DO YOU REALLY WANT TO BECOME A BALLERINA ?
Most of the young girls who started ballet had the desire to become ballerinas.
Ballet, like any other high-level sport, requires this early discipline if you hope to be able to actually dance at a professional level.
This is why this profession is usually chosen at a very young age.
When a child chooses this profession, he or she usually does it believing in a certain dream-illusion of what ballet is, sometimes influenced by a mom’s dream projection.
Ballet is my life, and I cannot see myself living without it.
But I can’t hide the fact, and everyone would admit it : it is a difficult profession.
Only if you really love it, you can do it. Otherwise, it can create lots of tears and pain.
It’s a work of PASSION.
“GREAT DANCERS ARE NOT GREAT BECAUSE OF THEIR TECHNIQUE, THEY ARE GREAT BECAUSE OF THEIR PASSION.”
Let's find out with me the 10 truths only professionals know (the hidden aspects).
Just because I wish, one day you will not find yourself in a position of "I wish I knew".
You will have to learn very early the words discipline, work, responsibility, dedication, self-control, and work again ... As a student, you will already feel that you need to behave as an adult. While I started my ballet career, most of my friends still didn’t really know what they would do with their lives and were going into their first year of university.
Forget your years of childhood. Like any other high-level athlete, ballet is a “train hard and as early as you can'“ discipline. While all your classmates after school will go home or play, you will dance, repeat, and train for this future.
It’s not easy. People imagine that ballet is about a beautiful tutu, pink pointe shoes, jumping, and flying in the air. But the truth is, it takes endless hours of work and daily repetitions of the same movements (ballet class) in order to master your body and achieve something closer to “perfection”.
You can’t show on stage how you truly feel. The show must go on. People pay to have a good time, and no one cares how you are, how your day is going, what happens in your head, how you feel... So smile, be pleasant, or pretend to be happy, and do what you have to do.
Your body will be painful, and you will always be tired.
When people rest, you will often work. Since holidays are celebrations, while they rest, you will dance for them. My day off is a Monday; I work seven days a week and have one month of holiday in August (I can’t choose when), and of course, most of my evenings are busy too.
You never choose your schedule or holidays. You will have to build your life around the theater. You give your life to this profession.
Having a private life is difficult, but it’s possible. You spend a lot of time at work with the same people. Though, if you meet a person who is willing to accept your complex lifestyle and build the couple depending on it, then everything happens. It explains why ballet dancers are often in couples.
If you have a perfect, tiny body and weight by nature, you are definitely lucky; otherwise, you will spend your life checking your weight and how you look in the mirror. Basically, fat will be your enemy. Of course, when you work a lot, you could eat whatever you want, but in general, most girls have a specific diet. In the long term, it’s hard to keep it, but since your body is your instrument, it’s a must, with no other choice. Again, depending on the company, there are more or less picky on the physics, but between us, if you look gorgeously tiny, everyone will always love it, the contrary, not so sure...
The older you get, the harder it will become physically for you. You can feel old pretty early, since your career usually ends around 42. But never forget, you will still be young, and a new life will begin, which is the beauty of our profession. If you train with awareness throughout your career, maybe it will give you a potential second life.
I will write in the future about why I love this profession and what ballet taught me. (Check the next post.)
It’s important to say that everything can change depending on the company in which you work and on the level you want to achieve.
Choosing to work for a big or small company can change a lot, not only for your career but also for your state and lifestyle.
I hope you enjoy this “dark side” vision of professional ballet!
And of course, if you choose this profession, welcome and good luck !
Make your dreams come true.
“If you don’t feel challenged, it’s because you’re not doing enough. Ballet should never feel comfortable. Comfortable is lazy! If vou’re comfortable when you dance, you’re not pushing yourself hard enough. 100 % is not enough. You have to give 200%. One tendu takes years of hard work and will never be
perfect. Everything in ballet is a challenge”
