I Trained Like A Ballerina For 6 Weeks

[Music] this artform is not simple we see on stage everything glamorous and fabulous but what it takes to do that goods and look that effortless this is kind of the first time when I in searly question will I be able to pull off the final challenge and stretch that me I'm lower eyes up will I be an embarrassment to the ballet community ballet is a staple part of many young women's lives a lot of people try ballet but eventually quit I was one of those people I quit when I was 8 but I've always thought from time to time what it would have been like for me if I had stuck with it ballet is the epitome of grace and beauty and perfection what fascinates me the most about ballet is that it's an art form that requires you to tell a story using only your body and as a storyteller myself I feel it's important for me to explore and learn all different ways to tell stories so for the next six weeks I am going to follow the training regimen of a professional ballerina culminating in a final recital in front of a live audience challenge accepted my name is Alison Stroh me I first started dancing when I was 2 years old I've been a professional now for about 10 years ballet is a classical art form that uses news and sets and costumes to portray a story it takes years to master and you still don't master it you can ask professional dancer we're working every single day towards perfection but there is no such thing as perfection in ballet for the next six weeks I'm going to be training the shell eventually pointe shoes and partnering and then for the final performance we'll just piece everything together and it will be her shining moment taking me on before we begin with the bar let's situate this hair I'll teach you how to do a ballet bun so you want to take a couple of pins to like flattens down and then usually you want a hairspray like the flyaways it's good for now I feel like more aerodynamic Michelle will be starting with the basics the positions of the feet are arms as six positions and ballet of the feet this is first position so you have your heels together and your legs are nice and straight second position is to the side you will have a nice lifted elbow you're gonna go to third position it's a little bit crossed over and your arm is in third position now we're gonna go to fourth position and then this is oh good morning oh nice and crime is happening so you want to keep having your feet turn out though position great now that you're going to take this front leg and squeeze back and this is crossed all the way this time why does my ass hurt yeah that's gonna happen and then there's six position which is just parallel and we're like that unfortunately it doesn't really get used in ballet that much many times at the bar we always start with pleeeease in Bali is in French all of our terms so plie means to bend we're gonna create one and two and then we're going to do a nice tendu which means to brush tendu side and lower in second one and two but make sure you keep your belly oh I see how he here yeah so it's a little bit different than squats because we're not going up and down we're keeping our posture nice and tall yes like I'm on an elevator my body other side one other role there's so many rules so between left and right you always want to turn towards the bar it's just like common courtesy we're going to lift our legs onto the bar look at that two degree before you should feel a nice stretch in your hamstring yes she feels it I do they keep your hips Square cuz we're doing front good now stay there we're gonna do one plie ei wait one good in ballet there's a right way and the wrong way there's no way to just fake it you have to know the technique so that's just the warmup kind of yeah okay every single motion I did on day one required a verbal correction from Allison there is a certain way to point your foot so not too far but when you drag your foot on the floor you have to do it in a specific way and not move your hips at the same time Faber stop keeping your hips stretch let me top tops a little higher there are so many deep Wow my name is Irene Adler Ivanka and I'm former principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre ballet originally was created in Italian Renaissance quartz of the 15th century it was the art form which was entertaining elite the dance it's a way of people express the feelings or telling the story through the movements for the ballet dancer to be ballerina it requires years of education training your body gaining the strengths ballet is not ordinary thing you need to be extraordinary you need to be unreachable you need to be divine to complete everything in this short time would be pretty much impossible today made very clear one thing I am at ground zero and I'm honestly extremely nervous to make this video because I know how passionate the ballet community is and the last thing I want to do is disrespect the community or misrepresent the artform I want to be clear here that I'm by no means expecting to be even half good at this by the end of this I'm doing this to experience understand and shed light on how difficult this artform is it's really really hard now we're going to start pirouettes we're gonna go tendu side up and down you know don't do just a little bit of jumping and then we'll be done yeah you're gonna jump in first one two so you want to keep your arms low though you don't want to easier let them down and every jump our legs are nice and stretched so we're gonna do one two three four five six seven day one midnight I am so sore from today here is your first weeks you're not massaging me before the camera was rolling