Wednesday, January 27, 2016

A Day in the Life of a Ballet Magnificat Company Member

Today I thought I would give you a sneak peak into the life of a professional dancer, my life! Being a company member of America's biggest and premier christian ballet company, Ballet Magnificat is truly a dream! If you have never heard of this company before, you need to check us out! My job combines my greatest passions of music, ballet, travel, people, and most of all Jesus. It is a great honor to get to do what I do, and yet I find I still must be intentional in being thankful for it and not taking it for granted, but I suppose that is with any occupation. Have you thanked God for your job today?


What My Work Day Looks Like : 


5:00AM  This is the time I got up this morning. Upon waking up one of the first things I like to do is spend time with God. I like to read my bible, pray, maybe work on the bible study book that my fellow company members and I are going through; I love doing these things in the morning before the world wakes up because it is very peaceful and easier for me to think and focus. I might have slept in another hour, but this morning I had plans to go for a walk with a friend before work, so I chose to start my day earlier as to still go through with my accustomed morning regimen. Today I got all ready and dressed for ballet before seeing my friend and decided I would do my fancy ballet bun at the dance studio instead of at home, which I occasionally do in order to save some time. After walking with my friend, I then ate some raisin bran cereal for breakfast, packed my snacks for the day and headed to work!

9:30AM  Our day at the Ballet Magnificat studios begins with a devotion time. All

A "doing our hair" selfie, before class ^_^
company members, and trainees join together for a time of worship and dedication to our Lord. Honestly what we do during this time looks different every day. Sometimes we'll sing, sometimes we'll share stories, sometimes we'll pray (actually we always pray!) 
After devotions the company members and trainees split up and have some time to all get ready for our daily ballet technique class. After doing my hair, I do some stretching. I often do some of the exercises I mention here to prepare my muscles for class.

10:30AM  We have class for an hour and 45 minutes. I sweat a TON, because I work REALLY hard... and also because we keep the studios at 78 degrees Fahrenheit!

12:15PM  We have anywhere from thirty minutes to a fifteen minute lunch break. I snacked on my peanut butter cracker sandwiches, some celery, and a tangerine. Yum!



12:45PM  For the rest of the day we spend out time rehearsing. I love rehearsing. Today we rehearsed The Arrival and Deliver Us. After we are done practicing our dances, we sit down and have a little pow wow where our rehearsal director so generously gives out corrections and critiques, being either collective or to specific individuals, about how we can further improve our performance. Sometimes we have to go back and retry or fix steps and formations. I like to write all my corrections down so I can remember them. Good thing I didn't get too many today!

3:15PM  We got done with rehearsal a little early today so I decided to use my time to do some work in the product room. Aside from dancing, you will find that the company members at Ballet Magnificat attend to a number of other different responsibilities that their other talents and giftings cater to such as working with the props, building sets, or with the costume department. I am one of the members in charge of managing sales merchandise and fundraising. I guess I must be good at folding T-shirts and that is what I did with the rest of my extra time, along with bagging them. ^_^

4:00PM  After my dance day is done, if I am not working from 4 to 6 with this housekeeping business I work for as a side job, I will go to the library for a couple hours to study spanish, do bible study, or like today, write blog entries.

7:00PM  When I return home from a full work day, I am ready for dinner. If I haven't already prepared my dinners in advanced on Sunday, I just eat whatever I can find or make fast. Today after coming home from the library, I just made myself some chicken quesadillas and spent the rest of my evening hanging out with my awesome housemates. 

10:00PM  I actually start preparing for bed by nine. As a matter of fact I have an alarm clock set to go off at nine to alert me that it is time to start getting ready for bed, since it is SO easy for me to get carried off and away with some project that I could be working on into the wee hours of the night, if I let myself. This year I am truly trying, with all my effort to manage my time better and make sleep a higher priority in my life since I have come to learn just how important it really is! Before bed, I shower and if there is time, I do a wind-down activity such as some stretching or reading. At ten o'clock I like to I hit the lights, give thanks to God for my day, and ask Him for a peaceful night of rest. I like to listen to music to help me slip off into dream land. And God willing, I will wake up the next day refreshed and ready to do it all over again where my reality will be sweeter than my dreams.



Be sure to check out: A Day in the Life of a Ballet Magnificat Trainee



Do you have a topic idea or suggestion of something I should write about? 
Do you have a question you’d like to ask me?
Leave a comment below!


Thanks for reading!

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5 comments:

  1. Such a lovely post! It's interesting to see what a day is like in such a dream career.

    Briana
    www.youngsophisticate.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi.
    I loved reading this.
    My girls love dancing and we love and serve the Lord!! They are Anke age 15 and Sioné age 13 and we stay in South Africa.
    We saw Deliver Us last year here in SA and we loved Magnificat!

    Here are no christian ballet companies and although Anke wants to open up a christian studio some day, she wants to dance for Magnificat for 2 years.

    To a mom it is very very far away. I have tons of questions and uncertainties. We have never traveled to USA and don't have money to travel, so I'd be so greatful if you could email me and I could ask you questions.
    My email is in Afrikaans meanin full of faith. It is volgeloof@gmail.com

    Blessings and we hope to see you back here in SA Pretoria.

    Ronell van Rooyen

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hello! And thank you for reaching out to me! It is nice to hear from fellow believers and dance lovers from all around the world! I loved South Africa when our company visited there just last year! To think I could have met you while I was there!

    It is neat to hear about your girls' dreams and ambitions! God can do immeasurably more then we can ask, think, or imagine right!?

    ~Lillian

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