Teen Ballerina's Daily Routine 1 Week Before a Show | Teen Vogue

it is freezing in my house so I'm wearing the booties that like I wear birthday I have a super long day of school and dance so hi I'm Kayla Mack and I'm a 16 year old ballet dancer I dance six days a week five hours a day and I'm a junior in high school [Music] [Applause] from breaking in points used to balancing schoolwork this is one week in my life every day I have to balance dance in school here's what my day actually looks like I try to wake up at 6:30 a.m. I usually set four alarms my iPAQ a pair of tights and a black leotard I scream to catch the bus at 7:15 the hardest cost I'm doing right now is AP sight but actually I got a 92 throughout the day if my muscles are sore I usually apply some tiger balm or I do some splits out in the hallway after school I usually have a snack before I get on the train you got the goods Oh guys this is my dog Tucker I take a train for an hour to Harlem I usually try to get as much homework done as I can and I take the subway to my dance studio before class I stretch with my friends and I roll out my muscles with my rolling balls dance class usually lasts about five hours after class I usually stay another hour on my own just to work on my piece at around 9:30 I start heading to Grand Central and soon if I don't get my work done before I try to get it done after I usually get home at around eleven and by then I am starving so I eat dinner really fast and then I go upstairs to my room and do the rest of my homework I usually go to sleep at around 12:30 and I love when I get into my bed it's the best feeling in the whole entire world and then I wake up and do it all again the next morning as a dancer you break in a lot of shoes and it's a very rigorous process I kind of dread new point cheese basically I have to sew my elastic and ribbons on and then try to bang on a concrete floor to get the sound out of them I step on them try to make them as soft as possible for my feet the whole body banging the sound out of your pointe shoes allows a dancer to have a softer landing when jumping because sometimes a lot of pointe shoes can be kind of distracting to an audience so when you first put your foot and I'll point you it's really hard it's made out of fabric and wood at first your foot feels pretty squeezed in there but then after a while when you brake in the shoe your foot should be feeling normal usually going up on point you're basically like on your tippy toes it is pretty painful in the beginning but by the end it's it feels good I mean it feels less painful this week my choice has been bothering me I think it's just from all the extra rehearsals usually I tried to put on some tiger balm if it's feeling really tight or I try to roll out my muscles using my rolling ball tiger balm is my best friend it is basically like an icy hot or bengay it just helps relieve muscles from I guess stress or tension and it smells really good some people don't like the smell it just trails like the smell just trails with me so I mean it's a win-win situation yeah it's my signature scent after a long day of rehearsal my Tobias has been kind of bothering me and sounds super tight I think it's time for some tiger balm today I will not be rehearsing just that my body can take a break and I could take a nice long bath for my really long day tomorrow I decided not to rehearse my piece just because I was having some issues with my chilis my legs feel like jello for a dancer an injury is not very good I mean it's not good in any situation but especially as a dancer because your body's our instrument I'm always super careful about listening to my body and for me stretching is the best feeling so I usually take a block that I have it's like a yoga block and I do some over splits just to stretch my hamstrings and then I try to roll out some muscles that are knotted rolling knotted muscles is actually a pretty painful experience but after your muscles are super relaxed and it just feels a lot better so at home to reset my body I usually use some heating pads which help me usually I use it on my lower back so it helps my muscles release tension I am elevating my feet I was lying down on my back and I put my feet up so that all the blood can rush out of my feet because they were super swollen but yeah just showing all the rigors dancing and on top of all the dancing I have to walk to and from the subway and my dance studio which does put a lot on my body I'm sprinting for my trains all the time because I'm gonna get home I don't love it if I make my train hopefully I make it Thursday I was getting a little worried because my Achilles was still bothering me and so I took extra care of it on Thursday night my Achilles hopefully will not be as aggravated tomorrow but I'll see you guys tomorrow and good night having school work is pretty hard and I have to try to find as much time as I can in my day to fit it in I just got back home from dance it is 12:00 a.m. right now I'm going to try to eat dinner as fast as I can and then do some