another camera I have never experienced this type of soreness in my feet it feels like I got hit with a hammer this is ballet unfiltered I realized that while I was really focused on trying to get the physicality correct I was not prioritizing or paying attention to my diet and nutrition and I knew I needed to work with a professional immediately otherwise it just wasn't gonna be sustainable at all Brandon thank you so much for meeting with me today absolutely I am a little bit into the training for ballet and I realized I have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to nutrition typical ballerina will be about 13 percent body fat what happens is the typical ballerina will just eat a few carbs because they want to try and get to that level also what happens is they'll start to tap into their muscle as a source of fuel and then they'll start burning muscle which creates this inadequacy with strength Michelle's diet is gonna be super clean we want to be working with more quality carbohydrates like oats quinoa starchy vegetables like sweet potatoes things that are gonna get over her sustainable and quality energy fat is actually gonna be important in this diet because it helps support joints and also help us with mobility flexibility yes I would much rather feel great during the final performance then look like a total calorie no totally good morning it's time for ballet it's time to go let's 6:30 morning ballet training minutes 7 not quite used to this lifestyle as about right every day at 6 a.m. I wake up I would cook breakfast I would put my hair in a very tight bun and head over to the ballet studio I came in a little early this morning because hip flexibility is going to be a big obstacle for me over the next couple weeks so I'm gonna get it in I would do about an hour and a half of warm-ups and then 30 minutes of jumps and learning my choreography and then if we had an additional third hour I would continue running and learning new choreography every single day week one she is already in a split that is unreal you guys this doesn't happen after four days this is amazing on some days I would go over to stretch lab where you can get professionally stretched Patricia here is basically using a jackhammer to try it we loose it like every other day in the evenings I would work with Nick in the gym because I don't have all those tiny muscle fibers built up in the way professionals do I am so annoyed right now his Garrett has a better fifth position than I do what is this what is my first piece is a solo dance to a song from capella it's a really fascinating and beautiful story of a young girl who studied get jealous that the toy master Capello's was working so hard to create the beautiful doll and make the doll alive and VA up don't forget to play one and nice runs down good ballet runs are nice and stretched sometimes we're like in the middle of a lesson in house and it's like yeah and then you're just gonna do this and tendu and arabesque is over here and she makes it look so easy and then I try and my body will literally not do the thing what that was a little like Russian dance I know it looks real simple but y'all are just at home on accounts watching this you should try it is damn it's really hard it was important for me to take on a solo piece because it was kind of like addressing one of my biggest fears which is performing in front of people and being vulnerable and opened that door for criticism on what I could look like in that moment just try to relax your face you're gonna be on stage you have to have a nice presence okay how when your body is completely dead and the muscles doesn't want to respond and you ready to scream and collapse you need to maintain the beautiful face and you need to breathe and hide everything behind this today we started learning the choreography for the final piece and I'm on the floor because I'm not exhausted for the first three eight counts and there are many more eight-counts in his song Garen can I show you what I learned in Bali yeah this week how do I say go in ballet words five six seven eight five six seven eight I don't know ballet so to me it looks perfect I've never seen more perfect ballet in my life today is really exciting because I am meeting the other backup dancers for my solo piece I kind of realized up until this point that everything I've been learning in my ballet classes has just been drills and skills and repetition of things and once we got to the choreography I allowed myself to just dance kind of feel a little bit of impostor syndrome not gonna lie because I am the soloist and I am the least experienced person here I feel really unworthy of like all of these video I was like go to you second dance that I learned was the exact dance that professional ballerina is perform in the Swan Lake ballet this piece is called the four little swans so it's really hard because it's a lot of fast movements and they need to be the same every little movement out it's completely gonna destroy the dance [Music] you being able to do little swans for me was important because I wanted to get as close of the actual experience to a professional ballerina as I can there was also the added benefit of dancing alongside three professional ballerinas who have been doing this their whole life if anyone's gonna mess up it's gonna be me and it's gonna be really obvious that I'm the one sticking out I think this has been a really humbling thing for me to learn because usually I go a no challenge I accepted episode I'm like oh god I destroy it I've got it smash it I've got it conquer it from all angles and I might not do that this time she really has to trust