Amazing!

Yesterday had to be a poster child for why Drake and I have turned our lives upside down and are pursuing a different existence. We actually had dinner with a pair of professional ballet dancers! YES! It was amazing. Mark Biocca and Victoria Lane Green are principals (that's the best in a company) with the Alberta Ballet in Canada. They are a couple who have been together for five years, and at some point, hope to have children and pursue teaching/coaching careers when their dancing days are over. My unquenchable curiousity and unstoppable friendliness got us acquainted with them. I saw them in the audience the day after they competed, and I went over to congratulate them on their performance. Gradually over the next week, we spoke to them more and more culminating in a dinner invitation before the performance last night. (Unfortunately, they didn't move up in the competition, but this was our gain - otherwise they wouldn't be free to mingle.)

We got to have the once in a lifetime experience of getting a small snapshot glance of what it is like to be a professional ballet dancer which in our humble opinion is a career that is the perfect marriage of art and athleticism. Here's a little background: Ms. Green (Lane), who just turned 27 and is in the peak of her career, left home at the age of 12 to train full time to dance professionally. She went to work as a professional dancer at the age of 15 after winning a 1st place in ballet in an important national student competition. Today, she feels like her family was really sold a bill of goods, and that if her own daughter wanted dance as a career that it would not be necessary for her to completely give up a major portion of her growing up years to it exclusively. (Ten years ago, the prevailing wisdom was that you couldn't really have a dance career unless you trained to the exclusion of everything else beginning at an impossibly young age - think Olympic gymnastics) Lane projects a demeanor and personality of someone far older than her years. She is contained, mature, and is obviously used to holding her own in the temperamental world of dance. She's a star in this world, and as with all genius this comes with a price.

I asked her how long she plans to dance, and her answer surprised me. She told me that she had PLANNED to stop dancing when she was 25, but she continues because not only is it what she knows, but there is a drive to dance - to create that you find in artists. That's what sets an artist apart from a hobbyist - you have to create. It's as if there's an innate drive inside you. She has been with four major companies - breaking in with the Boston Ballet, moving on to BalletMet which is an Ohio ballet company, and then traveling to England to work with the Leeds Ballet. She was invited 'back home' (she's a native Alberta, Canadian) by the Alberta Ballet's Artistic Director three years ago to dance principal roles.

One part of the price in the ballet dance biz is lack of roots - you can be dismissed or you can change companies and often, it's totally beyond your control. For instance, they own a house in Leeds, England, which they are currently renting. Another part of the price of this career choice is body damage. Lane has been fairly fortunate. She's only had one major surgery to correct a condition she described as 1000 times worse than shin splints. (It has something to do with the fascia pulling away from the bone in her legs.) She danced for several years without feeling below her knees - well, except for the pain. Then, there's her feet: she casually referred to her bunions and some other aches and pains. She admits there are some days when it is difficult to roll out of bed because of the aches and pains. However, none of this matters whenever you can create a role and perform it.

I asked her what is the most difficult thing for a ballerina to do. Her answer was: It depends on the dancer. Some dancers have incredible balance, while others have natural hyper flexibility, while still others have marvelous leaping ability. The trick is to make your weakest element indetectable from your strongest. Finally, there's this 'something' that all superior artists have. I've seen ballet for over 30 years. I've seen principal dancers that do everything completely correctly, and the performance no matter how difficult to perform, is just ho-hum. I've seen dancers come out of the corps (think chorus), and give a performance so electric that it crackles out to the audience who is swept away. Lane agreed that the best dances for her are the ones where she can marry her creativity and acting ability to her meticulously trained body. She's become very vocal about roles that she feels are not 'right' for her - either technically, or because she can't get into character. "Getting into character" is part of that indefinable something that happens on stage.

We have felt so privileged to spend time with Lane and Mark. It is inspiring to be in the presence of art, and to be in its presence when it's a person is just wonderful. Lane's maturity shows when she laughingly described herself as temperamental. What she really means is that she doesn't allow anyone to push her around. I asked for an example of when she is temperamental. She said that she really loses it when some choreographer comes in unprepared, to work with dancers who have spent several hours in classes, so their bodies are ready to work and then expects them to meekly sit around while the choreographer dithers. She feels this is not only disrespectful to her, but dangerous to her body. She and Mark both agreed that the irrationally temperamental artiste' is alive and well in the ballet world, but that behavior is only really tolerated in those dancers who can back up their antics with those electric performances that audiences crave.

