In the 2004 film, Mean Girls, (also known as Lindsay Lohan’s final masterpiece before hopping the train to Crazy Town), Lohan’s character, Cady, is enrolled in an advanced calculus class, and later joins the mathletes (also known as social suicide).  When Cady’s new “too gay to function” best friend, Damien, asks her why she likes math, Cady gets real deep on us; “Because it’s the same in ever country.”  Woah.  That’s some existential shit right there.

Being the type of girl who is completely on board with anything written by Tina Fey and starring Rachel McAdams, I couldn’t help but think of the Mean Girls quote all week.  Gorgeous guest artists from around the globe gathered in Providence for FBP’s Together We Dance gala this Thursday, and while taking company class with the crayola-box collection of beautiful ballet creatures, I realized just how much Cady’s concept relates to ballet.  It’s the same in every country.  Why had I never made this comparison before?!

An overwhelming amount of the earth’s population is slightly confused about ballet.  Can you stand on your toes?  Have you ever met Natalie Portman?  But then there’s this momentous demographic of people who not only understand ballet, but live and breathe it every day.  To us, fondue will never be a pot of melting cheese.  A dance belt does not require belt loops.  The word bar(re) reminds us more of work than play.  Whether you grew up in Japan, Australia, Lithuania, Russia, Canada, or the good ol’ US of A, if you’re a ballet dancer, you know the difference between Paquita and Don Quixote- and the disastrous shame of Kitri having a fan-drop (I shutter at the thought).  It really puts some perspective on the world and how connected we can be when we share this bizarre, highly specific addiction.

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