Why Multiple Shades of Lipstick Are a Must in Venus Villa's Dance Bag
When it comes to studio attire, The Washington Ballet’s Venus Villa loves to have choices. While at home in Washington, DC, her bag usually overflows with skirts and warm-ups in all different colors. “I am more girly than sporty,” she says of her style. She’s also never without multiple lipsticks, and she selects the right shade to match her leotard each day. On tour in New York City for a Guggenheim Works & Process showing, Villa pared the contents of her dance bag down to the essentials: only one skirt, but still three lipsticks.
Villa grew up between Cuba and Italy and danced with companies in London, Rome and Vienna before joining TWB. Her camouflage-patterned dance bag is a souvenir from her travels; it was a gift from a gala that she performed at in Puglia, Italy. Every pocket of the roomy duffel holds a few black hair bands, which always make Villa think of her 4-year-old daughter, also named Venus—she uses them to put up her hair as well.
Kyle Froman
The Goods
Clockwise from top left: Camouflage dance bag, socks, ballet slippers, green pouch for hair accessories, black flowered bag to hold pointe shoe prep kit (“It was a present from a friend at TWB”), foot roller, scissors, dental floss for sewing pointe shoes, 2nd Skin Gel Squares for feet, Hypafix Tape for toes, assorted lipsticks, Airborne, oral pain reliever (“I apply it to my toenails when I have pain. It’s an anesthetic”), Zim’s Max Freeze Muscle & Joint Pain Relief Roll-On Formula, hair bands, Gaynor Minden custom pointe shoes with elastic ribbons (“I had really bad Achilles tendonitis, but once I started using elastic ribbons the pain went away. And they’re great for quick changes!”), phone charger, iPhone, head- phones, Michael Kors down warm-up jacket, Sansha overall warm-ups.
