Ballet Dancer Answers Awkward Questions About Ballet Dancers 

On the constant physical work, Fonteyn once said - "If you miss one class, you notice it; if you miss two, the company notices it; if you miss three, the whole audience notices it!" Also Fonteyn was dropped by her partner, David Wall - they both collapsed on stage, immediately got up and finished the dance. As soon as they got off-stage they burst out laughing! And I've seen a video where Sylvie Guillem slipped and fell in a performance of 'Sleeping Beauty'. It happens to the best!

So eloquently, diplomatically, and beautifully said-- each and every response. Thank you for another wonderful video, Maria. We love you so much!

Perfect timing. I am starting ballet this weekend at the age of 28! Never to late to embrace all art forms!

Lovely post, answering some interesting questions. On the question: "Is it ever too late to start ballet?" Absolutely agree with you that you should start very young if your intention is to dance professionally. But through my own experience, I was fortunate enough to take ballet lessons at an Adult Ballet Studio, where the teacher was a professional dancer; since having retired from it. She opened her studio to help ballet dancers that wanted nothing more than to practice their craft; for ladies who always wanted to learn ballet, but their mothers didn't send them; for ladies that wanted to improve their posture, balance, strength, poise, gain confidence, etc. She has given so many ladies (and men) an opportunity to enjoy the craft and also to learn the craft. She has many ballet teachers come to her class. The class is one of a kind. I don't think I've ever seen it duplicated. We are so fortunate to have her.

You answered these questions so beautiful! I love the way you talk about ballet. You find words to describe the feeling of ballet and the passion behind it and how much it means to dancers. Thank you so much💙

Your comments 'ballet is a state of soul' and 'bring beauty into your life' perfectly blends the aesthetic with the spiritual. Thank you for giving so generously of your own beautiful soul

I love your outlook on adults doing ballet for themselves. I'm 25, and did ballet growing up but never had very serious training. I'm also pregnant with my second child. Throughout my first and second trimesters this time around, I took an adult beginner ballet class (of course, I am not really a beginner, but I'm not nearly professional. Probably somewhere around intermediate). But the beginner class was paced perfectly for my pregnant body even toward the end of my second trimester. In my first pregnancy, I had a lot of issues with my pelvis and my hips (I had SPD). And I also had diastasis recti really badly. But this time around, dancing kept my body in shape. I'm already at 32 weeks, and I've barely had any mobility issues, my pelvis and my hips hurt way less, and my abs have only just started separating (diastasis recti). And I attribute all of that to the ballet class I was taking, and the work I was doing to keep myself healthy and moving in those first two trimesters. The difference from my last pregnancy to this one in terms of mobility and pain are astronomical. Ballet can be so amazing for your body as long as you're listening to your body and taking the appropriate steps to take care of yourself.

I was very lucky to be able to professionally photograph Ballet dancers and companies for 25 years. To me Ballet dancers are probably the ultimate artistic athletes on the planet. They have to eat, sleep and prepare as dancers 24/7 during their career. No other athletes that i am aware of sacrifice so much to their profession. I have worked with professional,cyclists, baseball, football and basketball players as well and they never went to the degree that ballet dancers have to go. I am in awe of this beautiful talented young woman. She is mature beyond her years. She is beautiful, adorable, talented, articulate and very self possessed with a lot of presence. I wished that i would have been fortunate enough to photograph her in action.

Maria's opinions and views are so thought-provoking and interesting! What a truly beautiful dancer, inside and out!

I've been an avid balletomane for 60 years. It is a rich pleasure to watch your videos. Thank you for all the time and effort you put into all of your videos to give us something so good and so full. I loved all the answers to the questions, to hear the personal feelings and thoughts you have about your great art. You have such a humble heart and you are so respectful of your teachers and of everyone. I love your head band. You look like a princess. You have such a purity, and such a caring spirit. I love what you said about looking at the old dancers. It is so great that you revere them. It is so true that it is not just high extensions and high technique. The old dancers are magnificent. In fact, the lower extensions made other elements more beautiful - even musicality. But of course the splendid level of your technique is very beautiful. Your clips of the 2nd act of giselle are one of the most beautiful I've ever seen. We all love you so much.

Thank you for talking about how dancing is a serious profession. I'm aspiring to become a professional dancer myself and literally everyone I know doesn't understand that this means I'd dedicate EVERYTHING to dancing. My parents think, in between performances (as there will be times where I won't have any show that I'm part of or project that I'm working on), I can fit in a normal fulltime job, when I know the reality is that I won't have time to work as a supermarket employee 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, and still perform every night with probably 2 shows per day on weekends, one day off per week, while having to go to the studio for practice and rehearsals almost every day (I have friends who are professional dancers, they're members of the Flying Steps which I'm also aspiring to be one day. And I've closely witnessed their busy schedule while they had a show to perform at last year for several months). I know once I'm good enough to pursue dance as a profession, it will become as much of a fulltime job for me as being manager of a company is for others (the comparison here focuses on both jobs going beyond normal work hours as most people in management positions have to be available for their team at any time and often take part of their work home with them). But I want to do this, because it's the only thing I'm really passionate about.

