Sophomore Domitille Blanquart-Barbry moved to the U.S. in August as an exchange student from France. She has continued to pursue a passion that she’s brought from her home: ballet.
It started when Blanquart-Barbry was just five years old. She decided that she wanted to be a ballerina and tried dancing for the first time. After a few years, she decided to take a break from dance. However, her absence only made her interest in it grow. About four years ago, she started dancing classical ballet and jazz with ADEA Dance School.
For this year in the United States, Blanquart-Barbry has been dancing twice a week at The Dance Refinery.
“I really like it, but you know, it’s different from France,” Blanquart-Barby said. “I’m really used to the way it’s been in France, so it’s kind of hard, but I like it.”
For example, unlike in France, where she had the same teacher for all three years she danced, she now has a new teacher every week.
“I have to learn the new teacher’s way of dancing,” Blanquart-Barbry said. “I’ve been dancing for three years with the same teacher and the same things, so now to do the same thing in another language with old habits is kind of hard sometimes.”
To Blanquart-Barbry, the teaching styles of the instructors here are very different from her main teacher in France.
“My teacher at ADEA would correct me by moving my leg or my arm, and so I was mainly a tactile learner,” Blanquart-Barbry said. “The teachers at TDR only teach by telling and showing you what to do, so that was kind of frustrating when I had to figure out my mistakes without them helping me.”
Something else she had to adjust to was the amount of content they learned in one class and the number of reps they did in a row.
“In France, we would learn many different things in each class,” Blanquart-Barbry said. “We would learn something new, get a couple reps of it, and move on to something else. Here, we learn the same few things over and over. They make us do five or six reps in a row when I can barely do two because it wasn’t something I was used to.”
Her first time at the studio, Blanquart-Barbry was overwhelmed and stressed. This led her to convince herself that she wasn’t as good as everyone else.
“At first I felt kind of lost because I was surrounded by people with a good level of dancing, and my initial thoughts were that I couldn’t do it,” Blanquart-Barbry said.
Even though she had to adjust, she persevered through it all by telling herself to keep going.
“I would always say even if it’s kind of hard, you need to keep going and keep working so you can improve,” Blanquart-Barbry said. “Tell yourself not to be discouraged if it’s hard. At first you just have to continue.”
Dance was not the only thing that was different when Blanquart-Barbry’s exchange year began.
“I would say that here you have a lot of opportunities to do a lot of things, and I think that is great because in France, we don’t have that many opportunities.” Blanquart-Barbry said. “But I feel that students here don’t really care about everything that you have, and that is sad because if we had that much in France, everyone would be more interested in school.”
An aspect of moving here that was easier than expected was communication with others. Blanquart-Barbry had previously learned English in primary school, so that made the adjustment easier.
“At first I was kind of shy, so everyone was thinking I did not speak English, but I was speaking English a little bit,” Blanquart-Barbry said. “I learned a lot here, and the most difficult thing is the culture, and the way you live, and the things you have to do. The language thing was not that hard.”
For Blanquart-Barbry, dancing is now a comfort. This ‘universal language’ is something that she can enjoy with no stress while being relaxed.
“Here, I love going to dance because I don’t have to talk in English and I don’t have to fit in or specifically socialize with everyone,” Blanquart-Barbry said. “It’s just something that I like with other people that love dancing. It’s a moment when I can relax and do something that I really like.”
