"Breaking Pointe": Save the Drama Fo Yo Mama.

I'm looking forward to it... The future, that is.

I've decided to spend another season dancing. Shocker, right? Any of you who have known me more than five seconds know that it is my passion, and it would take an unusually large mack truck with a big fat chain to pull me away from my career. I'm looking forward to what next season will bring-- new challenges, new music, new choreography, new costumes... All the fun things that come along with a ballet company.

There is a new reality show, "Breaking Pointe," that just had it's season finale. It featured a professional ballet company in Salt Lake City-- or shall I say, the editors featured the drama between dancers in the company. They spent way over half of the show's hour showing how one particular couple dealt with their relational problems. This couple's tears, yelling, and sideways glances were just as much the stars as were the actual dancing/performing scenes. As a professional ballet dancer, that irked me just a bit. Now, the dancing they DID show us was simply stunning and lovely (often inspiring me to get my butt into ballet class), and I'm not saying drama never happens in the workplace. In any community, at least a little bit always will. I just wish the editors had chosen to show us more rehearsal footage, more class shots, and more about the life of a working dancer. Because I love my career so much, I wanted DANCING to be the star of the show, so the outside world could know more about our world. Not to say they ignored it, but they just spent so much more time featuring the relational drama between dancers.

What I'm getting at is this: The excitement of growing as a dancer is really giving me joy these days. Even the exhaustion that comes from daily class, daily hours of pointe work, daily hours of breathing so hard you think you're going to die. The exhaustion is worth it. Another thing that bugged me about the editing on "Breaking Pointe" is how the editors/producers/directors/whomever makes those sort of decisions, decided to add into the introduction for each episode, the "reason" dancers work so hard. They specify that it is "that certain moment that you are "perfect" onstage," and how this moment is the reason dancers dance. For me, I'd have to kind of take issue with the fact they presented this as the sole reason we do what we do: In my opinion, those moments when the technique, character, costume, and lights come together onstage are certainly powerful. But the other moments are just as powerful for me:

That moment in rehearsal where you float through the air carried by your partner and you feel like you're flying.

That moment where your colleague does something so hilarious in rehearsal you can't help but bust up laughing, and totally break character.

That moment you get a correction from a coach, and you actually manage to fix what you're doing wrong-- and everything in your body clicks into the right position.

That moment you are about to cry because you're so frustrated with how it seems you will never get that particular step right-- and your colleague gives you a hug, and you suddenly feel the sweet comraderie of being in your working community.

That moment of taking a deep breath in the wings before walking onstage for a solo, as your partner squeezes your hand in encouragement.

So many moments, that make it all worth it. Blood, sweat, tears, drama-- all worth it.