Becoming a ballet dancer is not easy. Determination, undying spirit, hard work, pain, and unbounded practice, mingled with deep love for the dance, go in to make a truly magical ballet dancer whose every movement and step personify grace and beauty. Ballet dancing involves pleasure mingled with danger. With injuries and other physical hazards galore, ballet is dangerous when not taught or learnt properly. Research shows that almost every company or school has its own specialists for treating injuries. Pressures to maintain a 'Balanchine body' such as petite, thin, and long-limbed makes many students to suffer from eating problems. Ballet dancers usually start at a young age, around 9 years, and become trained dancers in their late teen years. After graduating from a renowned academic and dance programs, they usually audition for dance companies. Graduating from a good university program helps young dancers to get into dance companies. Some schools like the Canada's Royal Winnipeg Ballet and School of American Ballet in New York, among others provide excellent training to ballet dancing. Students usually start with few class hours and then proceed on to more hours. Students and novices get a chance to perform at competitions, musical shows, and the like. Research shows that ballet dancers usually do not have a high pay scale, but with improvement, practice, and experience, they usually get bigger and more demanding roles in performances. Slowly and gradually, their earnings increase. Awareness of the short career in ballet dancing does not dampen the spirits of those who dream of being a dancer. Ballet dancers undertake vigorous training and practice, and overcome all obstacles in their way to emerge finally as a graceful dancer, who stupefies the audience with beauty, gracefulness, and talent. Some talented and famous dancers include Anna Pavlova, Vaslav Nijinsky, Alicia Alonso, Briely Movric, Paloma Herrera, and Mikhail Baryshnikov, besides many, many others. |