That brings us to Mark. His story is totally different from Lane's. He is an Italian who speaks virtually perfect English with a Canadian accent. He didn't start dancing until he was a young teen, and then he stayed home commuting to a small studio 3 or 4 times a week that was a little over an hour from his home in Italy. He is magazine model handsome with jet black hair that curls slightly, and he's about 6 feet tall with an impossibly narrow waist and broad shoulders. He has muscles as only a male ballet dancer can have. He could even pick my fat ass up. When he started dancing, he actually hid that he was dancing from everyone - especially his schoolmates.

This is a time when male ballet dancer meant - hey, he's a homosexual; let's ridicule him, and if we feel like it, beat him up. Mark admits that he endured some of that taunting and ignorance when he was young. His eyes flared, and his voice got passionate saying how much he hated that attitude. Gradually, he let his closest friends in on his secret, and slowly they accepted his choice to dance. Again, we are talking about a drive to do something - a drive that you really can't control. I don't think Mark could have stopped dancing if he had wanted to. He still loves to dance with the passion of a child. While Lane seems serious and thoughtful, Mark seems quixotic and mercurial. He is so happy to be who he is and doing what he does. This is a man who is at peace with himself and his career. It's not a chore for him to go to work everyday. However, he has also paid a price for his dancing. He has had surgeries on both his ankles to remove bone spurs. Mark has had an advantage in his career - he's a large, talented male dancer. These are rather like left handed baseball pitchers who can throw heat with accuracy - there will always be an inquenchable demand for their talents. Men choosing dancing is slowly becoming somewhat more acceptable to the general public, thus more boys are going into the field and the natural advantage that Mark has experienced is slowing waning in the dance field.

The dance world has many pitfalls. The most glaring being injury. We saw something horrible while we've been here. A dancer stopped dancing abruptly during a performance and actually crawled off the stage. He partially tore his achilles tendon during the performance. That's a terrible injury for a dancer - waiting for healing, rehabbing, and still perhaps having to have devastating surgery. I also discussed with Lane the pitfall of eating disorders that the young girls are especially prone to. I'm convinced that one of the Chinese competitors is anorexic. I asked Lane who takes responsibility to approach a dancer who had fallen into an eating disorder. She told us that it was the company dance director's responsibility, but mostly no one wanted the responsibility though they are quick to dismiss you if you are 'too fat'. And, believe me, 'too fat' is very, very subjective. A surprising number of dancers, especially women, smoke to control weight. Lane feels fortunate that her directors likes the 'athletic look' which is something of a protection for her. She did say that the eating disorder problem really came to a head recently when a ballerina died of anorexia and her family sued the company and recovered millions in damages. It will probably take that kind of financial penalty for the dance world to start cleaning up the eating disorder mess that is rampant.

As a couple, they are contemplating their future - which after 5 years - is obviously going to be a joint one. Mark (being the competitor in the USA-IBC while Lane was his non-competing partner - she was one month too old) admitted to being really upset when they didn't move on in the competition especially when they got such positive feedback from all sides after the performance. I think they were both calculating that a strong showing at the IBC would give them some negotiating power when contract renewal time came around. However, Mark's attitude is what it takes to make it in a subjective world: Disappointments just make you stronger. Perservere and all will be well. Don't stand still licking your wounds, but move forward - who knows what will be around the corner. I think that "you can't get me down" approach is another element that makes any artist successful. These two people are stars. They have achieved the top 1% in their chosen field. Think of all the child dancers who take ballet, and then the ones who are 'good', and then the ones of those who are willing to work and sacrifice, and the fewer still who continue to work and sacrifice when it is swimming against the tide of 'what everybody else does with his/her life'. You begin to get a glimpse of where Lane and Mark are sitting. It's a pretty lofty place. Perhaps put in that perspective, you can understand why we were so thrilled and felt so honored that they would chose to spend some time with us giving us an insider's look at a world that we have marveled at for so long.

Spending time with these two dancers has made this competition all the more special. It's one of the many reasons why we have not been 'let down' by our hotly anticipated attendance for 16 days in Jackson, Mississippi to see world class ballet dance. Every time we have one of these experiences, we feel validated by our choices to change our lives. I have to go now. I have to pick the medal winners, so far, there's still one more group to dance tonight. Perhaps the judges might need a little input, who knows?