by Molly, 15

I’m Molly, I’m fifteen and I love dancing. I do ballet once a week at my local dance school with my friends and my sister.

I love dancing because it’s all about building your confidence up and it’s about socialising with other people, getting to know them and having fun with them.

It feels really good because you’re performing to people and it’s also for yourself as well, so you always feel really happy when you’re dancing.

I always feel like you get lost in the dance, which is lovely because you forget where you are and you forget what’s going on. You’re just concentrating on the dance moves.

Glue ear

I got involved in ballet at two years old because of my condition, which is glue ear, which affects my ear and also my balance because there is a lot of fluid in my middle ear when I have glue ear.

Ballet helped me with my balance and it gives me confidence and good posture.

I first got glue ear at around two years old. It meant that, because of my deafness, I couldn’t hear high or very low sounds and I couldn’t hear the letter ‘s’ or ‘th’.

My mum picked up on my deafness at around two years old because my reception teacher told her I lacked concentration. So, she was slightly outraged by this so she brought me to the doctor and that was when they diagnosed.

Grommets

I had my treatment for glue ear at Great Ormond Street Hospital. It was called grommets and this put tiny little tubes into my ear drum. They are temporary and they lasted for about a year.

This drained fluid from my ear which meant that my hearing was much better and I could hear things a lot clearer, which was really good.

Ballet has definitely helped me overcome my difficulties as now I have a lot better balance. I am also much more confident.

It is much more of an enjoyable hobby now so I look forward to it every week.

Building confidence

I do bar work first of all and I’m allowed to hold on to a bar, which means that I can strengthen my muscles.

I also build up my confidence for later on when we have much longer dances, later on in the lesson, and we’re doing things like jumping. And it helps and stretches our feet. It helps us prepare for doing point work and doing lots and lots of pirouettes.

I have done exams. I have been doing exams since primary ballet. It involves us doing the dances without supervision and without help.

Ballet moves

My favourite ballet move would be the longer dances, so it is a mixture of everything. It is a mixture of jumping, a mixture of pirouettes – it’s all of them in one.

It means that you can show off your abilities and you can enjoy it more and get involved in the dance.
Ballet is quite strict. You’ve got to have your hair tied back as this gives you more balance. I mean, my hair should be in a bun. It is basically tying your hair off your face so that when you are doing pirouettes you don’t have your hair flying around.

And also you do have to wear leotards and tights. But again, it’s not about how you look or how you feel when you are dressed up – it’s about the dancing.

If you are dressed right you feel part of the dance. It feels more important and it gives you more coordination as well.

Having fun

If there was someone in my position who didn’t have very good balance and wanted to take up a form of dance, I’d definitely recommend ballet.

It is all about coordination, it’s all about giving you confidence and it’s just so enjoyable as well.

So, it’s not just trying to get you to work hard. It’s about having fun and it’s also about performing. So it’s also really good for your stamina, and it’s good for giving you confidence as well.

It helped me to forget everything so I don’t have to think about the essay that I have to write later on. I don’t have to think about anything – it’s just concentrating on the dance moves.

And once you get the dance moves right it’s just about having fun. I’d love to continue doing it as a hobby.

This story may have been edited by Children First for Health for editorial and confidentiality reasons only.

For more help and information:

• The National Deaf Children’s Society runs a helpline that provides clear information on all aspects of childhood deafness and glue ear (voice and textphone). Telephone: 0808 800 8880

Last reviewed by Teens First for Health: 18 November 2009

Copyright © Great Ormond Street Hospital