Ballet Beautiful

Yekaterina Kondaurova, rehearsal photograph, Mariinsky Theatre

photo: Gene Schiavone

via:primaballerina8

Olga Esina as Odile-Odette in Swan Lake

photo: Gene Schiavone

via:loverussianballet

Lucia Lacarra and Marlon Dino

via:balletomaneassoluta

(via) marie duval

Fouetté a l’italienne

Source: dance-untilyoudie

Manon by The Royal Ballet

via:obsessivedancingdisorder.tumblr

via:primaballerina83.tumblr

Svetlana Zakharova in Giselle

via:photosfordancers

Source: ryanishka

Isabelle Ciaravola

via:obsessivedancingdisorder.tumblr

via:obsessivedancingdisorder.tumblr

photo: Gene Schiavone, Mariinsky

Svetlana Zakharova

via:ballet-every-day.tumblr

Olga Malinovskaya

via:obsessivedancingdisorder.tumblr

“But he had never seen Myrna in practice...never that close up. He had been impressed and a little frightened by the contrast between seeing ballet on stage, where everyone seemed to either glide or mince effortlessly on the tips of their pointes. and seeing it from less than five feet away, with harsh daylight pouring in the floor-to-ceiling windows and no music- only the choreographer rythmically clapping his hands and yelling harsh criticisms. No praise, only criticisms. Their faces ran with sweat. Their leotards were wet with sweat. The room, as large and airy as it way, stank of sweat. Sleek muscles trembled and fluttered on the nervous edge of exhaustion. Corded tendons stood out like insulated cables. Throbbing veins popped out on foreheads and necks. 

Except for the choreographer's clapping and angry, hectoring shouts, the only sounds were the thrup-thud of ballet dancers on pointe moving across the floor and harsh, agonized panting for breath. Jack had suddenly realized that these dancers were not just earning a living, they were killing themselves. Most of all he remembered their expressions- all that exhausted concentration, all that pain... but transcending the pain, or at least creeping around its edges, he had seen joy. Joy was unmistakably what that look was, and it scared Jack because it had seemed inexplicable.” 

― Stephen King, The Talisman

via:goodreads.com