by nebula

Created on: January 25, 2008

"Just what is it you think you're doing out there," said the Ballet Master of a midwestern ballet company to a small group of young girls. He had requested a meeting with them in the house in order to discuss the previous evening show. "I'd much rather watch a stick out there on stage than see you flailing your arms around like that!"

The trainees were occupying ten seats in the third row, while the Ballet Master sat facing them on the backrest of a first row seat, a sneaker-clad foot placed irreverently on the empty blue-velour seat in front of him.

"You guys are way too stiff. And what the hell happened to your formations during Snow? I mean, what the hell was that?"

Just then the girls' eyes had begun to glisten with the prelude to tears.

"I could spend all day giving you guys notes on Snow and Flowers, but I've got other things to do," he said while pushing his glasses back up his nose. "If I could say one thing to you all, it would be devotion. I need to see more devotion from you all. We've called for an emergency rehearsal after warm up at two-thirty. I expect to see you all there. You guys look so tired," he said with a final note of disgust.

The girls were more than tired, they were exhausted.

Parties, drinking, boyfriends, homework . . . it's all enough to make a normal eighteen-year-old girl feel a little run-down on a mid-December day.

But these aren't those girls. These girls were tired because they love to dance, and in the United States of America, girls that love to dance often don't get paid for it. They love to dance so much that they do it for free, but they still have to eat. Waiting tables, selling dance-wear, serving coffee; all of this happens during their free-time away from their real job'.

When two-thirty roles around, you had better believe that they will all be at that rehearsal. When the New Year roles around, however, that most certainly won't be the case. Nearly half of these girls will have quit ballet completely, or just have turned their backs on this particular company. Who can blame them? I might have left, too, had I been disparaged in such a way.

Let's turn to those who stayed. They work two or three jobs, or go to school full-time, and still have to suffer such verbal abuse. Why? Do they secretly crave such debasement? Or is it that they are willing to sacrifice everything, including their dignity, to do what they love?

This is part of what it takes to be a ballerina.

Everyone thinks ballet is all about beauty, looks, and lines; weight, tone, and flexibility. Though these are all things a modern-day ballerina should think about and strive for, they are only superficial. There is so much more to ballet than physicality; it is an art, and there is always an internal aspect to every art.

Ballet is about courage, strength, and perseverance. You must be courageous in order to work past your own limitations, thus you must accept your body how it is, you can't change everything. You must be strong in order to deflect the negativity that is often included with your criticism. Although it may not seem like it, even your worst antagonist can sometimes be your best coach. And finally, you must ultimately persevere through frustration, injuries, illness, and distress. You must continue to rehearse though you haven't mastered the choreography. You must work through those little aches or pains. You must perform though you've got a headache. You must still take class in the morning though you've had a rough night at home.

When you really want to be a dancer more than anything in the world, everything else is secondary, including your own comfort.

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