A ballerina is a ballet company’s principal female dancer. The ballerina is the female dancer who performs the lead role in a ballet, whether it is a classical ballet such as Swan Lake or a contemporary plotless ballet. A dancer must begin her dance training at the age of seven or eight years old in order to become a ballerina. She begins taking one to two ballet classes per week at first. She progresses to five or six classes per week as she gets older.
The aspiring ballerina learns all of the traditional classical ballet movements in her daily dance classes. She learns the five basic positions of the feet as a beginner dancer, as well as simple stretching exercises like the plie, which involves bending the legs. She learns jumps, turns, and static poses as her technique improves, such as the arabesque, a graceful pose in which the dancer stands on one leg with the other leg stretched high behind her.
The dance teacher will determine if the female dancer is ready to begin dancing on her toes as she approaches 11 or 12 years old. Only students with sufficient leg and foot strength are permitted to wear pointe, or toe, shoes. With the help of special blocked shoes, the aspiring ballerina begins to learn how to dance on the tips of her toes. The goal is for every movement to appear natural and graceful. She will learn to dance with a male partner and perform in student performances as her training progresses.
The dancer may choose to audition for a ballet academy affiliated with a prestigious ballet company during adolescence. Ballet schools that are affiliated with professional ballet companies are a source of new dancers for the companies. If the dancer is chosen for the academy, she will have more opportunities to perform in venues where she will be seen influential ballet people.
The competition for a coveted spot in a ballet company’s corps de ballet is fierce. A ballet company’s chorus is known as the corps de ballet. These are the dancers who perform as a group on stage. A promising adolescent ballet dancer will occasionally be selected to join the corps, but not all ballet students will be asked to join the ranks of professional dancers.
When an aspiring ballerina joins the corps de ballet, she begins learning the company’s repertoire of ballets. If she is particularly gifted, she may one day become a soloist, a dancer who performs solo roles in ballet performances. She may be promoted to principal dancer if she proves herself to be a talented dancer. When a female dancer is promoted to principal dancer, she is officially referred to as a ballerina.