Category: Perfection
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When You Are the Best Dancer
I dream that I am dancing in an audition. I lift my knee in passé, extend and unfold my leg so my foot reaches upwards into développé, and my pointed toe arcs high above my head. I jump and cross my legs quickly in an entrechat and my legs cross high and clean so there…
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Searching for Good Pain
When I was dancing full time, I sought out what I thought of as good pain. Physically, good pain was pain in the center of a muscle that you wanted to make stronger. It was an achy, tired pain. It was not pain in a joint, or a tendon or ligament, and it was not…
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The Day I Stopped Dancing
When I was a full-time dancer, I never thought about the day when I wouldn’t be able to dance anymore. Injuries or illness, or a family vacation, would cause temporary lapses in dance training. But even these never brought me to a complete halt. If I injured my Achilles tendon, for example, I could still…
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When It’s an “On” Day
When I was living a full-time dance life, nearly every waking moment was consumed with benchmarks. How close is my side-split turnout to a 180-degree line? How many pirouettes can I do to the right (spinning clockwise on my left foot with my right toe at my knee in passé) before looking balance? How many…