formerdancer.com

Category: A Dancer’s Life

  • Imagine You Are a Dancer

    Do you know where you are? Can you feel your backside pressing into the surface on which you are now sitting? Can you feel your head sitting on the perch of your neck, head swiveling gently so your eyes can survey your surroundings? What do your eyes take in? Can you see colors? Are they…

  • Senses in Ballet Class

    Sight: I see myself in the mirror and my extended body in space. I see the other dancers moving around me in lines, planes and circles. Smell: I smell the dusty, powdery air of rosin and old buildings with sooty window frames. When changing for class, I smell hair spray, the hot smell of blood…

  • What’s in the Rosin Box?

    There was always a rosin box in one corner of the dance studios I took classes in as a child. Ballet dancers rely on white, powdery rosin on their shoes to keep from slipping and sliding on the floor. Getting the amount right amount is part of the art. Too much is too sticky and…

  • Getting Out of the Race

    I once had a near-meltdown because my favorite coffee mug was broken. Worse, it was broken outside of my range of control by someone else. I haven’t had enough therapy in my life to quite unpack why this event was so triggering for me. But I do think that in some way this desire to…

  • Dancers and Horses

    Last Saturday was the 151st Kentucky Derby where I live in Louisville, KY. I don’t know that much about breeding, raising, and training racehorses or how they are treated or what their lives are like. So that won’t be the focus of this blog post. Instead, I want to make a loose analogy between top,…

  • On Dance Moms (Not the TV Show)

    When I was a child and teen in dance, I had a mother who cared about and who was invested in helping me to progress as much as possible as a dancer. But I did not have a Dance Mom. A Dance Mom goes beyond ally and facilitator and takes on the role of personal…

  • A Dancer Is Not A Person Who Dances

    What’s the difference between a person who dances and a dancer? Let’s start with a person who dances. A person who dances: Will socialize with non-dancers. Might have short hair or long hair. Listens to their body’s cues, and stops when something hurts. Will consider nutrition but does not diet. Is a “normal” person. May…

  • A Dancer on Vacation?

    What is vacation for a dancer? George Balanchine once said that “the time for resting is in the grave.” If death were really that – a permanent, socially acceptable and well-earned rest – that would be very inviting indeed. I once said as much to some gravestones in a cemetery I used to walk through…

  • What Would It Have Been Like?

    I never got to be the Dying Swan in Swan Lake. What would that have been like? To be able perform the role for an audience. But also, to be a ballet dancer who was that good. What would it have been like to have realized this life-long dream in my own, actual (and not…