Riley+K’s+2015+OpEd+Article

=You see beauty, I feel pain=

*Disclaimer* While the foot below is gross, there are way worse dancer feet. If you don't trust me, Google it.

Ballet dancers are some sort of mystical creatures. They jump on their toes, are lifted, flipped around, have unnatural flexibility and defy gravity, all effortlessly.

At least, the audience sees the dancing as effortless. The dancers backstage are holding their breath watching the principle dancer onstage with anxiety, and the principle dancer is just waiting for the adrenaline to kick in so that she can't feel her shin splints, bruised (or lack of) toenail, tendonitis, etc.

Ballet is anything but effortless, and never gets easier.

What the general public associates with ballet dancers is the following: Beauty, grace, pink, glamour, romance. Ballet is an art form meant to entrance the audience, take them to a world with no words, just dancing and mimes. A noble artform, dancing is for the fair maidens of the world.

What dancers associate with ballet: Horrible foot odor, pointe shoes, KT Tape, bruised toenails, fungal infections, soreness, pain. The phrase “Blood, sweat and tears” especially hits home with the ballet dancer, and if a nail pops up from their pointe shoe while they’re on stage, they will never forgive themselves if they show the slightest bit of pain.

Much more goes behind a performance than what you think. Rehearsals can run as long as eight hours, and depending on what roles you have, if you are older you will more than likely be wearing pointe shoes for most of, if not the entire, time. In case you were wondering, pointe shoes are uncomfortable, dancing or standing. You will work yourself past your limits, mentally and/or physically, to perfect your role. Along with good rehearsals, you will have very bad rehearsals, which can result from getting an injury, an injury getting out of control, or the choreographer being in a bad mood.

Here’s the thing, ballet is not about being comfortable, or on your directors good side all of the time. Dancers are athletes who have to look pretty. There is so much risk for injury, yet we refuse to show it.

There was an alumni from my dance studio (the soloist in this video) who had really bad osteoporosis, and also had a problem with her ribs where they enclosed around her lungs to the point where she physically could not build stamina. After watching the video, would you be able to believe that? I also dance with someone who, despite having shin splints, had to jump at the end of bows until the curtain was down. Re-watching the video, I counted around 20 jumps.

Like the audience at a ballet performance, the general public tends to look at something, take it for what they see, and not put anymore thought into it. Even if something is quite obviously difficult, like 20 consecutive jumps, we just move on without a second thought.

It’s time we stop simply accepting everything that happens around us, and and take notice to what’s really going on. Whether it be in politics, the environment, education, etc., it’s dangerous to let something happen without actually knowing what goes on behind it.