by Amy Brandt | Dec 18, 2025 | Career, Company Life, Pointe+, Wellness
As I stood backstage in my snow costume, my bodice felt tight. I tried not to panic—I needed every ounce of oxygen to get through the snow scene in Jean-Paul Comelin’s Nutcracker. As an 18-year-old Milwaukee Ballet trainee, this was my first professional production,...
by Rachel Fine, MS, RD, CSSD, CDN, CEDS-C | Aug 17, 2023 | Health & Body, Nutrition, Pointe+, Wellness
I’ve been attempting to shift my relationship with food, but, in full transparency, I am noticing weight fluctuations and gains. Is this normal? Is it possible to work toward a better relationship with food without gaining weight? —Katy Thanks for this...
by Claudia Bauer | Nov 24, 2021 | Career, Wellness
Between teachers, artistic directors, choreographers and the audience, ballet dancers have a lot of people to please. Advancement in a school or company is usually dependent on meeting—or exceeding—their expectations. The immense pressure to please other people can...
by Amy Brandt | May 11, 2020 | Ask Amy, Career, Training
Sometimes when I perform, I get wrapped up in my nerves and make sloppy technical mistakes—things that I don’t have trouble with in rehearsal. Are there ways to combat this? —Laura You’re not alone—even seasoned professionals struggle with nerves onstage....
by Rachel Hellwig | Jul 23, 2019 | Career, Wellness
Updated on 5/27/2022 The curtain falls, the costumes are packed away. Dancers say good-bye to the choreography, the adrenaline rush of being onstage and the special camaraderie of performing together. “You put your heart and soul into a show and then...
by Chava Pearl Lansky | Sep 5, 2017 | Training, Your Training
Though we wish summer could last forever, the weather’s getting cooler and that back-to-school feel is in the air. Handling the delicate balance between academics and dance can be hard, particularly when coupled with the fear of slipping into bad habits and old...
by Kathleen McGuire | Jul 11, 2017 | Summer Intensive Survival, Summer Study, Training
The summer I turned 16, my head swirled with “what ifs” as I counted down the days until the start of the Chautauqua intensive. I’d attended the program four years earlier, and the experience had been a harrowing one—my first lesson in the...
by Kathleen McGuire | Jun 8, 2017 | Health & Body, Wellness
This story originally appeared in the December 2015/January 2016 issue of Pointe. Lying awake in her hotel bed in Washington, DC, the night before her audition, Richmond Ballet dancer Valerie Tellmann-Henning was tormented with anxiety. At 31 years old, she was...
