Cardi B Tried Ballet for the First Time and Documented the Entire Process

Cardi B has conquered all sorts of impressive feats — she's a chart-topping rapper, actress, and fashion designer, balancing her massive career with being a mom to her 2-year-old daughter, Kulture. Even though Cardi can crush a dance routine on stage performing her hits, she claims to have "two left feet." So naturally, she tried ballet with a famous choreographer and documented the entire process — for better or worse.

The rapper launched a new Facebook Messenger series called Cardi Tries ____, which will show her trying all kinds of new things, from racing stunt cars to teaching kindergarten. In the first episode, she tackles ballet — a completely new style of dance for her, she shares in the episode.

Of course, Cardi did it all with her signature brand of humor. When choreographer Debbie Allen asked if she'd ever done ballet before, the rapper replied, "Well, I used to be a stripper."

While Cardi seemed to have a blast throughout the experience, she also quickly realized just how difficult it can be to learn ballet. She struggled to nail even the most basic moves, including pliés (which involve squatting down with heels together and knees out) and ronde de jambes (a movement that requires you to balance on one leg while the other does leg circles).

"It looks so simple and beautiful, but this is difficult as hell," Cardi said in the episode. And she's right: Ballet provides tons of fitness benefits for your entire body, as it requires nearly all of your muscles to work together in sync. Plus, remaining focused on your movements is a mental workout in and of itself. "In ballet, you develop core strength, discipline, technique, grace, coordination, poise, musicality, flexibility, and awareness of the body and how it all works together," Melanie Keen, owner and artistic director of The Dance Arts Studio in Mt. Pleasant, SC, previously told Shape.

All in all, Cardi handled it like a pro. After her ballet lesson, she even tried some African dance with Allen and her class, crushing the moves every step of the way. (

At the end of the episode, she thanked Allen for helping her get outside of her comfort zone. "I didn't dance when I was young like that — that's why I got no rhythm," she joked.

"You got a lot, Cardi," Allen replied. "Don't worry about what you ain't got."

Check out Cardi's dance lesson in full below: