When she was little, she was “daddy’s little spirit”, today she is “the spirit of ballet” and her name remained: Zysh Piti. There is no Albanian ballerina who does not know her, as beloved as she is strict, the teacher of so many generations of artists with a career not only in Albania, but all over the world.

Nermin Ahmeti or Zysh Piti entered the path of ballet many years ago, when it was a taboo for many Albanians.

“My mother was emancipated for the time and always said that I will make the girls artists or athletes, and in fact we did. Out of 6 sisters, two of us became artists and two athletes”, she tells about “Sekrete maještrie”.

“In 1957, when a whole generation of people educated there came from Russia, such as Agron Aliaj, Petrit Vorpsi, Zoica, Ganimeti, etc., the Ballet School was opened for the first time. We were a group of 10-year-old girlfriends who showed up and those who met the criteria were accepted. School lasted 6 years, but I was hired a year before I finished school. I worked for several years at the Opera and Ballet Theater, where I also performed solo roles. Then, in 1969, I started working as a technical teacher at the Ballet School. I am the first effective teacher, as there were many others who worked part-time while working at TOB”, she says, while many people greet her.

It was at the Ballet School that she retired, but without ever breaking away from her profession. It is enough to see the arch of her eyebrow to understand how strict she has been, but her former students are grateful for the work discipline she taught them. Dion Gjinika, Ezdalin Gorani and many others were her students.

“It was worked with a lot of passion by both the teachers and the students. We have produced talented artists who have made careers abroad. All are employed in their profession. Even all the present-day teachers of the Ballet School are my former students”, she says, while a dose of pride and longing can be felt in her voice.

But times have changed and she has a caveat. “At that time, only 20 students were accepted, 10 girls and 10 boys, because the ballet hall had such a capacity, and the teacher’s work was of better quality. It was impossible to have 11, we were held to account. Only the most talented were accepted, while today they are accepted twice. What can the teacher do?”.

To anyone who thinks that ballet is a “cheat job”, she says: “All professions are difficult, every artistic genre is difficult, but ballet is even more, it requires a lot of individual work. An hour of muscle warm-up is required before each performance, because accidents can happen. As beautiful as it is, it is also tiring. Our teacher Agron Aliaj always told us: If you leave ballet one day, you will go back 3 days. It takes daily work and I advise this to my students. But everything depends on passion and desire, says the ballet teacher.

For Zysh Piti, the truth comes above everything. For no moment did he want to disappoint the expectations of students and parents. The future of children is not a business.

“I always tell them: If you don’t want to, don’t waste your time, choose another profession. I remember such an episode. I once told a girl who had no future in ballet: Leave, go and become a doctor, when my nipple gets old, it will heal me. Many years later, when I went to the Pediatrician for my grandson, a girl comes and jumps on my neck. I didn’t recognize him. He told me: Zysha, I am the girl who told me to become a doctor. Thank you, you were right.”

It has worked for so many years, it has also received awards and decorations since before the 90s, and the Ballet School cannot be understood without its image and name, but even today it continues to work. Ballet School students go there to perfect themselves, while young children take their first lessons.

He teaches them tango, samba, rumba, chaça… There are also those who want to learn to dance folk dances. The latter want to teach those who have weddings ahead…

Zysh Piti is found by everyone… He takes the bike with the purple basket and heads to the gym, where some little butterflies are waiting for him to take the first lessons..

the girl is a ballet teacher