A ballerina’s life is subject to schedules, strict discipline, and luck. Lady Fortune is always selective; even if you work hard, she doesn’t always favor you, often making accidental choices. But let’s be honest, there are no accidental people in ballet. A ballerina is a combination of different qualities, such as perseverance, stamina, inner flame which ignites the audience. Falling in love with such a complicated and ruthless occupation as ballet, it is very hard to convey to your loved ones that you need this kind of work. Therefore, I want to emphasize those aspects of the ballet world that I enjoy as a performer, regardless of the default difficulties.

First of all, ballet is a world of dreams and beauty. Here you can live in your own world, be a princess, a fairy, a bird, or even a poor Cinderella. We would all like to play a beautiful love story, but our real life is full of completely other things. And in ballet time stops; you can be Juliet for a very, very long time.

I am ready to repeat even the most boring movements thousands of times, sharpen my skills for the melodies of some ballets. Genius composers have written so many amazing ballets that make your head spin. You know, they say that even the quality of the air in a room may depend on what music is playing. And it’s true. Listening to classical music, we are filled with beauty on some energetic level. We become spiritually richer and finer. I’ve been dancing «Swan Lake» for many years, but I cannot say that I was bored even once. You are constantly growing during these performances, your inner mood may lead you to other, new thoughts, interpretations of gestures and movements. And you are constantly opening yourself up to the audience through the music. A ballerina can make an unseen contact with the spectators, capture their attention, and silently convey emotions and experiences that sometimes cannot be expressed with words.

Certainly, lifting your legs, spinning, jumping is physical labor and constant exercises. But great choreographers never aim to show just a set of elements that an athlete-artist must perform, and the audience must put up their invisible scorecards. Choreography is like a compressed spring with meaning. You decompress it, and it gives you an impulse. Circling around the stage may carry joy, anger, triumph, deceit, happiness, sadness, and sorrow. Sharp movements can mean one thing, and smooth and soft ones can mean something else entirely. The charm of ballet pas is that the spectator, if they are attentive and open, starts to feel the words, his imagination begins to connect. The visual series, the auditory series — everything works together.

I love crowns, feathers, makeup, tulle, tutus, dresses — all the theatrical attributes. Fashion constantly condones convenience and comfort, but how wonderful it is to have a world where you can wear elegant, beautiful, dressy clothes. Where the crown becomes an indispensable accessory. A fictional world you believe in. To learn court manners, to be sworn to eternal love by princes. For the sake of this fairy tale, I come to the gym every day and search for the ideal in a non-ideal world.