Earlier this week, Philip Gardner of Oberon’s Grove told DG that he thinks the glamour of ballet comes from toe shoes. He referenced both their look and their less tangible “mystique.” That mystique, to me, is all about wondering how the dancers can possibly stay en pointe for more than 15 seconds at a stretch and how they make it look so effortless.
Looking effortless, of course, isn’t the same as being effortless, and the reality is that those dancers dedicate hours of practice and pain to achieve the on-stage perfection they share with audiences. In toe shoes, ballerinas’ feet look gorgeous and otherwordly. With those shoes off, though, they’re often a big mess of blisters and bunions.
In that way, they have much in common with the brilliant chef whose white sleeves hide arms covered in burns earned during thousands of hours spent behind the stove, honing his craft. Or the interior designer whose perfect palace is the result of months – or years – of fine-tuning a design (often while dealing with a difficult, demanding, possibly tasteless client).
What’s most glamorous on the surface is often the result of the hardest work underneath.
All of this made me wonder, then, is there anything glamorous that doesn’t require hours of preparation?
["Practice Makes Perfect" photograph taken by Flickr user Lin Pernille and used under the Creative Commons license.]
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