Tag: ballet
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The Ideal Ballet Body
What is the ideal ballet body? Let’s consider what the desirable attributes of a female ballet dancer’s body are. One must have legs that are straight but not hyperextended. This is for elegant lines. One must have the right types of muscles, tendons and sinews for both explosive jumps and extended, slow adagio work. Backs…
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Auditions
A life in training to be a professional ballet dancer requires numerous auditions. As I child I auditioned for the School of American Ballet, a square with a black number on a white background safety pinned to the front of my leotard. The judges studied our bodies individually, one by one, and tested our flexibility…
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What’s the Point of Pointe Shoes?
This weekend my 12-year-old niece came to visit me. She is taking ballet classes, among other kinds of activities, and she has not yet begun classes on pointe. Often pointe training begins with 15-20 minutes of work at the end of a ballet class so that your muscles are warm. She hopes that she’ll be…
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Old Pointe Shoes
My 12-year-old niece is coming for a visit soon. She’s a recreational ballet student so it’s not clear whether pointe shoes are in her future. And yet she is fascinated by them. She asked whether I might have an old pair she could try on when she is here. I don’t have such a pair,…
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On Dancers and Athletes
Last week I finished Tori Murden McClure’s book, A Pearl in the Storm, in which she becomes the first woman to row across the Atlantic by herself in a rowboat, beset by hurricanes and in danger of death. Her rowboat was called The American Pearl. When she achieved this, Tori had already been the first…
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Dreams of Greatness
My son recently told me that he loved that I still had hopes and dreams. I could take this as a sign that he thinks I’m impossibly old (he is 25) but instead I am choosing to take it at face value. Is it true? I wondered when he said that. It is true. One…
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A New Pair of Pointe Shoes
A needle and thread, a match, a razor blade. A needle and thread sewing elastic ankle bands and ribbons. A match melting ribbon edges before they unravel. A razor blade scratching the slippery shanks. Sweating, blistering, and bleeding in shoes that are softening, softening, softening, perfect, too soft! At the end of the…
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A Ballet Friendship
K was a girl in my class at ballet summer camp who I studied every single day. I studied the way her shoulder muscle cut into her upper arm (I had no muscle definition myself). I studied the elevation she was able to achieve in jumps. I studied the way she wore her leotard (with…
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Why Ballet Isn’t Popular
Dancing on stage for an audience is frightening. It removes the mirrored fourth wall and opens up a black cavern into the audience, one that is in the dark. They can see you, but you cannot see them, except for a vague outline of heads. Sometimes you can see only the glowing exit sign in…