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Ballet Careers

Dancing With a Chronic Medical Condition: 4 Pros on How They Make it Work

Haskins in Michael Smuin's "The Christmas Ballet." Photo by Keith Sutter, Courtesy Smuin Ballet.

Day in and day out, dancers expect their bodies to perform at the highest level of athletic and artistic achievement. However, some develop chronic medical conditions that prevent them from doing their best consistently. Still, many learn to manage their symptoms while dancing professionally. Pointe spoke with four dancers who haven't let medical problems stop them.


Holloway and Nicholas Rose in Glen Tetley's "Dialogues." Photo by Nan Melville, Courtesy DTH.


Alicia Holloway

At 13, Alicia Holloway almost quit dancing. Her asthma was so bad that she struggled for every breath during rehearsals. However, today the Dance Theatre of Harlem artist maintains a professional rehearsal and performance schedule.

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Show and Tell

Six Ballerinas Share the Quirkiest Item in Their Dance Bag

Dancers are famously resourceful and particular when it comes to the products that they keep around to get them through the day. And we all know where those items live: the dance bag. While most dance bags are filled with basics like leotards, pointe shoes, Therabands and granola bars, we rounded up some of the quirkier items that dancers carry with them to provide comfort, inspiration and organization.

These snippets come from longer stories on the contents of each ballerina's dance bag—click on each dancer's name for more.


Howard with Christopher Gerty in Balanchine's "The Four Temperaments," Photo by Edwin Luk, Courtesy National Ballet of Canada

Tanya Howard

This National Ballet of Canada first soloist keeps a hand-carved wooden ballerina with her that her husband made in his high school woodworking class. After they married, Howard added her own little touch—a little rhinestone stuck onto the figurine's finger to mimic a ring. "They had to pick characters out of a book, and he chose the ballerina," she says. "It was so serendipitous! When I see this, I think about how that was years before we even met."

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Ballet Stars

Inside Miami City Ballet Soloist Jordan-Elizabeth Long's Dance Bag

Kyle Froman for Pointe

When Miami City Ballet soloist Jordan-Elizabeth Long previously danced with the Royal Swedish Ballet, professional hairdressers styled her performance hair. “If you came in with a messy bag full of pins, they got really annoyed," Long says. Ever since, she has kept her pins organized in a multicompartment plastic case. In fact, Long's dance bag is full of European imports from her career abroad in Sweden and at Dutch National Ballet. There are her leopard print Bbooties and the red polka-dot wine bottle holder that she uses to organize pointe shoes. And her bear key chain was given to her by former Royal Swedish dancer Eugenia Bolander, Long's old dressing-roommate and close friend.

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