Sometimes, being a ballet dancer is really, really hard.  Sometimes your first (and last) dress rehearsal before the show, is a colossal failure does not go well.  Sometimes you fall out of every pirouette and twist your ankle while hopping on pointe.  Sometimes the tutu that fit you perfectly 3 days ago proves impossible to arabesque in, and your artistic director is home sick in bed and you rip a hole in your favorite pink performance tights.  Sometimes your replacement tutu doesn’t come with a matching headpiece.  And your partner’s black velvet jacket sleeves make his arms look like they’ve been swallowed by two large panthers.  And this is all a very real problem, because what may seem like an extremely minut detail in the pedestrian world, is an invaluable puzzle piece in the ballet world.

But then, just sometimes (the lucky times), the replacement tutu was literally made for you, you can arabesque like a dream in it, your artistic director makes it to the show, and you find a new favorite pair of pink tights.  Sometimes you decide to smile so much the audience won’t notice the navy blue flowers and feathers in your headpiece do not match your black tutu (I know, navy blue and black…huge difference, right?!).  And sometimes the sewing machine works its reduction magic on your partner’s panther sleeves and now his arms look much more like dark chocolate covered strawberries (this is a good thing, in case you were wondering).  While I will not pretend last night’s performance was a complete success, it was a vastly better experience than the dress rehearsal, which leads me to sharing this little bit of performance art wisdom with all of you:

Sometimes, a bad dress rehearsal means a good opening night.