Young Writers Society

I am writing a novel about a ballet dancer but I have never taken ballet. So if anyone who is a ballet dancer or is familiar with ballet can tell me how to describe dancing scenes and the movements that would be great. Also this is a story about a ballet dancer who is recovering from an injury to her hip she suffered while standing en pointe. Through out the novel, she struggles with trying to stand en pointe again until the very end. However I have been researching ballet today and it looks like many of the poses require the dancer to stand en pointe. (sorry if this is wrong; I know little to nothing about ballet) The dilemma for me is that I want her to be able to stand en pointe at the very end of novel, but I also want her to be able to do ballet I don't really know how often advanced ballet dances stand en pointe when dancing or even how many ballet poses require the dancer to stand en pointe. If someone could clear that up for me, I would be extremely grateful. Thanks.

@LadySpark maybe?

I'm not a ballerina, but I have been dancing for about thirteen years. I'll let somebody more experienced in ballet answer the ballet specific questions, but here's what stood out to me:

The reaction to injury and struggle to get back into class is pretty unrealistic, from my experiences in the dance world. Injury tends to result in one of three things:

1- You quit/take it easy for a few weeks then get back into it, your body healed
2- You push through it for awhile and only take a break once the show/exam you're preparing for is over
3- You end up permanently injured and unable to dance again, or at least need tons of physical therapy to get back there

Injuries are not usually this slow climb back to where you used to be unless they're absolutely devastating, and if they're absolutely devastating then you usually stop dancing by necessity, because your body simply cannot do it.

They don't actually impact your ability to remember how to dance, so once the injury is healed then people are usually right back at the same skill level they got injured at, no struggle to get back there past maybe a little sloppiness from not having practiced for awhile.

The type of plot you're talking about sounds more like a chronic illness plot that took a dancer out of the game for multiple months if not over a year, not a simple dance injury. Hip injuries can usually heal in 2-8 weeks depending on the intensity of them. And, like I said, they usually don't have a huge impact on skill past maybe taking it easy a few weeks after you get back into it.

As for how to describe dance, that depends on a lot of things. Namely:

- Whether or not it's in class or on stage
- If it's a walk through or a light run or an all-out run
- How confident they are
- How well they know the choreography
- How comfortable they are in the space (stage or class)
- The type of piece (technical vs emotive)
- How experienced the dancer is
- If they lean technician vs performer
- Where they are in the choreography (background dancers, part of a small group, or soloists)

That, of course, is assuming they're performing. If they're watching, then they'll notice totally different things than a non-dancer, like:

- The lines people form on stage
- Sharpness of movement
- How in sync the dancers are
- Whether or not the dancer is connecting emotionally with the piece
- How much the dancer is thinking about the movement (trust me, you can tell)
- If the movements and music line up
- Whether or not the choreography lines up with the watcher's personal taste

I would suggest you watch ballets. Here is a list of famous ballets available on youtube, which has a nice mix of modern numbers and classical numbers. I would also toss in Giselle. I've linked to one version but there are others available on youtube.

Watching ballet should give you an idea what's expected of a professional ballet dancer and what sort of movements are in the body's repertoire. Keeping in mind ballet dancers are very versatile because they have to be. A ballet dancer will usually know an extensive amount of skills spanning from contemporary (usually done barefoot or in soft shoes) to modern ballet to classical ballet, because they never know where they'll get hired. Some dancers stick to only one or two, but it improves your dancing a lot to have versatility.

Hopefully this gives you some direction for your character, plot, and descriptions.

1. You would not sustain a hip injury from standing en pointe. Foot, ankle, knee, yes. Hip? Very doubtful. Hip injuries come from forcing turn out, over stretching, and repeated pushing of extensions. If your hips are like mine, they're built a certain way that makes you more prone to a hip injury. I would suggest researching common ballet injuries before you go any further.

Also, a hip injury would have no effect whatsover on someone's ability to stand en pointe. If it's really important to your novel for her to struggle to return to pointe, I would suggest picking a different injury. (Several that I saw this summer at my intensive included snapped Achilles tendons, bruised bone in the shins, severe shin splints, and torn ACL's.) ALL of these would effect going en pointe.

What is your character's dancing level? Are they advanced (ie working in a professional company like ABT) or a beginner to pointe? Because that would also affect how quickly they can return to pointe if you chose to change the injury. Someone advanced, like myself, could go months without going on pointe and bounce back pretty quickly to a normal dancing ability because we've basically finished our training. Someone just beginning, however, might have to go back to the basics of ballet.

2.

How long do you plan on this injury lasting? Does it put her out completely or just off pointe.
Ballet dancers take 'technique class' which is a class that you take without pointe shoes. Then later, there's pointe class which is always taken with pointe shoes. Does she continue dancing in technique classes on flat, or is she out completely? For something more serious, like a torn ACL (which requires surgery), she would be out completely. For severe shin splints, she would merely do technique class, and probably not jump until they go away. The more severe the injury the less you can do.

