What is passion?  Passion is defined as a strong and barely controllable emotion.  Some people find their passion when they are in their teens or their thirties but I found mine when I was four years old.  I found my passion at the Defiance Dance Studio.  I found my passion doing arabesques and attitudes, balancés and chaînés, plies and releves, fouettés and tour jetés.  The people who find their passion in sports are the lucky ones.  They are privileged enough to be able to practice their passion everyday.  I am only privileged enough to do my passion once a week.  My passion forces me to wait and build anticipation about my next lesson and the next step to my dance.  My passion is ballet.  I love the feeling I get when I correctly do a new jump or leap.  I love my teacher, assistants, and classmates.  One thing I do not like though is when people say that ballet is easy.  It’s actually a lot of hard work.  From day one, we work on strengthening our muscles and pointing our toes.  Most people think, “Oh big deal.  Pointed toes,” but actually it is a big deal.  A flexed foot on a leap or jump looks sloppy and unprofessional.  Nobody wants to look like they don’t know what they are doing.  Hard work is put into dance and not everyone can do it.  Boys think they are funny when they make fun of jumps of leaps a ballerina does, but they can’t do it because they were never properly trained.  Most people don’t think of ballet or any other type of lyrical or contemporary dance a sport.  A sport is football or baseball, not dance.  Dance isn’t just a hobby.  Injuries occur in dance just as much as in football or basketball.  One year at the show, one guy tore his ACL while preforming.  One girl in my class this year has a torn ligament in her shoulder and another has a hurt knee, which prevents her from doing most things, but she still pushes through because it is her passion. Sometimes people don’t understand that what they say and make fun of actually hurts someone else. Ballerinas are athletes just like any other except we get to wear tutus and tights to our practices.