Ballets take a lot of work. There is so much time and money that goes into preparing the dancers and getting the theater and making sure everything works as perfectly as possible. The thing about all this work, though, is that if it’s done right, no one recognizes it. In fact, most people only recognize everything that goes into a show when it goes wrong. This week, I’m going to take the time to go over all those little things that make a show work well, and give appreciation to all the people who take care of those things- both on stage and behind the scenes.

Firstly, I’m going to talk about the dancers themselves. If you’ve read any of my other blogs, then you have some understanding of how hard we have to work, but it’s one of those things that you can only truly understand if you’re doing it yourself. We typically work on a single show for four months, and we rehearse it pretty much constantly. I spend about 20 hours a week at my dance studio and that number goes up the closer we get to a show. Most of the dancers joke that we all live at the studio around show time.

Also, the dances themselves are exhausting. The first time we really run a dance, a good portion of us will end up collapsing on the side afterwards, either because we can’t breathe or our legs are shaking too much to hold us up. As we build up strength, this effect typically fades, but not always. The girls who have to partner still often finish their pas de deux jittery and breathing heavily. In our most recent rehearsal, I had to do “Waltz of the Flowers,” a seven-minute dance, while having an asthma attack that I had gotten from the dance I had just done. My teacher was actually really impressed that I managed to finish the dance.

Even discussing all this doesn’t begin to cover all the work the dancers have to do. We often have to spend a lot of time by ourselves working on one particular part that we struggle with. We often are working on things right up until the performance. Our director will actually give us notes on what we have to work on in between shows. It’s tiring and challenging, but definitely worth the effort.