Dance Life Balance

It’s that time of year when school starts back, activities begin again, and everyone is getting back in the "grind". Among all of these activities, my favorite is Nutcracker auditions! Although the overall thought of Christmas and performing may not intrigue you, I’m going to let you in on a few of the personal steps I do to balance my academic work and my passion.

Auditioning is a scary thing for some, but for me, it’s more of a fun activity. You go in, get a number, and just perform as if it was an average ballet class. I’m lucky with my audition process because my current ballet teachers are the ones’ who assess the choreography and roles.

Although you may think the Nutcracker is but a simple production with only a few people involved, you are incorrect. Our company has around 200 dancers ranging in ages from 2 to 17 not to mention the backstage crew and costume shop workers. All of our teacher train us and prepare us for the stress and physical capabilities to dance on average three hours almost every weeknight and around eight hours on the weekend.

As much as I love ballet, school is my main priority.

I wake up every day around 8 a.m. to start my day of school and I usually finish around noon leaving me with about an hour of spare time to do whatever I need before getting ready to leave for ballet. My weeknight classes aren’t over until around 9 p.m., my ballet classes I thoroughly enjoy.

On weekends we leave at 8 a.m. and dance until 4 p.m. I love long days at the studio mainly because dancing all day puts me in the happiest mood along with being with my friends. On some weekends I have leftover assignments that I stay up late finishing so I can achieve a high grade.

Around performance rehearsals, when we spend every waking hour at the theatre, I will bring work to the theatre and work backstage or in the dressing rooms as I stretch and wait to go onstage. I know my schedule sounds crazy, and it is but I wouldn't choose any other life. Balancing school and ballet is a full-time job, but I enjoy it and wouldn’t trade it for the world.