I’ve been dancing for the past 10 years, and I have definitely learned a lot from it. Over the past couple of years, dance has gotten a lot more recognition and respect in the world. Recently, over the past year, there has been a new trend circulating on social media called “Ballet Core.” This trend includes ballet flats, wrap sweaters that are usually worn by ballet dancers, and leg warmers that go on the calves. Lots of professional dancers have spoken on this trend and have called it offensive to ballet dancers because it glorifies dance and doesn’t represent what ballet actually is. In my opinion, I think this trend is kind of cool because it gets more people talking about dance, even though I personally will not participate in these fashion trends, I think they can be done well.
I talk to a lot of non-dancer friends, and they always tell me they wish they had gotten into dancing or stuck with it after taking a dance class for 8-year-olds. Most of those people don’t understand the mental and physical toll it has on people who dance. All the people I dance alongside usually have either a very small or a big injury they are trying to work through while still going to at least 6 hours of dance a week. I dance 10 hours a week this season, as well as doing 3 solos and numerous group dances. I have also gone to professional dance companies to train during the summer. These are called intensives, and you usually dance for 8 hours, 6 days a week, for about 4 weeks. At the end of these intensives, there is a showcase that friends and family can come to. In 2023, I was attending a contemporary dance intensive in Portland, and that’s when I got my first injury from dance. Just recently, it has been flaring up, and for the past couple of months, I’ve been trying to get a diagnosis. Throughout all this, I am still required to attend all my classes and perform to my best ability. This is a clear path a lot of dancers go down when they get an injury, and they end up having to end their dancing career because their body physically can’t take it anymore. This is a big reason dance is such an intense sport to be in.
Now onto the cost for dance, this is different for every dancer and what kind of dance they do. I’ve trained in 6 different styles of dance, but I’m going to focus on ballet. Since I dance on pointe, each pair of my shoes is $120, I also have to buy ribbons and elastics to sew onto them. Because of my injury, I have been taking it easy on pointe, which means I go through a pair a month. Ballet attire is also very expensive; leotards are around $60, and you wear those to every class, so I need quite a few for each day of the week. We do 2 performances a year and 3 competitions. I have to buy two ballet costumes each year, and each one is around $80-100.
Dance is what I spend all my time doing when I’m not in school. But it is always challenging and has its ups and downs. I think it is amazing that dance is getting the recognition it deserves because every dancer works so unbelievably hard and deserves to be seen.