herself she's gonna be performing this in front of people so she has to have the confidence and that starts here in the studio I'm honestly really frustrated and kind of embarrassed right now because I I just had a full-on conversation with Garrett where I basically told them I don't think I should do a recital anymore I was even like what if we just do a dance video and sever her sight all cuz then I can do it until I get it perfect and Jared's very good pulling me out of my bowl and he basically said that if I don't do the recital then I'm not conquering my fear but the part that makes me scared is being on a stage and being vulnerable and trying to do these really hard things and then potentially being told I look bad and I think that's why I quit ballet the first time because I didn't feel like I would be perfect at it and so now I should be okay not being perfect at something so today is the day that Michelle is going to be trying on her pointe shoes for the first time which is very exciting you usually want to have at least five years of ballet training before you start point shoes but today Michelle only after a few weeks of training will be starting point okay guys here's the deal going on point before you have proper training or before you're ready is incredibly dangerous I am NOT gonna be going on point in my final performance I'm only going to be trying it out for one single training session today under the supervision of coach Allyson honestly we went back and forth as a team as to whether or not we should include it in this video because I know a lot of dancers are gonna say that I don't deserve to be on point and you know what they're right but at the end of the day we decided to include it in the video because this is about showing the full experience and point is a major obstacle that every single ballerina has to go through Marie italiani who is they first ballerina who had attempt to go on the tippy toes she put her weight so up on the toe so it start to look that she is not touching the fort so after that they start to make the books a little bit harder and then it's helped the dancers go higher up on point okay so let's let them on and I always like to start with B elastics it's going to hurt does that feel pretty good strong yeah I think that feels good so let me cut it here we cut we're sewing for ballet I just did this wrong and now I have to redo this whole ribbon this is already like not fun how often do you have to get new pointe shoes three pairs of shoes a week some dancers go through like six pairs so like every night you just sew anew yep I was like oh we're gonna do fun arts and crafts I know I think this is jelly cards what feels really different in point shoes versus tell me flats I think the hardest adjustment is going to be getting up and down just cuz they're so hard it's gonna feel like bricks on your feet so you just just do it you just go yep one foot oh [Music] my god I feel like the weight of the world is on the tips of my toes right now and it's just my bodyweight yeah we have to do everything that's already really hard yeah being a ballerina effortless it's just fascinating how all your body weight could be supported but this little spokes of the pointe shoes it's very unique and incredible and it's really beautiful alright so we're gonna start really slow use the bar as much as you want as you can slowly roll up two points and then you're gonna lift down I felt like unlike anything I've ever felt before it feels like what I think some people described in medieval torture device going on point was I think one of the most painful experiences my life is it supposed to feel like your feet are just being squeezed out of your mind second I felt like my toes were gonna fall off I felt like my arches were being ripped apart but also squished at the same time [Music] while you are trying to be graceful and beautiful and smile is real fun good how is this something you get used to I don't get in it like do you feel just like all the pressure on your nails yeah are you so okay alright let's change cuz I want your feet to get all swollen just doing a little recovery and relaxing in I think my ankle so I'm not gonna lie after learning these first two dances I was pretty mentally overwhelmed and amongst all of this the third dance was thrown at me which is the pas de deux which means dance for two hey my name is Erin smile and I've danced around the world I've fun with American Valley fifth to New York rebellion London and Joffrey Ballet in Chicago played the snow Cavalier in Disney's not cracking four hours of misty Copeland which is pretty cool partner is one of my favorite parts of the violet it's really fun like the and being supported by the gentlemen so I think you're going to enjoy it too for me the favorite part of the pas de de is the chemistry with my partner it's not only technical things it's just emotional things so remember we learned promenade on the floor yes second rotation so let's just show you you're gonna be an arabesque and dancing solo it's just you out there and if something goes wrong you just like make it up it's an art and a sport rolled into lawn and you have to make it look effortless and I think that's the hardest thing the partner dance was different from the group dance and required us to be on the same energy wavelength it requires a lot of trust and practice from both sides one of us messes up then it could be very dangerous so one thing that was really good was that you kept your backup yeah you don't want to drop because that's how you can also hurt your back and then Aaron could also lose control of you know but the pottage it actually ended