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What It's Like to Be a Ballerina

Spoiler: It's not as great as you may think.

By Madison EwingPublished 7 years ago 7 min read
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a glamour shot of yours truly playing one of the Evil Stepsisters in Cinderella. Photo by Alicia Lee.

To be a ballerina, is in fact, a real job...

"What?! You mean you get paid to wear tutus and dance around? Sign me up!!"

Oh, if it were only that simple. Funny, but during my shower last night, where I think my most pensive thoughts, I realized that there are three different reactions that I receive when I tell people that I am a ballerina.

1. The "I Don't Know What to Do With This Piece of Information" Bloke

With this type, the conversation goes a little something like this:

Person: "So, what do you do for a living?"

Me: "Oh, well I'm actually a ballerina. Yeah, that's my job."

Person: "Oh, that's, um, that's cool..." dot dot dot, *cricket chirp*, then cue the change of subject.

These people mean well and they are usually very sweet; they just don't know where to go with the fact that you are a ballerina. I don't know if they think that I'm messing with them or if they genuinely don't know anything about the world of sugar plum fairies and princesses, but it always ends with an awkward silence.

2. The Star-Struck Fan

Vastly different than Type 1, this person just can't believe that you are a real... life... BALLERINA!!

Person: "So, what do you do for a living?"

Me: "Oh, well I'm actually a ballerina. Yeah, that's my job.

Person: "WHAT?! GET OUT OF TOWN!! Wait, can you do the splits??? Do them NOW!! Oh my gaaaawww... you must be soooooooo good! Can you go on your tippy toes?! SHOW ME!!!"

I can't lie, these people are a trip! When around them, I'm one part flattered, one part embarrassed, and one huge ol' part "Why the heck are they so impressed?" They normally compliment, your legs, posture, face, aura, breath, nail beds, the whole shebang, and they loooooove asking you about every little detail about your job. Again, I'm extremely flattered by these people, but they always leave me wondering if they know anything about what it's really like to be a ballerina... which brings me to my third and least favorite person.

3. The Realist

Mmmm, nothing like a good dose of harsh reality to brighten your day! Here's how a conversation typically goes with a Realist:

Person: "So, what do you do for a living?"

Me: "Oh, well I'm actually a ballerina. Yeah, that's my job."

Person: "That's cute sweetie, I mean what do you REALLY do? Like, how do you make money?"

Me: "That's how I make money actually, by dancing."

Person: "Well, you must really LOVE what you do. Passion makes up for the pay I guess."

The reason why these people are my least favorite to encounter is because they don't look through rose colored glasses, seeing only the glamour of tiaras and dancing on a stage; they see ballet for what is really is... and that's a darn hard thing to make a career out of.

Some people say that it doesn't matter what you get paid, as long as you're doing what you love, and to an extent I agree. But when you are in a field that you've been working in since you were practically a fetus, putting in far more than 10,000 hours of work trying to perfect your body, and dealing with the deformities of your feet and hyper-mobility in your legs that can cause your knees to be screwed up for life, you kind of want to see the rewards of that at some point.

The term "ballet" is the ultimate mask.

When you think of ballet, one usually thinks of a beautiful fairy donning a pink tutu and tights whilst dancing in strange shoes that allow her to stand on the tips of her toes while she skitters across the stage, light as a feather. And while there is a truth to this (since we do spend all of our dance lives trying to make our work look this effortless), beneath the façade of fairytales, under the skin of what the general public witnesses on stage, is a tough, painful, exhausting, beautiful, addictive world. When you look beyond the stage with its glitter and whimsy, you see what a real ballerina looks like...

You will see a girl, thin but muscular; sculpted and chiseled from years upon years of repeating the same steps every day of her dance life and spending her own free time to stretch and strengthen at night. Hair tightly secured as to not distract its bearer by whispies that often throw off a good pirouette. Little to no makeup on, because she knows it would be too much work to apply such things to a face that's going to sweat it all off in a half hour anyway. And the feet... lest us never take for granted the feet of a ballerina... Every set of feet tells a story, a story that spans from the moment they put their tiny little feet into their first pair of ballet slippers to where they stand today. A ballerina's foot will show you the quality of their training, the strength of their foundation, the stability in their stance, and the care that they put in to them. Without gracefully arched feet that move with precision and delicacy, a ballerina wouldn't exist. You would see a girl who has given everything that she could to be where she is standing today. Someone who held back tears when criticism stabbed like knives; who didn't look down when people told her she didn't have what it took to make it; who didn't let the Realists dampen her spirits when they said "That's not a real job! Find something different to do." You will see a girl who is grateful to have a job when less than 1% of the American population have jobs doing what she's doing. A girl who will fight with everything that she has for a dream that she had since she was young.

Yes, being a Ballerina is a job. You head to the studio at 9:00am and are there to 6:00pm some days working on whatever performance is happening next. You put in work outside of the studio by visiting doctors to heal your body and cross training to increase strength. While you're in the studio, you might be asked to step in to a role that you have never learned before and are expected to do it exceptionally. It requires every ounce of mind, soul, spirit, and emotion that you can muster and demands your undivided attention every second that you are in that sanctuary. But I will not hide the facts... most ballerinas DO work second, and sometimes third jobs in order to make ends meet. After a full day of work, many of us head to our teaching, serving, retail, or babysitting jobs to work for another couple of hours or often until midnight, and we repeat that routine day after day, week after week.

'So, why do you do it then if it's so horrible? It sounds like you don't even like ballet!'

Ballet is a beautiful tragedy. Something so otherworldly and exquisite, yet unyielding and unforgiving. But in the end, the beauty has won the day in my mind. When I do ballet, I feel a strength that I have never known; a spirit inside of me saying "Yes, it's possible, and you can do it!" Something that makes me feel like I can conquer whatever life throws at me. It's the feeling I have onstage when I am in the middle of a dance and the music seems to carry me through the motions that have been ingrained into my subconscious, shaping space and praying that I am touching someone's heart somehow with my movement. I feel graceful, I feel beautiful, and I feel powerful.

At the end of the day, to be a ballerina is a gift from God. So few get to do it, and the lucky few who get to often have a long, hard journey ahead, but not without its rewards. You are constantly working on new, exciting projects, and every so often, you get a role that you've been wanting for years. The costumes are delightful, the dressing rooms and makeup are glamorous, and the thrill of putting on a complete show for a full house is unlike anything I've ever experienced. But what I want you to remember is this...behind the beauty and the frills of it all, you will find that every ballerina is:

Strong, ambitious, powerful, and eternally grateful.

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About the Creator

Madison Ewing

I like to eat a lot... I'm kind of quirky... I dance a bit... and I write :)

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