Kimi Farley ENGL 2280-001 Literary Journalism Essay 11-04-13

Footsteps
Her leg is raised high in the air; her face, filled with emotion, is pointed to her audience; a few thoughts are in her head, along with years of training and some scraps of choreography. She is standing on the stage. This is all she has with her. It has been said that a dancer can spin for three turns on a single foot: the first turn on her heel, the second on her toe, the third on the air. My guess is that this is harder than you might imagine. In three turns of balanced spinning with the dancer, I saw her grimace four times. [Replacement poem from (Finkel)]

It is Wednesday, and she drags in from school and heads straight to the couch where she falls, dead-man style, shoes and books toppling to the floor. She falls asleep this time, but only for about 20 minutes before I wake her to get ready for dance. Homework will have to wait until tonight. Wading into her room shell sift through the mound of dance clothes until she finds the perfect combination of leotard, shorts, and tank top. Jazz is first today. She slips the regulation pale pink tights and her pointe shoes into her bag. Shell need them later for ballet. Then its off to the bathroom to pull up her hair in the high ponytail shell twist and pin into a bun after class. By then shes starving and moves to the kitchen for a snack. She doesnt need to take dinner with her anymore because the mothers of the dancers decided to combine funds and stock a refrigerator at

the studio. Fortunately, the studio provides a break room for the elite Senior Touring Team on which Andelin has proudly earned a spot this year. If only those pesky company dancers would stay out of their fridge. Dirty rotten 12 year olds. The giggling begins as soon as we pick up the first carpooler. That long-familiar and high-pitched white noise that accompanies these near daily runs to the studio and back. We pick up another girl or two and the clamor grows exponentially. I have come to appreciate this noise, to associate it with a parental comfort; that reassurance you feel when your child has good friends and healthy activities. Still, I have to smile to myself and roll my eyes. Karma has caught up with me or God has a sense of humor or whatever clich applies to the fact that my daughter Andelin is a dancer. I am an outsider in this world of dance. My high school activities were soccer and marching band, and the closest I ever got to the dancers was when my friends and I made fun of them for being so prissy and bubbly and girly. It never occurred to me that anyone could take dance seriously. Class begins with a warm up. Always a warm up. And it will end with a cool down. Injuries are a major concern for a dancer. An injury can sideline or even devastate a dance career. Dancers are prone to a slew of injuries, including neck strain, meniscus tears, ankle sprains, tendonitis, muscle strain and bunions, the last three of which Andie has experienced (Wozny). It seems like every week she has a new complaint. Most of the time it ends up being muscle strain or a bruised something or other. Sometimes the pains are more serious. A couple of years ago she had to wear a brace to stabilize her ankle and minimize the pain from tendonitis. But the brace came off at dance and she had to fight through the pain. This is common for dancers. Pain. Lots of it. Last year Andie developed bunions from dancing ballet on pointe. The choice now is to accept the pain or have surger y. There isnt an

easy answer, either. According to the John Hopkins Medicine website, surgery involves cutting the bone and realigning it or at the very least cutting away the enlarged portion of bone. Then the muscles, tendons, and ligaments surrounding the joint must be realigned. Recovery can take anywhere from 6 weeks to 6 months (Johns Hopkins Medicine). I buy her shoe pads and toe spacers. They will help, but for now Andelin will endure the pain. Illness is another common hazard for dancers, especially a few months into the season, as dancers begin to experience exhaustion and immune system deficiency. Andies teacher warned the class recently that they were going to start getting sick soon and urged them to take care of their health. Sure enough, within the week dancers started missing classes and the carpool group thinned. Andelin has been in and out of some kind of illness for over a week now. She does okay during the week, but by Friday she starts to decline. Her throat gets sore and raspy, she gets pressure in her sinuses, headaches, and fatigue set in. She takes it easy Saturday afternoon after dance and Sunday. By Monday shes feeling better and the cycle continues. Some girls will come to class sick, though, and sit in the corner so they wont miss something important from class that day. In the large, mirror-lined studio, the teacher calls out a few instructions, Dance big! Remember your corrections! Feel each other! before switching on the music. Loud techno musi c drowns out the echoing chatter and the count down signals the dancers to get ready. In our interview I ask Andie, Do they really say, Five! SIX! Seven! EIGHT! (one of the main mocking points for us band nerds). Of course not, Mom. Were old enough to know when to come in. They usually only say, Five! Seven! or just Six! I stifle a smirk. They dance big, they remember their corrections, and they feel each other until they are exhausted and sweaty and its time to start ballet. The team members take turns changing in the two bathrooms. Do you ever share a bathroom and change together? No, and it takes forever for everyone to get changed.

They eat snacks and talk and laugh while they wait for their turn. Sometimes Andie uses the reflection in the TV to put her hair in a bun so she doesnt take up precious bathroom time. Ballet class begins with the traditional warm up: pli, then tendu, degage, rond de jambe, fondu (sounds delicious!), frappe (yes, please!), and petit battement (SuperKim). This warm up is standard the world over. The same moves (positions) done in the same order. Ballet is all about grace and tradition. It is not Andies favorite dance style, and there are times when she has lamented going to ballet class, but still she defends it, explaining that dancers who do not have the technique that comes from ballet training are at a significant disadvantage. Its at the root of dance, a starting point out of which other styles grow. On the stage a ballerina looks stunning, beautiful, graceful. Inside her shoes any number of afflictions and deformities can be found. A testament of her dedication and fierce determination to dance, whatever it takes. After ballet, Andie changes for her contemporary class. This style is her favorite. Its what she does best. In fact, this October (2013) she won the scholarship in the contemporary category at Epic dance convention. A scholarship allows a dancer to attend the convention the next year free of charge. It also carries with it a fair amount of prestige and is impressive when being considered for other dance programs and college scholarships. The popular dance studio, Blackfish Arts Academy in Dover, UK, defines contemporary dance in this way: Contemporary dance was developed in the early 20 th century as a reaction against the rigid techniques of ballet. Pioneers such as Isadora Duncan and Martha Graham searched for ease of

movement using the bodys natural lines and energy, allowing a greater range and fluidity of movement than conventional dance techniques. Contemporary dance is characterised by its versatility: contemporary can be danced to almost any style of music, or united with other dance forms to create new styles of movement. Contemporary seeks to work with the natural alignment of the body. (Blackfish Arts Academy) After contemporary, Andie has one more class. This is a busy day for her, but on Thursday she has five classes, so it could be worse. She rides home in the carpool, a little quieter on the return trip. She and her teammates are exhausted. Once home, the backpack just inside the door reminds her that she is not yet finished tonight. She taps the keyboard to wake the computer while she grabs a snack.

Works Cited
Blackfish Arts Academy. blackfishartsacademy.com. 2013. 8 November 2013. Finkel, Michael. "The Tenere Desert - 13 Ways of Looking at a Void." Adventure Sept./Oct. 2001. Johns Hopkins Medicine. Bunion Surgery. 11 November 2013. SuperKim. Ballet Terms. 2013. 11 November 2013. Wozny, Nancy. "10 Common Dance Injuries." 12 August 2010. Dance Teacher Magazine. DanceMedia, LLC. 30 October 2013.