more studying for my AP psych test and try to start an essay for English I don't know how I'm gonna do it but you I'm trying to find a day where I never I didn't I'm working but um yeah almost every day is a late night of homework for me I am going to work on my essay that is due in 25 minutes it's 11:35 right now and it's due at midnight when my friends find out about my schedule they're usually like I don't know how you do it like how do you have time for work how do you have time to sleep I'm just like just got to go with it you just got to do it I mean it's just like Nike just do it so I just got done with my essay and I just made it to the deadline thank goodness a day or two before the big performance I usually have to color my point cheese sometimes dancers have to color their pointe shoes to match their skin tone people use foundation or makeup products to color their pointe shoes or sometimes the point Jews come pre-dive I use foundation and a toothbrush to put them i think tomorrow's gonna be a good day so I'll see you guys in the morning good night meeting up to big performances I start to get kind of nervous also super excited hope it's hard so the choreography for my performance was made for TV and for TV it has to be sharper I guess because you're portraying it to an audience that is not live your movements have to be really big and super energetic so this piece was super difficult the most difficult part of my routine is the lame duck a lame duck is like a PK which is you're doing a turn on a straight leg but then you kind of substitute the supporting leg for the other leg and it's awful every time I just pray that I I make it but I usually just try to stick to the basics and keep my foundation in order to do a good lame duck the morning of a big performance I wake up and I instantly think about it I'm like oh God today's the big day and usually I start getting super nervous which makes me not eat too much but I do force myself to eat because it's important to have just a good breakfast before you dance don't wait to perform I'll see you guys getting to meet fans is the most amazing and humbling experience just to know that you've inspired people or just to know that they've seen you dance before is just really cool so the ideal flooring for point juice is Marley it's like a texture of the floor that's smooth but not slippery because it has friction for the point cheese so that you don't slip in the cases where the floor is not Marley I have to either use rosin or in this case I did not have rosin with me we're gonna have to improvise and I'm gonna have to use some glue um but glue is a sticky clear substance that you usually put under your leotard to make sure that your leotard doesn't ride up and show anything basically I just had to rub it on my shoes and make sure that it was tacky and make sure that I don't slip on that slippery stage [Music] [Music] walking out on stage I try to keep my breathing controlled but it usually my heart rate just gets super super high I just start getting real I just start breathing super heavily and when I get into my beginning pose I just take two deep breaths and try to calm myself down after I take my two deep breaths I start performing my piece [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] usually in my brain I get pretty scared for the hard parts of the piece but then after those are done I feel super relieved it's the most liberating feeling and it just gives me this environment that allows me to be myself and express my emotions through my art form [Music] [Music] by the end of the piece I get into my finishing pose and it's just super nice like I feel super proud of myself and even if I didn't do that great I just feel super happy that I got to perform the hardest thing about dance is just never you can never be perfect even though dancers are such perfectionist sometimes it's hard to realize the fact that nobody's perfect and you have to keep working harder and harder [Applause] I feel like the performance actually went pretty well considering the floor it was kind of slippery so I did get a little scared on stage by I think I was super proud of myself that I actually danced on that floor with the book we had pointe shoes and so now I'm going to do some homework and try to go to sleep early because the next day is Monday and it starts all over again so yeah thank you so much for watching love you guys

Channel: Teen Vogue

Views: 9,808,763

Rating: 4.9735007 out of 5

Keywords: teen vogue, world of dance, lead up, ballet prodigy, the lead up, teen vogue lead up, teen ballerina, kayla mak, kayla mak ballet, kayla mak world of dance, kayla mak dancer, kayla mak dance, kayla mak interview, kayla mak routine, ballet routine, ballerina, ballerina routine, ballerina day, world of dance routine, ballet dancer kayla mak, world of dance kayla mak, kayla world of dance, ballet performance, kayla mak wod, ballet wod, teen vogue ballet dancer

Id: ndbmEEysKQo

Length: 14min 23sec (863 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 24 2020