To me ballet and classical music are the equivalent of those thoughts and emotions you can't put into words

You could literally see the fire in Maria's eyes when she talked about the misconception of ballet feet. She's so cute! Maria, thanks for clearing things up. It's definitely reassuring for a adult ballet newbie like me. And thanks for making all these beautiful videos that inspire me to continue practicing. Tons of love to you!💗

I admire your ability to communicate these complex thoughts in English. I'm guessing you have been studying English for most of your life. I hope that we are able to continue hearing from you internationally.

I can't remember where I read this, but some sports institute in the US had researched what elite athletes (in all kind of different sports) had the best physique overall. According to this research, number one is American football players. In second place came professional ballet dancers. Wish everyone who loves to watch ballet knew about this. Also, LOVE the leotard you're wearing in this video! 😍❤

You speak so nice, I could ear you all day long ❤. It would be awesome if you make a series of "reacting prima ballerinas variations".

I have been wanting to learn ballet for awhile. I am 29 years old and I am NOT flexible at all, so I know I would never be able to do certain movements. I also know pointe would likely not be something I could do, but that's ok. I love watching ballet and I really enjoy the music and stories that I see. I am shy and scared to take a class because of my age and level of clumsiness, but I hope someday I will be able to sign up for an adult beginner ballet class and have the courage to try it out! 💜

Wise, wise words, dear Masha, from the beginning to the end of the video... You're always surprising us with new content!... Thank you so much 💖💐

Я занималась танцами 12 лет, были психологические проблемы, я бросила танцы, началась булимия… мне потребовалось 8 лет, чтобы справиться со всем этим. И сейчас))) мне 30))) я снова танцую)) для себя, дома, в танцевальной студии… с совершенно другим пониманием. Такой ложный путь был проделан, чтобы найти себя в танцах заново и получать столько счастья от этого) Подписана на канал недавно, спасибо вам за вдохновение и полезную информацию❤❤❤

I've always wanted to do ballet and took lessons as a child but then we discovered that I have ehlers danlos and I had to stop otherwise I would speed up my disability progression and be in a wheelchair by the age of 30. I use crutches now and will never be a ballerina but I still have a deep appreciation for the art and go to ballets as often as I can despite being a little bit bitter (which I think is fair) about not being able to dance myself (I still try lol)

Maria's focused drive and discipline shines like an inspired star.

Dear Maria, Thank you sincerely for your heartfelt videos and inspirational advice. You shine with a beautiful radiance inside and out. You are a perfect role model, and have such a nice way of sharing your life. 🩰 ✨

Спасибо Вам, Мария, за такие подробные и интересные ответы. У Вас прекрасная речь и произношение!

"the lack of balance of life, health, happiness, social, personal aspects is not normal" You hear things like this when discussing someone like Maria. You worry about them... but lets pose it this way. Art is beauty, and beauty is art. The most beautiful art is accomplished by those who dedicate everything... everything to their art. It is a choice, and how can the production of such beauty be out of balance. It is a small window of their lives, and they would be cheating themselves and us if they did not dedicate everything during that time to create that beauty. Thank you Maria for your dedication and your art.

This is one of my favorite videos of yours ever. Thank you for sharing of yourself so genuinely and generously. Young dancers benefit so much from hearing about the internal or “heartfelt” reasons why you stayed in ballet when it was hard, and what helps to inspire you. They may not have faced those days yet, but if they ever do, your wisdom will help. I remember listening to old interviews with Margot Fonteyn, and her discussion of rehabilitation helped make me feel more comfortable with my own. Please make more of these! 💜💜💜

This video explains the beauty of ballet so well 💕🩰

Hi Maria, thank you for yet another beautiful video, your thoughts are wholesome and touching as always and I truly hope you know how brilliant you are as a person. Since you're taking suggestions for other videos, what would you think about a series in which you react to iconic ballet performances of the past, like Carla Fracci's Giselle or Baryshnikov's Don Quixote? I'd love to hear your opinion about the many changes ballet aestethic and technique have gone through in recent years, and obviously your impressions about the geniuses that made the art this beautiful! But honestly, just hearing you talk about whatever is enough for me, so just keep up the awesome work!

I love your outfit Maria!! Thank you for sharing your wealth of knowledge with us!!

