People are stunned after ballerina shares the rules dancers strictly need to follow

Ballet is quite a well-known dance form, popular for its glamor, grace and effort. However, it is no secret that stunning on-pointe performances take much more than just talent and hard work. A professional ballerina, Olivia–who goes by @liveonpointe_ on TikTok–shared just how much it takes to become a ballerina who enchants the world with their performances. A little hint: it is much harder than people outside the ballet world could have imagined.

Olivia shared a list of things about ballet that would shock people with regular jobs. She shared rules like "No talking." The woman explained, "No talking in class, no talking in rehearsal, no talking when a rehearsal director is talking or an artistic director." She added that it is considered disrespectful and the person is bound to get penalized. The second rule was, "No leaning on the bar or sitting down. No sitting down unless you are doing an exercise or stretching during class or rehearsal." Also, it is considered quite disrespectful because they "have to be present and not look lazy."

Other things that Olivia shared highlighted the nitty gritty of ballet, reflecting how passionately one has to learn and practice. She shared, "Dancers literally dance on broken bones, raw skin, bleeding toes, no toenails, bruised toenails, more things that I can count on my hands." She added that ballet dancers are both psychotic and a little bit masochistic. "We could be in excruciating pain and you wouldn't know." The ballerina also debunked a myth about ballet dancers not being good at school or learning things. "We have five different ballets and five different choreographies going on in our brain almost all the time. That's a lot of choreography."

Another thing that Olivia points out is the low pay ballet dancers earn. "A rookie in the NFL earns $750,000 in their first year of contract. Most entry-level company positions are not paid." Next, she talked about ballet fashion or ballet core, which is quite trendy. "It's all very dainty and pink and cute. But in reality, the more you look homeless, the more you are participating in ballet core," the dancer revealed. "If you're wearing ripped-up tights as a shirt, you got it, girl," she added.

Olivia discussed how expensive everything is, which they use to practice ballet. One would need leotard tights, skirts, leg warmers, pointe shoes and ballet shoes. "Pointe shoes by themselves are $100 and a leotard is another $75. It really adds up and we don't get paid that much." To explain how competitive the field is, the dancer shared how only 3 percent of dancers can make ballet a profession. 

Both dancers and non-dancers took to the comments to talk about what Olivia revealed. @mostlyfuntionalmom commented, "My dance teacher always said, 'Ballet is the art of making the human body do things it's not supposed to do.'" @onwingsofwords commented, "I did ballet for 15 years and everyone at work is like, 'You know if you're tired, you can sit down right?' and I'm like, 'No, it's disrespectful.'" @nejmalj remarked, "It's actually pretty well known that ballet is extremely hard both physically and mentally. Not to mention the constant abuse and poor work conditions."

You can follow Olivia (@livonpointe_) on TikTok for more ballet videos.