Lacul Lebedelor

I think that at some point in our service, many of us begin to think that we have seen it all and that we have finally gotten into the swing of things here in Moldova. Seeing boxes of chicks and ducklings on overcrowded rutieras, being told to drink vodka to “clean our organs” when we are sick, and being propositioned by babas in the the village who have eligible sons or grandsons eventually cease to surprise us anymore. After a year and a half of service in the village of Bravicea (r. Cǎlǎraşi), I mistakenly felt I was done with those “I am living in Moldova!” moments that are all too frequent during the first months of service. A group of students at my school showed me just how misguided I was in this assumption.

Every year at the end of the first term, students from my school prepare a performance to celebrate the New Year. Each class presents about 15-20 minutes of songs, dances, and skits for their classmates, teachers, and parents. It gives them the opportunity to exhibit their various talents and creativity before the winter vacation starts.

This year, the 10th form is my direct taught English class and I have been able to develop a rather unique relationship with this particular group of students. As a result of teaching them alone, I have been able to connect with these kids on a more personal level than some of my other classes. A few months into the semester, I was approached by a couple of boys from this class and I was once again surprised (in a good way) by my life in Moldova. The majority of my students know that prior to going to university and becoming a Peace Corps volunteer, I was a professional ballet dancer. These 10th form boys decided to take advantage of my previous experience and asked me to teach them a particular part of the ballet, Swan Lake. When they first came to me with this idea, I assumed that they would want to learn the part of the Prince from the ballet…I was wrong. As if the fact that 2 Moldovan teenage boys were asking me to teach them ballet wasn’t enough, the part that they wanted me to teach them is usually performed by the 4 most petite female dancers in the company. For those of you have not seen the dance of the 4 Little Swans (or Danse des Petits Cygnes if you want to go the traditional French route), it involves a lot of fast-paced, repetitive foot work danced while holding hands.

I was honestly rather skeptical that these boys would actually go through with performing a ballet choreographed specifically for dainty girls in front of the entire school, but I agreed to help them in spite of my secret reservations – I am so glad that I did. My two students, Denis and Gheorge, were not only willing to learn ballet and rehearse after school, they actually enjoyed themselves thoroughly. At one point, it looked like the whole performance was going to be canceled, but they continued to come to rehearsals every day anyway. They told me that they wanted to finish learning the piece even if they weren’t going to be able to perform it for the school. Once it was established that the New Years celebration was, in fact, still going to take place, the rest of the students from their class started to work on costumes for the two boys. A few of the 10th form girls worked together to create tutus and headpieces for them from foil and these boys wore them with pride (and quite a bit of laughter).

Unfortunately, due to some scheduling issues at my school, the date of the performance was changed at the last minute and I was unable to attend the actual event. In the end, I was only able to watch a video recording of their interpretation of Swan Lake but I heard glowing reviews from many students, teachers, and even the director (who, believe me, is a tough lady to impress) from my school.

If you had asked me at the beginning of my service if I could imagine teaching ballet (especially a role danced by female dancers) to Moldovan teenage boys, I would have laughed in your face. This experience is definitely going to be one of the many that I remember and retell about my Peace Corps service throughout the rest of my life. It just goes to show that no matter how integrated we think we are and how “normal” things start to feel as we progress through our time here, this country and its amazing people still have a lot of surprises up their sleeves for us and there are many more “I am in Moldova!” moments still to come.