Ballet is transcendental and Maria is transcendental and timeless 😊 Thank You 😊

Wow! That’s so interesting and funny))) Your earrings are so so so beautiful, and you are really beautiful😍 Maybe some ballerina lifestyle videos) Like day in your life, as a ballet dancer) I just hope, you would able to perform soon!❤️🤞🏼😍💜

I marvel at your excellent mastery of English! Great admiration for you on so many levels. Admiring you from Canada. 🇨🇦

This is the most beautiful, meaninful video you have done so far. Bravo!

Thank you Maria, you are so beautiful ❤️😍 love to Russia 🇷🇺 from New Zealand 🇳🇿!

listening to you be philosophical about your passion is an emotional experience for the listener, not just yourself! somehow i've discovered the world of ballet through RU-vid and I'm loving it! I may just have to start going regularly if I can find a local company.

I love how you are posting so much more often your videos are amazing!!!

My brother-in-law was also a ballet dancer when he was young. But he still works in the Semper Oper in the organization. Sometimes, I saw stretching exercises for young students on youtube. I must say, the dancers have to work really hard. You have so nice pronunciation and You are beautiful.

Ballet is a difficult and wonderfully expressive art.

I’m very late on the video but I love how she answers each question I can feel it in her answers on how passionate she is on ballet. Thank you for being who you are! Oh and I have a question I have been dancing for soon a year and I started ballet at 12 and a half do I still have a possibility of becoming a professional ballet dancer or not for more content I am getting my point shoes next year (school year)? Bye have a great day/night

Need a whole video with funny or embarassing moments on stage! :D

I have watches Swan Lake at Mariinskiy theater. It was a breathtaking experience. The dancers are amazing.

I hope I'm not being too personal by asking when you were injured and what happened. I love these videos having a chance to get to know you. Thank you!!!

Masha!!! That’s so interesting! Thanks a lot!

I have loved ballet all my life. I love the artistry and all the musical and storytelling aspects, but I also love the incredible rigour it demands of the body and the mind. I did ballet as a child but then we moved away to the countryside where there was no dancing and I had to give it up, even though it filled my heart and my head. As an adult I started again and I even took exams. I loved working hard at it and it made me happier and more fulfilled than anything else I have done, even though it was just an extracurricular activity and not a profession. Now I have been diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome and my body is falling apart. But I am doing work whenever I can on my placement and turnout strength, in the hope that it will build strength for my body to maintain structure as long as possible. And also to just feel that I can hold on to a bit of dancing in my life as long as I can.

Thank you for this channel I'm in NYC raised in Chicago I studied dance when younger always LOVED Maryinsky ❤🩰

I admire your mental, physical and personal dedication ♥

Online, there's a video of a 100-year-old ballerina who does a great job @ her routine. Fascinating.

I can feel your passion for ballet all the way from here. 😍I always root for you. ^-^

Hi Maria! Will you do more variations videos?? These classes are amazing 👏

You are amazing young lady. She should do a reality/fun/ dramatic type ballerina movie. Thank you for sharing

Maria, what a lovely and beautiful video and discussion. It strikes me as having this time just with you while I can listen and watch is an eye opener. In some way the beauty of a ballerina has felt such a distance away. But now you are up front a personal. Thank you so very much which to me was very special. It is shear elegance and beauty. as are you. The beauty of a woman is perfection in ballet.

I always enjoy your videos. Long time subscriber. Can you do a video with your sister or an update as to what your sister is up to. Been a long time since I’ve seen her on a video 😊

Dance is a state of soul. What a beautiful way to think about your profession. Namaste

Loved this video ! So inspiring, especially the part on what you love and hate about ballet ; as a cellist, it even inspired me for my own art 🙌

Maria, you are so Amazing in every aspect of your life as Artistic and Creative and Spiritual Dancer. What age have you become Vaganova student? Very happy to find out how did you become One ⁉️

Great to get these insights. I'm just an audience member in Baltimore.

yes, watch ballet from the past, watch miraculous saves, watch those freakish close calls, to determine the method in them, learn the dance and use in everything.

beautiful, keep saying on track, nobody gets left behind.

Very inspiring prima ballerina and so good teacher! A bright influencer for ballet dance art!

When you talk about the beauty of ballet and the good it does for the soul, it makes me think that ballet is somewhat spiritual.

There’s a photo of Rudolf Nureyev towards the end of his life, he’s sitting on a table wrapped in a colorful shawl and barefoot….his big toes 🫣 can’t tell if they’re malformed & swollen because of arthritis, or have been built up (broken/muscular?) over a lifetime of pointe, but they look so painful.

wow, i had no idea about the background of working as ballerina..blows my mind. ….dance is a “state of soul.” I”ve learned so much. I am a swimmer in a Master Swim Team. listening to her, I”m thinking about swimming, how I love it, and how I incorporate everything into it. Luckily we don’t have to perform with an audience. she is so adorable, and expresses herself so lovely, despite English is not her native tongue.

