD) ballet teacher. I have been teaching RAD syllabus across multiple schools since then.

After many years of teaching RAD syllabus, I have decided to put myself out there to coach ballet enthusiasts, students or adults; on the ballet fundamentals and basics, ballet trainings, in particular RAD focused tutorials to those who are going to do RAD exams.