I was enchanted by the work the girls undertook and was struck by the consistency of their sheer joy. After two years of accompanying them, I decided that I wanted to share in the magic of dance. This is how I started taking private tuition and I also joined two adult ballet fitness classes. I loved it from the moment I set foot on the studio floor and I am very fortunate to have a good teacher who believes in me!

There are two strands of joy in accompanying ballet, for me. Firstly, there is a lot of lovely music in the RAD exams and I get real pleasure from glancing up and seeing the music I am playing made visible by the girls’ gestures and turns. Secondly, because I can play by ear as well as by music, I make up accompaniments to any exercises not requiring set music – pointe work for example. This enables me to really engage with the dancers because my eyes are not glued to the manuscript.

The most challenging aspects for me, are those set pieces that were never written for piano but rather are reductions of orchestral scores. These don’t always so readily fall naturally to the hands of a pianist and can be difficult to learn up to speed for exam work. Also, the sheer volume of music to be learnt can be daunting, as I have played to date for 14 different RAD exams or rehearsals.

I find that I can concentrate on [ballet] technique and presentation because fitting the movements to the music and phrasing it all, is the least of my problems.

I didn’t get much time for nerves [before my RAD exam]. Naturally, I had that healthy flutter of nerves immediately preceding my performance. However, on the day we had three cohorts entering for Grade 3. The first cohort of girls I helped to get ready and lined up at the door ready to present to the examiner in my capacity as chaperone. The second cohort of girls I accompanied in my capacity as pianist. The final cohort was me in my capacity as dancer; and if the examiner was amused by this, she didn’t show it!

My first reason [for learning the female Grade 3 syllabus] is practical. As we have only girls at present, and as I sometimes help out as a sort of teaching assistant when I’m not accompanying them, it makes sense to learn the syllabus that they are doing. In this way, I avoid confusing them by demonstrating the boys’ version. My second reason is aesthetic. The female syllabi, certainly at Grades 3 and 4, are to my mind much nicer.

This brings me to the third reason: the real reason. When I started ballet, I had difficulty in shedding a self-image of a wooden old man doing ballet. So I decided to engage my inner child and dance as the boy within. That helped a little bit but that boy grew up in the ‘50s and ‘60s with all the ‘boys don’t do ballet’ baggage that comes with it, so that didn’t work either. Then I changed the gender of the inner child. It was like throwing a switch because suddenly, I had permission to dance. The woodenness left me and the suppleness was rediscovered.

When I rang RAD to ask if I could do Grade 3 girls’ syllabus even though I was ‘too old and the wrong gender’, the lady at the other end of the phone was great. She was very efficient, assuring me that it would be quite in order so long as I made it clear on the application form. I was warned, however, that I couldn’t pick and choose from the male and female syllabuses. If I chose the female version I must do all of it: the girls’ versions of the exercises and the female set dances.

I understand that some young ballerinas who aspire to be teachers, now take the same Grade exam twice: once with the female syllabus and again with the male. This not only gives them two certificates but it emboldens them to take on boys’ classes with utter confidence! Stacks of people know I took the female syllabus and I have never once heard a word of reproof.

I enjoy being part of an institution that makes dance so accessible to our children and gives it all so much shape and meaning so that they can achieve their ambitions. As a retired educator, it hasn’t escaped my notice that the syllabi are very cleverly crafted. I like the structure of the RAD ballet grades because they use a spiral model in which skills are built one upon the other as the dancer becomes stronger and abler.

[Dance] has completely transformed the shape and texture of my retirement. I am astonished at how keen I’ve become. Ballet has become a central part of my life. I practise every day at home, using a strip of dance mat and a portable balance barre. I even take RAD syllabi to bed, to familiarise myself with the graded ballet work. Now that’s quite useful because I have recently, using the DVD to help me, taught myself all the barre work in Discovering Repertoire, just in case I get to do it!

During the summer I attended a fortnight’s residential dance summer school at Trinity Laban Conservatoire in London. And on my Sunday off, whilst there, I slipped off to Central Ballet School and attended three hours of sessions. I also attended summer evening sessions in Canterbury. Whenever there is ballet on in the Marlowe Theatre in Canterbury I am there, agog for any ballet I can get.

I am much leaner, fitter, suppler and more agile than I was fourteen months ago so this affects the way I move when I’m out and about. A lady in the supermarket watched me reach for an item on the bottom shelf and as I queued up behind her, she said, ‘You’re a ballet dancer!’ I asked, ‘How do you know?’ She replied, ‘I could tell by the way you reached for your paper!’ It’s even good for mental health! Taking up ballet was surprisingly cathartic.

I’ve already got to grips with the [Grade 4] barre work. The centre practice is coming on nicely, my sautés and échappés are hard work because I still need more elevation for proper pointy feet and I am finding performing changements in fifth position much harder than in third. I can now do the turns but I strive now for effortlessly liquid pirouettes – it feels as if I’ll never get there but I know I will!

I hope to continue to make good progress, taking exams into my seventies. Once I get into level three, I may well seriously consider taking the Intermediate exam with a view to applying for the Certificate in Ballet Teaching Studies (CBTS) course. I’d really like that.

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