One of my favorite things in life is seeing dancers backstage. They must transform from human to dancer in a matter of minutes. The preparation, rituals, and personalities are all so fascinating to see. Each dancer has their own special way of preparing for a performance, and this article will certainly be an eye-opener for those who didn't realize that.

I went behind the scenes and asked some of my talented friends: what's in your bag?

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The Dance Bag of Aislinn Poe

Aislinn Poe: The ankle brace. I have a history of spraining my ankle right before performances, so as soon as it starts feeling weak, I put on my ankle brace to help prevent a sprain. And snacks. Cuz snacks.

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The Dance Bag of Audrey Meis

Audrey has been dancing since the age of three. She started with ballet, and from middle school on she explored jazz and modern, along with more frequent pointe ballet classes. She assured me that she will never look cool doing hip hop. Put her and I side-by-side during a hip hop number and prepare for the worst thing you've ever seen. Audrey and I met at UW-Whitewater in 2014 as freshmen and we danced together in last year's dance production. We've been working together frequently this year for the dance production as well as taking classes together. I asked her: What are the two most important items in your bag?

Audrey Meis: The two most important items in my bag are my water bottle and my lucky leotard. I think staying hydrated is so crucial when I have a long day of dance. I'll start feeling tired and sluggish in class, and taking time to drink water makes me feel so much more energized and focused. I've worn this leotard for every one of my auditions at UW-Whitewater. Maybe it's silly and superstitious, but it has a calming effect, I swear. It has a pretty lace back and it just makes me feel confident, which is needed during a scary audition.

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The Dance Bag of Shaina Williams

Shaina has been dancing since she was three and a half. Throughout the years, she has discovered a love for many styles of dance, such as ballet, jazz, lyrical, tap, modern, ballroom, hip hop and African. I met Shaina my freshman year at UW-Whitewater through auditions and workshops in the Theatre/Dance department, and she's one of the sweetest people alive. We worked together in last year's dance production, and briefly danced together this year. I asked her what the two most important items in her dance bag were...

Shaina Williams: My computer and my hair ties. My computer holds all my music and it's so important to me because of how much music inspires me. And you can never have too many hair ties since mine always break on me!

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The Dance Bag of Nikole Trieder

I met Nikole my freshman year at the UW-Whitewater Dance Team tryouts. Neither of us made the team, but we then reconnected at an audition for the dance production at UW-Whitewater, which we both got to participate in. We get on each other's nerves at least once a day, but I love her to death anyway. Nikole started dancing in the fifth grade. She never had any training. She just had such a passion for dancing that nothing was going to make her stop. She said to me, "As long as I'm moving and dancing, it feels like I have everything to be happy about."

Me: What are the two most important items in your bag?

Nikole Trieder: The first most important thing to me would be the necklace (in the purple bag above) that my mom gave me. It has my birthstone and I usually say a prayer with it before I perform. The second most important is my iPod. Before I perform, I need to go away from everyone and just put my favorite song on. I usually listen to "Oceans" by Hillsong. It makes me feel like I can do anything. I usually put that on repeat.

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About My (Jenna Ziebarth's) Dance Bag

I've been dancing since I was 5 years old, and I've been teaching dance for 3 years. Even after 14 years, it's still the only thing on my mind for 23 hours a day and 7 days a week. It's the healthiest addiction there is. Since I'm always running from class to class and to rehearsal and home again, my backpack doubles as my dance bag.

The two most important things in my bag are my dance book and the little red bag (a give courtesy of Aislinn Poe's Mary Kay business!) The dance book includes literally every piece of paper I've written something about dance on and every notebook I've scribbled dance thoughts into. It's a shitty 97 cent binder that's falling apart, but forgetting to bring it with me would be like forgetting half of my brain. The little red bag contains hand sanitizer, band aids, athletic tape, a tennis ball, Ibuprofen, dental floss, a mirror, Kleenex, a sewing kit, a finger nail clipper, Chapstick, hand lotion, and a lint roller. It's basically the rehearsal survival kit.

And with that, I conclude our adventure into the intricate inner workings of the behind-the-scenes world of dance. It's a fascinating place to discover.