Life of a Ballet Dancer

The Life of a Ballet Dancer

When you are passionate about something, you start to think about it as more than a hobby…more than something to do once in awhile. In an incredible article from the site, The Telegraph, a UK blog, we get a glimpse into the life of a ballet dancer.  The author interviewed several professional dancers to see what their lives were like. Read what one such lucky dancer had to say -

Life of a Ballet Dancer

Ballet isn’t really a job, though: it’s a vocation. An addiction! You have to give it everything and sacrifice your soul, but when you lose yourself in a performance, or achieve something you’ve been striving hard for, it feels worth all the hardships.

You are constantly aware of the strains it puts on your body – every morning when you wake up and every night when you can barely stand – but we have massage, physio… and painkillers! And the feeling after a show makes it all worthwhile.

I danced my first major solo role, Mary Vetsera in Mayerling, within two years of joining the company, and I was in Agon with Carlos Acosta soon after. I’ll do the Sugar Plum Fairy this Christmas and then Juliet in March.

But it was the response to the first night of Infra [a work by Wayne McGregor premiered in 2008] that really shocked me. I’d never taken a solo bow before and to hear the cheers, to get flowers, to feel loved, to feel special, that you actually are somebody – that’s the most gratifying experience you can imagine.

You have to be prepared to work hard. Your day can start at 9.30am with class; then there are rehearsals. If there’s a performance in the evening it can be after 11pm by the time you’ve showered and changed. And then you’re on such a high it’s really late before you can think of sleeping. But unless you’ve felt what it is to be on stage it’s impossible to explain. It’s like a drug!

Read the full article here.

I know exactly what she means! You start to feel dance in your bones, not just in your head or in your heart.  Do you really love dance? Even if it’s not ballet…have you ever felt that dancing was a huge part of who you are? Like anything in life, we must be able to share what we love with others, and like any other art form, dancing is meant to be shared.  That does not mean that the life of a ballet dancer is for everyone. You have to know what you are getting into!

Share your experiences or tell us why you love dancing below.