3.
As ballet dancers, we're taught that pain is good. When you're writing this character, keep in mind that /most/ ballet dancers dance through injuries. I myself have Achilles tendonitis and very very severe hip tendonitis, and I haven't sat out for more than a couple of days. That's another thing that goes into how advanced your dancer is. An advanced dancer isn't going to sit out because of a hip injury. (Unless it's something incredibly dangerous, like one of the muscles inside the hip is torn. I can't remember the technical term right now, but it also requires surgery.)

4. How often she stands en pointe has a lot to do with where she is in her training and what kind of ballet she does. Oddly enough, younger dancers dance en pointe more often in class, because they're being trained-- but less on stage because they're not ready.
More advanced dancers take less time in class, but perform more. Is she in a performance based school/company? If so, then if she's at the advanced level (which I assume she is), then she's probably dancing en pointe a lot. Secondly, is she doing contemporary ballet or classical ballet?
Contemporary ballet tends to be on flat, like in the video above. (Though not always, there's always exceptions to the rules.) Classical ballet is /always/ en pointe. If you'd like more wiggle room in how much she's dancing en pointe, I'd suggest contemporary. But it's always up to you.


5. Ballet is really hard to explain to someone who doesn't do it. Especially the more advanced you get. I could go on for hours about injuries in ballet and you probably still wouldn't get the answers you wanted or needed. It's hard. Ballet is hard on your body and the more advanced you get, the more used you get to injuries. Every single ballerina I've ever met has been nursing some kind of injury or another. We just accept it and move on. It's really hard for people who aren't dancers to understand, because normal people think "Oh I'm injured, lets go to the doctor and fix it."
Ballerinas think their career will be over if they even hint at being injured. The truth of the matter is that there are millions of girls just waiting to be ballerinas and those who make it don't want to give it up. People hide injuries for months, even years, because they're afraid they'll a. be told to stop dancing or b. be kicked out of a role/company/school for not being able to dance.

6. I'm now going to caution you as a ballerina. I have never read a book written by a non-ballerina about ballet that I found believable. I really hope that your book would be the exception, because that would be awesome, but. It's very very very hard as a non-ballerina to understand what goes on in our heads/ or on a day to day basis. There's either the black swan version, that we starve ourselves and drive each other into insanity, or the pretty tutu version, where we just get up on stage and do some pretty 'spins'. The truth is somewhere in between. Ballet is something that takes over your life and you can't get away from it no matter how hard you try. I've spent my entire life, or at least 15 years of it, working to a goal that I might not reach. That's a scary thing to think. I've spent 15 years working to something that could be destroyed by falling out of a jump or turn wrong.


7. As for writing the movements, approach it like you would any other kind of movement scene (such as a battle scene). If you're a more visual person, watch youtube vidoes of dancers. If not, just try and write it as honestly as you can. Also, use the correct terminology, please. ABT has a great dictionary with the correct pronunciation AND videos showing examples of what the steps are.

8.
Finally, I've got some reading/watching material for you.
Read "Bunheads" by Sophie Flack. It was written by an actual dancer, and it's also a really great book.
Watch BALLET. Watch it ALL the time. Watch different ballets. Watch classical ballet, watch contemporary ballet, watch it on pointe, watch it on flat shoes. Learrnnnn how we move.
Watch teen vogues "strictly ballet videos". (There's two series. Watch both)
Google "interviews with professional ballerinas and listen to what they have to say about dancing.
Lastly, watch the ABT documentary from PBS. It's really enlightning, even to me, a ballerina from the age of 10.

If you ever have ANY questions, please hit me up. I love telling people about ballet.

I hope this helped a lot, darling! Much luck. Or as we say in the ballet world, merde!

I was going to contribute - I have been dancing for 10 years, ballet for 9. I did quit ballet a year ago, but I still remember a lot.

But I see those two have basically filled you in I'll just leave you with this -

Common dance injuries

About en pointe - my class, who are around 12-14, have only just started training en pointe. Age does not really matter, but it's experience. You cannot train en pointe unless you are fit and strong enough in flat shoes. Also, not all ballet needs to be en pointe. A lot of ballet shows in big theatres do go en pointe, but it isn't necessary - ballet can still look beautiful in flat shoes. You can do pa de chat en pointe, pirouettes on flat - all the techniques and basic steps are taught to build strength and other such things. All of it is preparation for the next step.

If you need any help with steps, I would be glad to offer my services! Just shoot me a message, and I can run everything down for you. Be aware that I am by no means an expert - I'm just a retired student who has been nagged by a good teacher ever since I can remember.