An Average Show Is Four Hours Long
One ballet show can last about four hours. This means that the dancers need to be in tip-top shape to do it.
Actually, they need to be in shape just as much as any other professional athlete. In fact, the energy spent by a ballerina during a full show can be weighed against playing two soccer games or against an 18-mile run!
No Two Performances Are Identical
Just like with a big Broadway musical, a big ballet production performs the same ballet day in and day out. But the performance is never completely identical, and if you watch the same production twice you'll be able to notice the subtle changes.
Sophie Martin, a principal ballerina for the Scottish Ballet, says those changes are what helps her stay balanced when performing the same show every night.
Ballerinas Go on Tours
Big professional ballet productions often go on national and international tours, which means that the dancers get to see the world like rockstars.
While this may sound appealing to some, this life can be harder on others, who have to spend a long time away from their families and loved ones.
Male Ballet Dancers Are Mega-Lifters
Do you even lift, bro? Even if you do, odds are male ballet dancers lift more. Sure, the ballerinas they lift are usually petite women that don't weigh much, to begin with, but when you combine the weights of all the lifts a male dancer has to do in a single show, you reach about 1-1.5 tons!
By comparison, it's like the combined weight a weightlifter would lift in 4-6 events!
Ballet Used to Be a Guy Thing
Ballet is usually perceived as a feminine dance, but it was actually danced exclusively by men for more than 100 years!
You see, in the past, women weren't allowed to dance in public but that only changed in 1681. Before that, the female parts of any performance had to be danced by younger male dancers.