My grandmother used to say that farm animals sweat, men perspire, and ladies glisten. I think it’s maybe because she never really did much physically. Unfortunately, I sweat – a lot. It’s a pain in the butt and honestly it’s enough to make a girl a little self-conscious sometimes but when you are in the midst of a really awesome ballet class, you just learn to deal and get over it. I do find that wearing cotton kind of sucks because you can see sweat like crazy but more and more, I realize that it’s just sweat and in the grand scheme of ballerina life, it’s not that big of a deal.

In fact, I read a few facts about sweating that are kind of cool!

1. Toning your muscles affects your face too so working out can help fight wrinkles! That’s because toned muscles provide a support system for your skin = less sagging, fewer lines!
2. Sweating is good for acne! This is great news for me because I have bad skin. Exercise causes your adrenal glands to secrete less DHEA and DHT, hormones that are partially responsible for acne. Honestly, I can tell you that my skin has definitely started looking better with ballet class!
3. A serious workout improves circulation which is responsible for delivering nutrients that produce collagen and elastin. You’ll want those because they give your skin strength!
4. Sweating clears your pores. Did you know that you remove about 30% of your body’s toxins through sweat every day! Toxins are bad, you don’t want those hanging around.

I also read some interesting facts about our skin in general:

1. Your skin is basically a big envelope that holds your body together mechanically and functionally.
2. Your skin is your first line defense!
3. Your skin regulates your body’s temperature. This is really important, when you get hot your skins begins to dilate your blood vessels so that warm blood is drawn away from your core and pushed toward the surface of your skin. You sweat and as the moisture evaporates, it cools you down so that you don’t overheat!
4. Your skin contains tons of different cells that are involved in protecting you from disease and infection. Your immune system begins with your skin.
5. Your skin makes Vitamin D. That’s pretty cool.
6. Your skin is a sensory organ, it tells you about pleasure, pain, cold, heat, pressure… it’s pretty awesome.
7. Your skin is beautiful and unique and it’s all you!

As summer comes, it’s bound to get even hotter inside the studio and out. But I’m ready, not just because the studio has AC and I have some leotards in moisture wicking fabric, but because I now know that sweating is a pretty cool function that I do pretty darn well. Bring it, let’s dance and get all sweaty!

We all have our bad habits, sometimes we recognize them and try to rectify them, sometimes we just live with them, and sometimes we even embrace them and stroke them like kittens.

When I was a very young child I was greatly influenced by my dad’s eldest sister who just happened to be a nun. I wasn’t raised Catholic but I found my aunt – Sister V to be fascinating. Here was a woman who could out drink any man at the table and still recite all the prayers without missing a word or a beat. She loved Neil Diamond and when my cousins wanted entertainment, they would put him on the stereo because Sister V would immediately grab the nearest man and start dancing. She was the strictest, most disciplined person that I ever saw… but she also was the wackiest, free-spirit I ever met at the same time. She taught me that there is no real freedom without discipline, that was perhaps one of the most important lessons of my life and I live that principle as much as I possibly can. Something else she taught me is the value of being still and silent. Moments of thoughtful stillness have always played a part in my life, even as a very small child. I have always appreciated quiet, alone time. One of the habits that I cultivated over the decades is the ability to take stillness and meaningful silence with me even when moving. Part of this movement is that I look down a lot. Okay, ballet friends, you see where this is going now don’t you!??!

Looking down is not a good ballet habit. It is, in fact, a bad ballet habit and one that I get called out on all the time. I understand why, I really do. I have discovered that dancing is so much easier when I lift my gaze and therefore my head up, instead of looking down. That knowledge does not, however, fix my bad habit. Last night we were doing a fun little combination in center and as usual, I got called out for looking down, “Lorry, stop looking down… Lorry, stop looking down.. Lorry, look up…Lorry, focus right here… don’t look down… I’m going to put a hat on you.” It did get easier and,therefore, more fun when I looked up but my eyes kept pulling down toward the floor. And my awesome ballet teacher always corrects in the kindest way and I do appreciate his corrections but this is going to take a while I’m afraid, to get over this ingrained habit.

Look up, think up, go up! Look up, think up, go up! Look up, think up, go up!