up being my favorite dance it allowed me this type of freedom when I danced that was new and fresh it was just cool to just like feel beautiful and graceful and then have something really strong guy like throw me in the air and be there to support me it's just really satisfying to feel that one with a piece of music and getting lost in the music [Applause] that's partnering 101 the big movements yeah yeah if you wanted to maybe think of something that you wanted to inspire this piece or make it your own yeah or like yeah how you can use that to propel your dance to the next summer yeah convey a message to the audience yeah oh yeah well that's it's like so athletic but it's also not so I think that's the beauty of it just doing steps it's not good enough you could see it once but it's not gonna touch your heart I have been doing a lot of reflection on what Allison and Erin said earlier about finding someone or something to dedicate a dance to throughout the dance my character kind of becomes more free and playful and at one with the partner and that's exactly how I feel and my relationship with Garrett he is honestly probably the best thing that's ever happened to me the best friend partner support I could have ever asked for someone that truly does make me feel like I'm being lifted to this guy and so my partner dance is dedicated to get it I've learned all three dances for my final performance and now we're just rehearsing and still training a ton and it's just really really fun like I think I love ballet [Music] five rounded over so take down dad oh this heart form is not simple we see on stage everything glamorous and fabulous but what it takes to do that good and look that effortless this is kind of the first time when I sincerely questioned will I be able to pull off the final challenge me again will I look like a laughingstock that's it a little higher will I be an embarrassment to the ballet community I haven't danced for an audience ever hopefully we pull it off we are gathered here today to see an amazing spectacle this evening we are going to see a woman that can literally do everything do more things so Michelle decided to take it on her to become a ballerina within six weeks six weeks are you guys ready hey guys prepared the one and only here we go here's Michelle Koeppel yeah [Applause] [Music] stepping out on stage for the first time was a wild rush seeing all the people in the audience seeing all of the bright lights it's a lot it's very different from rehearsal still at the same time looking into the faces of the people of the audience I couldn't help but think oh yeah I'm being judged right now [Music] [Music] I don't think anybody can understand how difficult little swans is without actually doing it themselves the best way I can explain this dance is doing calculus with your feet and like arena said you have to be perfectly in sync with three other dancers [Music] I know that my dance didn't turn out perfect but I'm really proud of how far I came with little swans so the next one you guys gonna see is a pocket yet which is a dance for to is a more contemporary kind of piece it's a ladies and gentlemen the pocket yeah [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] I felt really connected during the partner dance and just this wave of emotion kind of came over me but in a really special way that didn't overcome my ability to focus on what the moves are and everything I've never really thought of dance as such an intimate art form but this really proved to me that dance is about sharing a story with someone else performing in front of an audience was actually my favorite part of this whole experience and in the beginning it was what I dreaded the most and while I by no means am anywhere close to being a professional ballerina I finally feel like I belong on this stage I went into this ballet challenge expecting that it was going to be a bunch of hard fast rigid roles on how to be beautiful and graceful and perfect what I truly learned was all of those long hours in the ballet studio lead you to accept this level of uncomfortability that lets you be vulnerable and open with an audience in a way I have an experience before if you enjoyed this video please give it a thumbs up comment below with what extreme challenge I should take on next I would love to you your ideas and as always subscribe so we can keep on going on more adventures together thank you so much to my incredible coaches Allison and Erin for supporting me and encouraging me every single day of this process be sure to follow them via the links below and also a special thank you to so dansa discount dance supply and ciaobella tutus for supplying the beautiful dance wear that you have seen throughout this entire video this week's I am ultra shout out is to Jo if you would like a chance at being next week shout out just create a post on Instagram and tag me in it using the hashtag I am ultra telling me a little bit about how you have overcome a recent obstacle in your life that's all for today and thanks so much for watching

Channel: Michelle Khare

Views: 5,245,933

Rating: 4.9590025 out of 5

Keywords: michelle khare, buzzfeed michelle, ballet, try, for the first time, dance, dancing, pointe shoes, pointe, ballerina, ballerino, tutu, nutcracker, barre, barre class, rehearsal, youtube, ballet class, ballerina diet, diet, nutrition, american ballet, french ballet, russian ballet, french, youtube trending, trending, google trends, feet, dancer stereotypes, challenge accepted, australian, opera, challenge, makeover, before and after, dancer diet

Id: loyMtuR2pVQ

Length: 30min 27sec (1827 seconds)

Published: Sun May 12 2019