Words of Wisdom from Breaking Pointe

All too often, those final rehearsals before a performance make it seem like everything’s destined to go wrong on stage. Last night’s episode of “Breaking Pointe” showed the Ballet West dancers succombing to that pre-show stress: They struggled with props, they wrestled with tempos, they let their anxiety throw them off.

We’ve all been there. Although there’s obviously no such thing as “perfect” in ballet, it’s still something every dancer strives for. And the nerves that pressure creates are ludicrous.

Artistic director Adam Sklute told the CW cameras that the antidote is confidence. Particularly, he mentioned that perennial stress ball Allison DeBona needed to get out of her head and stop obsessing over every detail. It’s a great piece of advice, but one that’s easier said than done.

A much more helpful—yet equally true—bit of insight came from principal Christiana Bennett: “If you think you’ve made a mistake, your mind says to you that everybody saw it and everybody thinks you’re weaker for it. But actually, that’s usually not the case at all!”