OddityCentral: Guarding the border with North Korea is a very stressful job for the South Korean soldiers in the Demilitarized Zone that divides the two Koreas, but they recently found a very unconventional way to unwind – taking ballet lessons.
Once a week, the young soldiers of the Koran army’s army’s 25th Division switch their heavy army boots for ballet shoes and take part in a ballet class intended to relieve some of the stress of guarding the world’s most heavily fortified border. Under the guidance of Lee Hyang-jo, a ballerina at the Korean National Ballet who started teaching at the base a year ago, the young soldiers struggle to do splits pirouettes and other ballet moves, as a way of relaxing.
“Being in the army itself can be difficult, so I wasn’t sure what kind of help I can be here,” Lee Hyang-jo told Reuters. “But as the soldiers learn ballet little by little, they laugh more and have a great time and seeing that makes me think that coming here is worthwhile.” read more
I can hardly wait to see them perform Sacle du Plintemps (The Lite of Spling), music By Igol Stlavinsky.
Hm, let’s see how they perform “Swan Lake” when the North comes 😉
I’ve always desperately wanted to take ballet. When I was a kid we didn’t have the extra quarter for lessons. Funny, four stinkin years later we had the buck for accordion lessons. 🙁
A plie a day keeps the dictator away…interesting.
so what?
our armed forces now dress up in high heals and parade around to better “understand” what is like to be woman in the military.
if you turn all your soldiers into fags and queers does it really get harder to start wars because their are no strong men to fight?
is all this social engineering in the armed forces about conditioning them to not be violent enough to kill in battle.
wouldn’t it be wiser to let opposing forces try this out first to see how it works for them?
Knit one, pearl two…
Kick two three four!
Kick two three four!
“That’s our Hitler!!”
ANY kind of exercise can relieve stress.
I had noticed that I had become less adept at dealing with stress than I used to be. Now I can’t handle even minor stressors anymore. I just chalked it up to being a cranky old lady.
But recently it dawned on me that I am getting only a tiny fraction of the exercise I used to get. For years my chief form of exercise was walking, and I could do several miles at a time without stopping.
In recent years my walks have become shorter and less frequent. I have crap knees and and a bum ankle, plus Yonkers is a challengingly hilly terrain. Most days my only exercise is walking the two miles to and from the train stations on work days. I probably need a lot more for psychological relief, weight loss, and cardiac health.
I’m feeling really fine after DJT’s speech last night. Perhaps I will honor our erstwhile nominee with a walk through beautiful Bronxville later today.
What kind of safe space is this? What happened to down thumbs? Precious snowflakes can’t take it? (sarc)