Nine to five?

Being a ballet-dancer is not the typical nine-to-five job. Every day, you use your body in new ways, new steps, new combinations. Sometimes, we practice from morning ’til night. Sometimes, there’s only a class, and we finish working at noon. Then you got the night performances, tours, traveling, gala’s, full-night ballets, modern pieces, location jobs… no two days are the same. Or are they, now?

Although one rarely do the same class several days after each other, a ballet class is still built up on the same elements, regardless of the teacher. And however challenging and intriguing it is to perform a new piece, truth is, you never go onstage with a new performance while it’s still new. Dancers, in general, practice the shit out of what they’re doing. When you see all the swans arabesque’ing their way cross the stage for the first time on the 1st premiere of the company’s new Swan Lake production, the swans, or ballerinas, that is, probably are so sick of those steps they feel slightly uncomfortable just by hearing the music.

Truth be told, being a ballet dancer is as much a routine job as any. Some of us make our own routines inside the day. Remember my post on Mie, the japanese girl? Every day, all dancers perform a bunch of rituals, routines and practices, to create the final product – the performance. Every once in a while, great artistic moments comes by, but most of the time, it’s all about practice. Practice the technique. Practice holding the lines. Practice the acting.

On the stage, nothing is supposed to happen by chance. Then, when it still does, it is the amount of practice that decides what you make of it – mistakes, or the greatest moments of a performance.

Workin 9 to 5 What a way to make a livin Barely gettin by Its all takin And no givin They just use your mind And they never give you credit Its enough to drive you

Crazy if you let it

Dolly parton had her own opinions on the whole 9 to 5-life. Maybe my schedule isn`t that bad, after all…