A day in the life...
One of the most common questions I got asked as a dancer was "So what do you really do for a living?" No, this is not a joke. People couldn't fathom the idea that I was a ballet dancer. They thought for some reason I was like one of those super heroes, you know, corporate lawyer by day, ballerina by night. When I told them that this is all I do, they looked at me perplexed. I would in turn ask them how they thought we performed all those ballets. Did they think we just showed up, threw on our tutus and went out there hoping someone knew what they were doing? Understandably, this is a strange thought. Not very many audience goers consider the weeks of rehearsal and preparation going into the show they are about to see. They see the finished product. They miss the 6 weeks of mistakes and hard work that went into it. So, in an effort to help those audience members understand and also to let the students know what they are looking to get into, I am here to share with you a day in the life of a dancer. This is a typical day, however I should note that in a profession where sickness, injury, and a list of other things can change the day in about 2 minutes, typical is actually quite rare.
The day begins in most companies around 9:30am where we start off with a basic ballet class. This is the same class many people take even if you aren't professional. The purpose is to warm up for the day ahead as well as refresh your technique on a daily basis. Quite often, especially with more contemporary pieces, you do things differently than you would normally do them. Class in the morning brings you back to basics and helps center you for the day ahead. While this is not technically part of our work day under contract, you can't really rehearse without it. As a side note, not very many dancers are morning people. Good thing for us we perform at night. There are quite a few travel mugs of coffee around the room as well as moaning and groaning as we attempt to get our bodies to cooperate with us. I realize that 9:30am is late for most of the corporate world, but how many of you are attempting to kick your leg up to a 180 degree angle??
After a pretty standard 15 minute break, we start our real day. It is broken into morning and afternoon rehearsals. Each block being 3 hours long. Union companies work 55 minutes and allow a 5 minute break on the hour. Just enough time to change shoes, grab a snack, use the restroom, and if your fast enough, all of the above. Rehearsals are quite disciplined. You can't come and go as you please. It is not a democracy. You are there to work, and work you do. It is usually broken into hour long segments but there are days where you spend 15 minutes here, 30 minutes in another studio doing something else, then 1 hour doing the same piece but different part. You never have just one part in a ballet. You are sometimes learning up to 6 parts in one production. Juggling the day gets tricky the more parts you are involved in. Also, you are usually rehearsing more than just one ballet. Often times you will be working on say, "Swan Lake" in one studio, then a new creation in another and then "Nutcracker" in still another. Not sure why, but you always seem to be working on "Nutcracker" no matter what time of year it is. It is like the dancer version of the movie "Ground hog's Day". I have had days where I will be in pointe shoes and tutu for an hour, then into the other studio where I switched to bare feet and long skirt then another studio still where I would put the pointe shoes back on and do a new creation. It is not easy work, but that is why we chose this profession.
Between the morning and afternoon is an hour lunch break, and yes, we do actually eat! If you read the paragraph before this one, you will see we have been busy. We are usually starving by this point so food is much needed. Although, I will admit to occasionally choosing a shower and a nap to food, depending on the kind of day it is, but I usually try to eat on the five minute breaks to make up for it. Lunch is also a down period. You regroup, relax a little, then get ready to dive back into it again after lunch. It is also the place to see the "real" dancers. If you really want to know what we are like, venture into the lounge at lunch. I'm not completely sure, but I think a combination of fatigue, stress, and a break from discipline leads to a rather rowdy bunch.
The afternoon is much the same as the morning. On mornings where you have what is known as a "run through", in which you will go through an entire ballet, often times, with the conductor, stage manager, and lighting technician being there, making sure everyone is on the same page, the afternoon will just be notes from the morning. This usually only happens when a performance is close at hand. The rest of the time you repeat the morning schedule. For me, it was always the last hour, the 5:15-6:15 rehearsal that went the slowest especially when new choreography was being taught. Your mind tends to shut down at a certain point. Remember this is not just a physical profession, it involves a lot of mental and emotional input as well.
The job doesn't end at 6:15 either. After hobbling home and eating some food, our night will most often involve sewing pointe shoes, washing the countless sweaty leotards and tights from the day, and preparing for the next day. We cannot simply leave our profession "at the office". Every thing we do will affect our work. Staying up too late, eating poorly, drinking too much all will take its toll the next day. We live for our jobs and although there were lots of days I sat at the end of the day in the dressing room considering alternative professions, I still was back at it the next day. Some dancers consider themselves slightly crazy for subjecting themselves to such torture each day. When you think about it, would you want to stand in front a room full of full length mirrors day after day while working as hard as you could to perform a piece only to have someone stand there and tell you everything you just did was wrong and make you do it all again? Didn't think so. For me however, it sounds, well,just like any other day at work, and I loved every minute of it.
