Glitter, tulle, quite possibly the tightest hairstyle known to female history: all of these are the makings of a serious athlete. When we think ‘athletic’ we think padding, helmets, and screaming coach on the sidelines. I teamed up with my friend Emilia on what exactly goes on behind the curtains of a very underestimated form of the perfect marriage of art and sport-ballet. My friend Emilia was nice enough to talk with me about it for a little while since I have an appreciation for ballet, but I know nothing about it give or take a few lessons when I was a child (which I did not take to as well as she did, sorry Dad). So many times, I will have a conversation with any one about my workout regimen or my hobbies, and most of the time people praise me for it. “Oh my god, you do jiu jitsu?” they will say as they size me up with my red lipstick and retro-glam eyeliner. “That is so cool, you are such a badass!” That is not the worst thing I have ever been called. Yes, this is a conversation I very much enjoy having, but when I was talking to Emilia about it, I insisted that she was the really tough one out of the two of us. I have mentioned before, that the reason I do not look like a ballerina is because I did not choose ballet.
That joke got me thinking, when I roll, or kick or punch whatever I am doing, if I am in pain, I at least get to show it. No one tells me to smile when I throw a left hook, Emilia needs to engage every single muscle in her body for hours, simultaneously, and look like a delicate swan while doing it. Now I do not know how most people train, but with me, ‘delicate’ is not the aesthetic that I am going for when I am on the mat. There is no such thing as a scary ballerina, and I am ninety nine percent sure that no one has told Ronda Rousey to land gracefully after a kick. Whether you are Rousey or Misty Copeland, one is not better than the other, and the fact that there is a competition with everything women do is frankly a waste of energy.
When we talked it over and compared schedules, we found that Emilia trains for about as long as I do, about as often as I do. Check out her Instagram it is basically always her at the barre pointing and posing. Think about the movie The Game Plan in which Dwayne Johnson plays a football player who adapts to a ballet practice under his daughter’s teacher in order to show him the type of athleticism that goes into dance. The teacher jokingly explains to Johnson that “if ballet were easy, they would call it football," but it is true. Many people roll their eyes at the concept of dancing, insisting it is “girly” (an issue for a later article). So Emilia took me through it, some background on my pointe shoe wearing bae. She has been dancing for about as long as she could walk. She does not remember a time in her life when she was not a ballet dancer. She explained that the ballet community can be highly competitive, not to mention a bit toxic as most girls do what they can to stay light and thin. This is why over half of girls in ballet are subject to eating disorders, although not so much in American Ballet companies.
“I think it’s taken seriously,” Emilia began to explain to me. “It is just not respected. My feet are so wrecked from almost seventeen years of dancing, and I am constantly injured.” I found myself relating mostly to the constantly sore, the strict diets, and I almost always have bruises. I also related to the natural high she, like anyone else, gets when they are doing what they love. “They will tell you to lose weight, but not flat out, you're supposed to fit in a certain mold obviously. In France and Russia, they weigh you just to get into their schools, and that starts when you are six or seven." At least in my world a weight class is taken seriously, but there is some flexibility.
I train, time permitting, four to six times a week, for any where between one to two hours a night. Emilia, this past semester, had a dance class three days a week, plus rehearsal for her show six times a week. She takes Pilates and yoga in her off time, where I will run and lift weights. I work on my strength and endurance, she works on agility and flexibility. By the end of the week, both of us have a hard time staying up past ten at night on a Friday. Mostly because we are both training until half past nine, her leg up (haha) on me is that she gets up insanely early to get in her training at one hundred percent. Whereas my instructors will tell you, that if it is before noon, I want no part of it. Emilia, and the dance community, has my respect, just as I have theirs. This article is to remind you that if it is track and field, ballet, yoga, weight lifting, martial arts, boxing, or swimming, I will never turn up my nose at you for trying to keep fit by doing what you love. My way is not the only way.
