The Ballerina Dream

Constant practice, late night rehearsals, and the ease of every move. This is what it means to be a ballerina. They look graceful up on the stage under the bright lights, but beneath the costumes are women who have great ambitions for their futures. 

Those who take up this profession do not receive the credit they deserve. Many are underestimated for the talent they worked so hard to earn. At Sac Civic Ballet Company, Ana Konovaloff (‘23) and Trinity Gomes (‘23) practice day in and day out every step to make sure they dance to perfection. However, while they make it look easy on the stage, the practice to reach their personal best is quite the opposite. 

“There’s no perfection in ballet,” Ana says. “You are always trying to get better, better, and better”. Her mindset is focusing on improving the details of her technique and learning to advance her skill. The tiniest details can make or break a performance.

“There are a lot of corrections you have to make” in the moments dancing up on the stage Trinity says. One wrong move could cause her to fall out of a turn or miss a crucial step to complete a move. To ensure she completes everything correctly, she is thinking about her movement, core, and positioning. 

High school students have a busy life trying to stay on top of school, maintaining a social life, and dealing with the stress of college applications. But CB dancers have one more activity to their routine. Which means some days finishing their homework at an ungodly hour. A day for them includes school from 8:40 AM to 3:10 PM and then practice five days a week from 4:30 PM to 7:30 PM. In addition, Trinity explains that on top of practice, they stay late for rehearsal in preparation for their performances. 

These two ballerinas are only some of the many types of dancers at Christian Brothers High School. Each is able to express themselves differently. “The artistic part of it is so personal,” Ana claims. “Everyone is so different in the way they dance.”

Dance has become an outlet for them to express their creativity, especially for Ana. “I was able to express my thoughts and my feelings through my movement”. It is a way to shut everything else out and focus on one thing, but as the spotlight shines down on them, it is a little scary with all eyes on you. How do they dance with everyone watching their every move? 

“You have to show it looks easy,” says Ana. As they age, the difficulty of the level they are expected to reach increases, but it must look equally as easy to execute as some of the basic moves they know. Always with a positive look on their faces, they present the image they hope to convey to the audience watching. But they are also extremely focused on the “technique” of it all.  

Although it is a tough art, both dancers could not see themselves anywhere else and hope to continue following their passions after high school and beyond college. They would rather spend endless hours in the studio practicing than give up dance completely. 

“I definitely want to pursue professional dance,” Trinity expresses passionately. “It doesn’t pay a lot, but I think I will be happy.” Her hopes are to continue dancing in college with the possibility of building a life out of the profession. She excitedly and nervously tells me in the next upcoming weeks she has auditions for potential college opportunities. 

She “just can’t imagine giving it up” which I find to be the most true fact about passions found at such a young age. Ana and Trinity both started dancing around the age of three and have continued up until this point. They have found their forever home as something they will always be able to cherish.