TaFF Singapore's Leonard Choo dances away his stress

AS FAR as ballet dancers go, I began far too late. When I was 23 years old, I slipped into my first dance class at university in the blush of freshman excitement, leading to an unexpected calling that would take me to places I never imagined.

Ballet classes followed 6 months later, and I took to them like a duck to water (or a swan to a lake?). Later, as a graduate student in Boston, I could take advanced classes three times a week for school credits. It was an incredible experience that solidified the art form as a serious hobby in my life. From then on, I have taken classes on a regular basis wherever I've lived.

All classical ballet classes are wonderfully formulaic: the first half is a series of progressive exercises at the barre activating the entire body and enabling articulation, flexibility, agility, and balance. The second half takes place "in the centre" and gets quicker over the course of various adagio, valse, petit and grand allegro exercises - testing your dynamism, muscular expression, musicality and artistry.