She fell in love with ballet at the age of two or three, after her mother took her to the theater. At four and a half she was not accepted into a dance club: she was too small, she needed to grow up. But Nadezhda Dmitrieva still became a ballerina. For 17 years now, her life has been divided between home and the stage of the Maria Biesu Opera and Ballet Theater. At the National College of Choreography she combined dance with algebra and history. She made her debut on the big stage in the ballet Don Quixote.
A pair of high-quality pointe shoes costs about 5 thousand lei – the theater gives one or two pairs a year, the ballerinas buy the rest themselves. On the day of the performance, Nadezhda does not eat in the morning: coffee and a sandwich at 10 o’clock, the next meal is after the performance. It hurts and gets tired, but after the rehearsal it’s home and homework, then homework with the children. But the smile of the husband and child changes everything. The most special scene for her is in Chisinau.
“I said I would become a ballerina”
Nadezhda hardly remembers the moment when she decided to become a ballerina – but she knows about it from her mother’s stories.
“I was very small, very, very small. From the age of two or three, my mother told me so. My mother is a teacher, she went to theaters, concerts and, of course, took me with her. And one day, leaving the Opera and Ballet Theater after a performance, my mother no longer remembers which one, I, although I was not yet three years old, said that I would become a ballerina. Mom laughed: ha ha, yes…”
She also remembers her first steps in this world – down to the details.
“At four and a half years old, my mother found a dance club, a studio, and took me there. But the teacher didn’t want to take me because I was too small. She said that you need to grow up, up to five years…
I was wearing a white short sleeve bodysuit, white tights, and had two large bows. Mom always braided my hair and I wore these big bows.”
Ballet and algebra
What ballet really is, she understood later – already at the National College of Choreography in Chisinau. There, classical dance does not replace the regular school curriculum – and vice versa.
“In addition to ballet, we have other disciplines: duet dance, folk dance, historical. Everything is connected with dance. But at the same time, there are also general education subjects: algebra, Romanian language, history, and so on.”
Strict teacher and first exit
In the theater she was shaped not only by roles, but also by people. One of these was teacher Tamara Padarueva, a representative of the Perm ballet school.
“She somehow… I don’t know… was next to me, one might say, not from the first day, but from the first month. She was very strict with me. Even if I felt that she treated me well, I received more from her than others.”
Strictness is part of the profession. As well as the understanding that what matters on stage is not everything at once, but the fact that they trust you.
“The Dream from the ballet Don Quixote was my first appearance on stage. There are other acts there, with different dances, but I didn’t dance them. And I remember wondering why. Then I realized that this is the priority, that I am a ballerina in a tutu.”
How much does lightness cost?
Behind the ease that the viewer sees on stage, there is also a rather prosaic side – expenses.
A pair of high-quality pointe shoes can cost about 5 thousand lei – and this is only part of the cost.
“The theater gives us one pair of pointe shoes, maximum two per season, that is, per year. But we need more. Now there are American pointe shoes, they are more durable.
The costumes we wear on stage are not ours. The theater sews them.
But for rehearsals – skirts, shorts, pants. Girls love different things: a top like this, shorts like this, a skirt like this, a bodysuit like this, blue… just like girls.”
Diet according to the performance schedule
Another important element is nutrition. It is also subject to the stage and performance schedule.
“For me, on the day of a performance, if I have a performance at 6:00 p.m., I eat something at 10:00 a.m. Coffee and sandwich. And I don’t eat anything else. During the day I eat the same things as everyone else. It’s just that the portions are different, so for some people what I eat at one time is very little, but for me it’s quite enough.”
Behind the scenes: makeup and rituals
Before going on stage, have your own ritual. Makeup, hairstyle, preparation. And although there are specialists in the theater, ballerinas do a lot themselves.
“We have special masters. If the makeup is special, for example, I dance the Oriental doll in “The Nutcracker,” then they help me. But in general, we do the makeup ourselves, and they help with the hair.”
“It hurts – it doesn’t hurt, you go out and work”
The audience’s applause is always the end of a long and not always noticeable journey.
“Sometimes it’s not only pain, but also mood, emotional experiences, problems, but strength of character is trained and developed thanks to our teachers in college – that’s what happened to me. It hurts, it doesn’t hurt, there are problems, there are no problems – you left them at the door, entered the hall, honestly worked with all your heart and left with that attitude.”
House after scene
Outside the stage there is ordinary life, which also requires strength.
“Physical activity, you get very tired, you have to work a lot during rehearsals. After the rehearsal, you need to go home and do household chores, and this is also difficult and not easy. After that, you need to go and teach children, playing the role of a teacher. It takes a lot of energy, but when you enter the house and see your husband or child smile, everything goes away.”
For almost 20 years in the profession and performing on stages in Europe, she has had many roles and cities. But the most important scene for Nadezhda remains the scene from which it all began – in Chisinau.
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