Firstly, I could never be a professional dancer.
I danced ballet for more than 5 years (and currently stopped because of my oversea study). I started ballet lessons in the same year when I went to a college, but I began having the huge passion for ballet since I was in the second year in high school. Ballet is only my hobby, and I go to ballet lessons for fun and enjoyment. People who don’t dance ballet never understand that I can never perform ballet on the stage (well, at least, I don’t think I’m professional enough to be on the stage), but they always ask me, “Why don’t you hold a performance?” or “When can I see your performance?” They really mean what they say no matter how hard I try to explain my age and how late I started ballet, blah blah blah . . . They still say “WHY NOT?” The classic one was the question that “Why don’t you get a performance”, and this was asked by “him” before we had a “secret” relationship. (We were walking towards the school) When he asked, I laughed and said, “Who would come and see then?” He said, “I don’t know. Maybe kids.” I laughed and smily said, “No.” “Why not?” he said. “Because I’m not a professional”, I replied. “But you can still do it, right?”, he insisted. I didn’t explain more, and felt very funny (in a polite way) to this kind of question. I’m not saying I cannot do a performance, in fact, I always dream about going on a stage, but just I don’t think I’m “professional” enough to be on the stage.
Secondly, different ballet points of view.
When I go to a theatre to see a ballet or simply watch it on Youtube, I know if a dancer has good techniques or if he/she has make a mistake in performance (well, in fact, I don’t even call it “mistake”, it should be called “accident”. I don’t think dancers would make any mistakes on the stage because they spend days and days, hours and hours rehearsing one play. It’s hardly to say they make “mistakes”, but “accidents” are quite common on the stage). I dance, and I know the footwork. People who are not interested in ballet only “WOW” at dancers’ jumps (grand jete) or turns (pirouette or fouette) or their flexibility. People who like ballet, appreciate ballet, but not as much as I passionate for it still focus on those, I call, “obvious” amazements (I don’t mean it in a bad way). I realise I’m in a different level when watching ballet. Ballet has become my knowledge, and yes, now I can say I’m “professional” at understanding ballet and the footwork. When I watch dancers dance, I see how high they jump (the bounce), how steady they land, how neat their footwork is, how much strength they hold, how much emotion they put in their role, how “amazing” their techniques are, how fluid (the flow) each movement connects together , etc. Flexibility is a different thing, and yes, I still wow if they have good flexibility. But people who don’t do ballet don’t understand that “flexibility” doesn’t equal “strength”. Take me as an example, I have nice flexibility, but my muscle is not strong enough to hold my leg high. I can use my hand to lift my leg very high, but when I drop my hand, I can’t keep my leg with the same hight. My muscle is not very strong (although it can be trained). I examine the details of ballet footwork. I know what is “amazing”, what is “normal” and what is “awful”.
Different ballet point of view:
Example 1
My landlady and her big daughter like ballet, and they have seen ballet performances once or twice. When I showed them videos that, to me, the dancers were “amazing”, they didn’t wow at the points that I (as well as the audiences in the videos) viewed as “amazing”. I came to realise the huge gap of the ballet understanding between them and me. Even though I tried to explain the hard work and the techniques, they still didn’t show how much they understood it. They were happy and glad I showed them the beautiful dance, and so was I. But . . . I couldn’t say it is a disappointment, but . . . there’s just something missing. The same excitement as I see the amazements perhaps.
Example 2
He likes ballet, and he has watched ballet in theater back in his country a couple of times. He told me he knew the mistakes dancers did in performances. I was really curious how he examined the mistakes. He told me when dancers are doing group work (mostly corps de ballet), they should jump at the same hight and at the “exact” same time. And when I showed him this video,
He told me Sveltana Zakharova made some mistakes from 1:20 to 1:24 (grand battement). He said she should do every single “grand battement” as the one at 1:25.
I “taught” him that dancers do not necessarily jump at the same hight and the exact same time in group dances. Yes, if dancers can do what he says, then it is perfect, beautiful and “neat”. For choreographers, they do want dancers to try hard to keep their steps altogether, because that makes the dance neat and beautiful. But if they do not, it cannot be called “mistakes”. It is very difficult to keep every dancer in the same move because they have slightly different rhythms to the music. Ballet does “Allongé“ a lot. Ballet dancers keep their body stretching out and make the body line longer and beautiful, unlike other pop dances. A period of rhythms in music gives dancers certain time to “Allongé” as much as they can, so they sometimes don’t keep on track at the “exact” same time with others. And about jumping at the same hight, if you do really dance ballet, you may realise not everyone has the same strength, the same muscle condition and good feet to jump the exact same hight. And in fact, you don’t have to do ballet, just do a basic jump, and you would realise you don’t have the same bouncing level as others. And there’s another point that makes the jump level look different. A taller person illusionally jumps higher than a shorter one, but it is not always the case. As I say, it mainly depends on the feet, the strength and the muscle conditions.
And for that video, Svetlana didn’t make any mistakes between 1:20 and 1:24. She didn’t have to keep her legs exactly the same level as in 1:25. Why? Firstly, that’s, I say, how amazingly she controlled her legs’ strength and muscles. Secondly, if she did every single kicks the same, that’s actually very boring in the dance (I believe my ballet teachers would agree with me). Dance is like music. They have fluctuations. Music is sometimes loud or quiet to express the emotions of music, and ballet is the same. The changes in music or dance makes the audience feel new and fresh.
What is an accident (most people call it “mistake” so to speak)?
Focus on 1:02 – 03, Svetlana Zakharova’s left leg (we call it “supporting leg) was supposed to be “en pointe” (standing on the toes), but she fell a bit. However, this should not be called “a mistake” because it happens quite often to dancers. Dancers are suddenly unable to make their one leg standing to keep their whole body steady, so they have to land with whole foot to avoid falling on the stage. If you are not a ballet dancer, but still, try to imagine the feeling of standing on your toes, you may realise it’s quite hard to keep your whole body stable. Now try to stand on one foot on the toes. It’s even harder. When you stand on your toes with bare foot, it may be slightly easier because you stretch out your toes to make a stable support. However, when you wear ballerina’s pointe shoes, you would notice your toes squeeze together, you couldn’t stretch your toes, you may it hard to steady your one leg standing.
What is Allongé? Here’s a great example,
Focus on 1:20 – 21, and listen to how the teacher elongated her voice (although she spoke Russian, I believe she called the girl to stretch out longer).
Sorry, Mr, I noticed when I corrected you on ballet, you didn’t seem to agree on what I “taught” you. Perhaps you felt embarrassed, perhaps you believed your knowledge, I don’t know, really. But you stepped on my professional field, you should accept that I had (have) better knowledge than you did. Just like when you talked about football, and taught and corrected me the knowledge of football, I always accepted my mistakes and learned the knowledge from you. I like football and have watched games a few times. But I knew I would never have better knowledge than you because I didn’t have the passion as much as you did for football.
“Styles of ballet”, to be continued . . .
Just about Serena... 
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