By: Klaudia Wiacek
I sit down on the floor and begin to put on my pointe shoes. I roll my tights up from my feet and reach into my backpack to take out my spacers, toe padding and paper towels.
Step one: I put the spacers in between my big toe and my second toe.
Step two: I protect my toes from getting crushed by the hard wood shoe by putting on toe pads. They act like a blanket. And trust me, in ballet you need to protect your feet as much as you can. After all, in my opinion they act as a vessel for the body to move around freely.
Step three: I take my paper towels and put them inside of my pointe shoes in order to limit the pain my toes will be feeling for the next hour or two.
Step four: I take my pointe shoes and slip them on. I then tie the ribbons onto my ankle tightly to make sure all is secure.
I walk over to the barre and pick the perfect spot. Somewhere where I will have enough space and a view in the mirror so that I can correct myself and spot my mistakes easily. I wait until I hear the sweet and light melody of the classical music that is about to play and declaring the start of class.
My body immediately knows what to do.
First position and left hand on the barre.
I get ready for pliés
Plié plié.
Grande plié.
My arms are flowing through the first couple of seconds like a falling piece of silk. My mind is surprisingly blank as I tend to hyper fixate on having the correct alignment of my body. I can physically and mentally feel thousands of my muscles being put to work within these few seconds, all squeezing together, just as if you were squeezing the water off of a soaked rag. Each droplet of water dropping on the ground ever so slightly as I continue to
Plié.
Plié.
And grande plié.
