“Hello, ladies! Are you all ready for intensive day two?” We all smile nervously, only four more days, twenty hours of dancing after today! Miss Michelle continues, “The quote of the day is, ‘The difference between possible and impossible is determination’ tell yourself that while you are working and dancing to your fullest potential today.” Through the intense warm-up of our next class: boat pose up-and-downs ten times, one minute of both extreme mountain climbers, and planking. I remind myself of the quote of the day. On the final rep, my still smiling face and back are cooled by the beads of sweat that have trailed down them. “Do not stop, you can do this!” I tell myself as I roll over and put my legs and arms in the beginning position for mountain climbers. I position my body to resemble a board of wood, and reflect on the structured life that I have chosen to live through the challenging work of dance pays off.     

Weeks later I look out my window to see that the mail truck. Finally, my evaluation has arrived. My stomach churns, and I replay the past two weeks of Intensive, our summer conditioning and placement program, in my head. I think about all of the leaps and turns I know I could have executed better as well as the steps I know I did well. I read “Level four,” and a large smile forms on my face. I scream out of excitement; I have made the highest team!

As I stand at the bathroom mirror, putting my hair up, I consider the stress of the week ahead. “Today I will be home by ten, tomorrow by nine, and Wednesday we will be with Dad for dinner.” Since the divorce, I jump between dad’s and mom’s house in addition to dance and a challenging honors curriculum at school. At Back Stage Dance Center we work on our lyric group dance. Lyric is a style of dance in which the dancers portray the story of a song through their movement. Miss Stacy turns on the stereo and the lyrics to “The Freshman” fill the room with a solemn feeling. I take a deep breath in and exhale as I take my beginning pose. As I continue to move through our piece, the stress of the day and upcoming week flows out of my fingers and toes with each step I take.

As I sit in the leather office chair in the study at 11:45pm, I fool with the idea of quickly finishing my project and getting a somewhat decent amount of sleep, but then my conscious kicks in, and I remind myself of how I am supposed to put 110% into everything I do. This value was drilled into me since day one at Backstage. I prepare myself for another practically sleepless night and get to work on perfecting my English project, recreating Dante’s Inferno with modern-day characters. Lying in bed in the early hours of the morning, I fall asleep anxiously awaiting the next afternoon when I am able to return to the studio and release my stress through movement.