As for the story in the dancing, you can see the expressions in the physicality of the movements. Think about when you see people talking at a distance, you can almost always tell what kind of conversation they are having by their postures and hand gestures. The facial expressions as well. Dance just does all that in a more beautiful way and in some cases a more exaggerated way.

I once saw a ballet on PBS, 1977 "Nutcracker" with Mikhail Baryshnikov & Gelsey Kirkland. Nice.

She is just sooo cute and sweet and so adorable! What a beautiful, feminine treasure!!

Wonderful insight. Thank you so much x

i was keen to hear your answers to the questions, and the video was both fun and informative. But I have but one question to ask. It involves two ballerinas. My question is - did Sofya make your earrings?

6:25 hmmm yes what a great way to recover after ballet class: going hiking to relax my muscles

Would love her opinion on the modern emphasis on acrobatics at the expense of artistry.

Love you videos. I’ve never missed any ❤❤

Very interesting. The age of being a professional dancer perhaps depends on, in which condition your body is. Niklas Ek started to dance when he was 19.

On the part of 19 is too old to start. U answered the question perfectly. I started to learn ballet at the age of 30 (!!!) yes, and I love it from the first moment. I alqays wanted to be a balletina, from the age of 6, bzt my mother never brought me to ballet class (sad story, I'd skip it now). But I always had the desire and the abilities. I've never give upon my dreams! There's no age limit for that! Yes, if I could have started earlier, I would have been a pro ballet dancer a long time ago, but, I wasn't taken to ballet class. What can I do now? I have 2 options: cry over spilt milk (the past which I Can't change), or, go to ballet class and embrace fiercly what fate has guven to me. I choose 2. option!!!

Ballet feet are beautiful if you recognize the strength and all the impossibly hard work they do.

Hi Maria, I love your videos, maybe you can react to movies that have ballet in it? Thanks

Ballerinas have such amazing posture and poise. Audrey Hepburn credited ballet for her posture.

Your outfit looks so beautiful! 🥰

Cute outfit❤and great advise for ballerina's 😊

@4:14 Can't help but notice the "casual" position: sitting on bent legs with an arm support I can only imagine a broken wooden posing figurine would do. I don't even want to know what the hard positions are. Adding the the unbelievable sync and and control I've seen in some pieces, it should be classified under extreme sports.

You were mentioning about how much being a dancer takes a lot of your time and concentration, but do you have much time for a love life?

You are a beautiful soul!

anticipating and reacting super fast

Love classical music and ballet , just so beautiful performance art

That rose colored leotard is so pretty on you.

You’re a beautiful mind and soul

Summer Glau was a ballet dancer,until an injury had ended her career. I wonder what injury would've been. It must have been severe that it had been beyond painful. Demoralizing. And just plain difficult. It's very difficult to do just by being in the amateur level. And the pros often have more endurance than the average quarterback. Go figure,huh?

yes because they did not know what was expected of them

I never realised the legend Margot Fonteyn wasn't very flexible. You watch her perform, that's the last thing you're thinking about because she was so perfect.

19:58 I hope to see a lavatanssit ballet.

I love you Masha ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

Brava!

Grazie per aver detto che quelli sui piedi delle ballerine sono pregiudizi 🤗

Thank you so much Masha for this video! I wanted to ask you if you could make a video with tips and explanations of how to make fouettés. That would be truly magnificent! Thanks so much for your videos!🩰✨

When I was in grade school, Cincinnati Music Hall presented some music and dance performances for young children, ages 9 to 12. One of the ballet performances was an excerpt from Swan Lake. In one part of the performance the ballerina, whose costume had many feathers, was picked up by the male dancer and held aloft with his hand squarely on her crotch. At the same time, many feathers became unattached from her costume and left a trail of feathers in the air. All of the kids laughed at the sight of the feather trail. Unfortunately the male dancer, thinking like an adult, assumed we were laughing at him placing his hand on her crotch. He was furious! He stopped the performance and stormed off the stage. The teachers and Catholic nuns shouted at him, pleading with him to continue the performance, explaining that we were laughing at the trail of feathers, and NOT anything sexual or the placement of his hands (which was true). They finally convinced him, and he came back on stage to uproarious applause, and continued the performance. This was my first exposure to ballet and I remember it clearly around 60 years later.

💖

Very elegant and beautiful young lady.

dankeschön спасибо

hi Maria! I dont know if you will see this because i am watching two months late but, what are the tights or sweats you are wearing? Thanks!

Maria❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤😄

hi Maria, i loveeee ballet and i want to be a professional but a i’m 16, do you think is to late? o do ballet before but like for 4 years i stop doing ballet but i have a lot of flexibility and resistance, can you give me your opinion, please. i really appreciated 🥺❤️

I'm learning new moves...

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