By Alexa
Since I first joined Ballet Idaho’s trainee program at the end of August, I think my dancing has become unrecognizable. Upon arrival, I danced like a student. Very academic and placed, but with none of the maturity that being in a company requires. But with completely new teachers and a new perspective, I honestly believe I have never danced better. It was certainly not easy, though. For months, I received endless constructive criticism about my upper body, hearing “soft hands” or “less wrists” about every 10 minutes. And those were far from the only corrections these new teachers gave me. But over the past 3 months, I have been pushed to the limits and came out not only a stronger dancer, but a stronger person as well.
At the end of September was my first real test. We had a guest choreographer come to set a piece for our trainee show in March (he was also a photographer, and two of the photos in this post are taken by him! @qwharton on Instagram). I went into this experience blind, unsure what type of piece this would be, how many of the dancers in our program would be in it, or what our schedule that week would be like. That Monday, I got the answer to a few of my questions. Monday-Thursday, we would have 1.5 hour class, then 3 hours of rehearsal with this choreographer, a 1 hour lunch, then 2 more hours of rehearsal. And we would be in pointe shoes for all of that! Those first 3 hours were extremely intense. All 18 of the trainees learned a short part of the piece and then ran it in front of the choreographer in small groups. Right away, I knew I was out of my element. I am a ballet dancer through and through, with very little experience in other styles, and this piece was contemporary. But I gave it my best shot.
After lunch, we came back to the biggest shock. It turned out that only 7/18 of the trainees would be in this piece and I was one of them! When I heard my name called, I was in disbelief, but obviously very excited. And for the next 3.5 days, we worked on the piece non-stop. That was the most rehearsal I had ever done, and my body felt like it was falling apart. That week, I learned I had to really take care of myself. After dance ended at 5, I came back to my apartment and immediately spent over an hour rolling out my muscles. I spent time icing my ankles, taking long showers, and hydrating. And I made it through in one piece! But that week was a big test for not only my new dancing ability but also my new, independent living situation.
After that week, we soon started working on Nutcracker. Most of my Nutcracker experience is yet to occur, but this year, I was cast in the corps de ballet, a very big change from my experience performing soloist roles at my dance academy (where we were all students and the eldest performed the soloist/principal roles). Working as a group is new for me, and I can’t wait to dive into this new challenge!
