BLOOD-STAINED SATIN

To be a ballerina is to strive for perfection, to be beautiful. But this beauty is haunted by tragedy both on and off the stage. On stage, the ballerina is thought to be an ethereal, pure, and fragile being. Maidens and princesses in search of love and dying of broken hearts. Images of traditional femininity. Hidden backstage is the fierce technicality and strenuous physical and psychological training needed to achieve such an image.