Bright lights beam from the top of the silk curtains, and drops of artificial snow fall from the ceiling above as senior Marissa Thompson twirls in the French ballet, The Nut Cracker.
Dancing the role of the Snow Queen, Thompson feels the rhythm of the music in her tight ballet leotard and flat, white tutu reflective of 1800s ballet history.
“I love being on stage, and there’s just magic in the air,” Thompson said. “Whenever I’m performing on stage and having my work displayed and especially whenever I have a good show, it just makes it really great.”
How she started ballet:
Thompson started performing Jazz dance when she was 11 years old. She first started seeking interest in ballet after her mom took her to her first ballet performance. Her student invited her to the Nutcracker performance and Thompson was in awe seeing ballet on stage.
“I instantly fell in love and wanted to start ballet to be like them,” Thompson said.
From sixth grade to her sophomore year of high school, Thompson grew up dancing for a New York Ballet company, a pre-professional dance company that focuses on neoclassical ballet style.
The switch from Jazz to ballet was an easy transition for Thompson, but perfecting ballet technique felt more difficult. For her, ballet was something she could always work on and improve in.
“You’re never going to be perfect, and you’re always gradually improving,” Thompson said.
As she continued dancing in her junior year, she transferred to a Russian dance company, where she was surrounded by professional dancers and coaches.
Thompson got to bond with dancers who wanted to have the same future,goals and work ethic matched hers.
At the New York company she danced for, there weren’t many people she could view as aspirations, and she wouldn’t be able to work towards getting a more professional role in ballet showcases as she would be at the Russian Ballet school.
“I feel like I got to bond with the other people my age because we were all working towards the same thing,” Thompson said. “I was also able had a lot of the company to look up to.”
For Thompson, Russian ballet is the most rigorous dance style, but the beauty of it being performed on stage surpasses the hardcore training styles.
Whenever Thompson first started ballet, it was just a hobby. But the more she trained she realized dance was more than just loving the sport.
Going to rehearsal several times a week, became hard to manage. Dancing at the Russian Ballet company and being head to toe with professional dancers required extra time after rehearsals.
After dedicating several years to dance, she decided to take a step back, not because she loved it any less, but because she realized she had an unhealthy attachment to it.
“There were times where I really just never felt good enough,” Thompson said. “There were times I didn’t love it as much, but whenever I took a step back I still loved it.”
Thompson’s amount of ballet practice required a high demand on her body. In pointe shoes, it was easy to get injured. Being on her toes and constantly contorting her body in stances like a high relavé (ballet position) allowed for no time to recover after injury.
During rehearsals, even when she was injured, she wouldn’t admit to it. Being an athlete who puts a lot of pressure on performing in the best ways, she felt like she couldn’t give up practicing even when she was hurting.
“You keep dancing and dancing until it gets to the point where you can’t dance at all,” Thompson said.
Not only was dancing physically demanding, but also mentally. Between dance rehearsals and performances, her rigorous course level throughout high school increased the amount of stress she was facing.
Thompson struggled with having time to study for AP calculus and managing dance. During one of her performances during sophomore year, the intensity of rehearsals before performances gave her no time to study after school. In the wings backstage, she studied for her algebra test the next day before performing.
Going to public school, she strived to keep her grades high and put a lot of pressure on herself to be the best she can be while dancing. Soon, however, she lost her free time due to commuting to the studio 45 minutes away from school.
Thompson followed the same schedule for her first two years of high school. She spent 35 hours a week in dance rehearsal. Each rehearsal is an hour and 45 minutes long, and on weekends she spent eight to 10 hours in the studio. After eight hours of school on the weekdays, she would spend six to seven hours in the dance studio working on technique or rehearsing for an upcoming performance.
After getting home from rehearsal, she would do homework until 10 p.m. Seeking academic validation while also maintaining focus in dance, made pressure feel a lot heavier.
“It took a lot of time out of my day,” Thompson said. “Either I was doing dance all day or I was in the library.”
In between juggling school and dance, Thompson started struggling with mental health. In ballet, she would compare herself to others, and beat herself up when she wasn’t consistent. In situations when she didn’t hit her turns correctly or felt like her variation wasn’t the best, it was difficult to stay positive.
“When I’m not having a good turning day, I just feel like the ugliest person in the world.” Thompson said.
Still, Thompson reminds herself to think of the good days she has in dance and believes not every day is going to be great at practice.
When she was looking back on old videos of herself dancing, she didn’t notice the little improvements she made, but when she compares where she is now, she realizes how far she’s come when she first started dancing.
At the end of her sophomore year, she decided to switch to doing school online through Marcus. While she was in person, she put all of her attention on either dance, or school, but finding the balance between the both was harder for her to do.
Taking online classes, Thompson was able to spend more time dancing, while still being able to take classes at a higher course level. Her amount of time in the studio increased 15 hours after switching to online classes.
Although she had a lot of benefits focusing on dance, online classes made it harder for her to learn. She struggled applying concepts to her everyday life, and found it difficult to retain information when she wasn’t being taught face to face.
“At some point, I was willing to put school on the back burner and focus all of my attention on dance,” Thompson said.
Dance is Thompson’s outlet to express herself even when she feels other areas of her life aren’t going in the right direction. Dance is her way of expressing emotion, and releasing any stress she has going on.
“I switch all my focus into dance, so it’s kind of an outlet for me,” Thompson said.
The 2023 Nutcracker performance was performed at community venues and mall theatres. Her role as the Snow Queen was an exciting moment for her dance career. The studio normally gives lead dancing roles to professional dancers, for Thompson, her to get that role made all of her work worth it.
Backstage before her nutcracker performances, Thompson talks to friends to alleviate the stress of the performance before her. Her and her friends participate in one of her favorite traditions, saying they are married in French. The few French words serve as good luck for before her performance.
“I felt very connected to the people around me,” Thompson said.
Through all of her adversity, she has found ways to be successful in her ballet career. During her junior year of high school, she won top 10 classical soloist through her dance company, and top 12 group ensemble at one of her biggest competitions.
“As a group, that meant a lot because I felt very connected as a team and worked extremely hard,” Thompson said.
As her senior year comes to an end, Thompson thinks about her future career and how dance will fit in the future. She wants to focus on studying a pre-med track in college and doing dance for fun.
A lot of qualities dance has taught her, she feels like they have given her a lot of discipline and dedication to pursue what she wants to do in the future.
