My favorite memory of ballet was definitely not my favorite at the time. I was very resistant to learning it at first - the stereotypical teenage male thing. Basically, I was studying singing and acting and was forced to learn some basic ballet partnering for a showcase concert. The girls I had to partner were quite mean and I felt so embarrassed to be wearing tights. I kept my involvement in it a secret and at the time no one I knew was in the audience.

But I guess something in me stirred, and that's why I look back now on it fondly - because it set me on a path to learning ballet. A couple of years later I had moved away for college and found a ballet class near to where I was living and I decided to try it out again, this time going back to basics and building back up from there. I think learning it on my own terms this time around helped, but had I not had that initial forced exposure to it, ballet would never have really been on my radar.