After smacking Alex in the chest with my forearm for the fifth time, an angry breath escaped through my lips.  It’s difficult to piqué in menège through a tiny gap between your partner and a giant camera, on toes that haven’t smelled pointe shoes in nearly 4 months.

Being a ballet dancer certainly creates some pretty interesting opportunities outside of the studio, especially when you’ve recently decided to say ‘yes’ to everything and you’re also fairly strapped for cash.  It turns out there’s a real market out there for bunheads in need of sporadic work.  This weekend’s odd job du jour had me filming a mock Gatorade commercial in a rather dingy- but potentially quite lovely- old theater on the West end of Providence called The Columbus.  The space is currently a live music venue, but this Sunday it played the role of “studio space” to Alex and I, as we demonstrated the underrated athleticism of ballet.

Boston-based Old Harbor Production Company reached out to FBP about hiring 2 dancers for a promotional project comparing a basketball practice to a ballet rehearsal.  The finished product will parallel a “day in the life” of the basketballer and the ballerina (myself), showcasing the surprising similarities between the two, both in endurance and elegance.  While I must say I felt a bit strange walking into the theater over and over with a big shiny lens in my face, and I will never be able to un-see my feet doing an entrechat quatre up close and in slow motion, downing a bottle of Gatorade dripping in spritzed-on sweat for the commercial’s climax was a bit of an iconic, surreal, PINCH ME moment and I won’t soon forget it.