Personal Essay: A Career As A Ballet Dancer

Ballet has always been near and dear to my heart, so much so that I took a year off from high school to pursue it on a professional level. During my year away I came to the firm conclusion that there was far more in life I cared to pursue then the four-mirrored walls I had come to know as home. I was lucky enough to find an amazing high school with a specialized “pre-med” program, the director with whom I have come to know far more as a mentor than as a teacher. Dr. Carlos Pulido is one of the wisest men I have met to date, a retired chief of surgery and certified army trauma surgeon, he is a remarkable example of all I hope to achieve in my life.

It was one specifically vivid and intriguing conversation I remember with him about operations to help kids with Clef Palate in under developed countries. I found it so admirable, the ability to make that kind of clear, tangible difference in the quality of a person’s life. Working with and researching for SIRE I feel would be a …show more content…
Pulido to incorporate both my interests in a project regarding the dexterity, and inevitably differences, between male and female ballet dancers while turning. After all these years it never ceases to amaze me how much, and how fast, a classically trained male ballet dancer can turn. It then came to my attention, in my physics class no less, that women, who generally have smaller frames and thus smaller radii and pivot points, should in fact turn more. Let me tell you, this never happens. Dr. Pulido and I set forth to explain this seeming phenomenon. After much research, many trial runs and a group of exceedingly talented and interested ballet friends and teachers we reached a conclusion. Though female dancers are, for the most part, smaller than their male counterparts, the natural curves of a women’s body precludes the air from whipping around her as quickly while she turns. This results in far slower and significantly less aerodynamic