The
dancers

To become a classical dancer, it takes approximately 10 years of training. Most dancers start very early on, between 4 and 8 years old, and then leave their home to train in specialized schools with flexible hours: half of the time for education, and the other half to study ballet. Once they graduated, they go to auditions to try and enter a company. Their career ends between 35 and 40 years old. Then comes the time of change: they can become a teacher, a ballet master, a choreographer or radically change their career.

Dancers’ daily routine is divided between class, rehearsals, creation work, shows and tours. At CCN-Malandain Ballet Biarritz, dancers leave on tours on average 200 days per year throughout France and the world.

Each working day always starts with a warm-up before class, an hour-and-a-half classical ballet lesson which begins with barre exercises, and then other scalable exercises such as adagio, pirouettes, small and big jumps. The goal is to prepare their bodies for the second part of the day which can consist in rehearsing a ballet from the repertoire, creating a new ballet, or staging the show before a performance.

To learn more, read Thierry Malandain's article: