A remark made 84 years ago at ballet school still rankles. Why?

September 12, 2026 — 5:00amQ: When I was 12, I joined Madame Behenna’s Dancing School of Ballet, Tap and Comedy. I danced my routines with flair. After a few weeks, Madame said, “Just stick to tap and comedy, dear.” Eighty-four years on, why does this still upset me? M.F., Brighton East, Vic Photo: Drew AikenA: Madame Behenna did you a huge favour. Ballet is a tough career: years of training, auditions, injuries – and if you do finally crack the big time, you’re washed up by 40, unemployed and arthritic, with loose, flabby forehead skin from overzealous head-bunning. But by encouraging you to focus on tap and comedy, Madame Behenna thoughtfully pushed you towards two dance styles that people actually use in real life: I’ve lit up many a dance floor with my nimble-footed Astaire-esque tap routine, segueing almost immediately into my drunken, comedic, flail-your-arms-in-the-air-and-try-not-to-slap-anyone-in-the-face Charleston.But I get why you’re still hurting all these years later. Those judgmental comments in childhood can haunt you for a lifetime. A teacher telling you that you’re not smart. An auntie telling you that you need to lose weight. Peter Chalkis in year 8 telling me my breath smelt weird (and, ever since, I’ve chewed about 40 sticks of gum a day, so my breath is permanently fresh, but I have no more tooth enamel and my jaw pops when I breathe).If it’s still haunting you, just prove Madame Behenna wrong. Slip into your old ballet shoes, yank on your childhood tutu, tug your hair and loose forehead skin into a tight bun – and get out to some ballet auditions. You may be 96, but I bet you can still plié and pirouette and swing a leg onto the barre. And if you can’t, well, it’ll make for an excellent comedy dance routine.Danny Katz is a columnist for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. He writes the Modern Guru column in the Good Weekend magazine. He is also the author of the books Spit the Dummy, Dork Geek Jew and the Little Lunch series for kids.From our partners