Ballet dancing

Today the director I am working with described to the cast how as a young boy he used to go to be sneaked into the Royal Opera House by his father who was working there - he got to see a lot of rehearsals.

One day, he was placed backstage for a ballet rehearsal: he saw the dancers perform beautifully, effortlessly pirouetting from one side of the stage to the other.... gracefully leaving the stage...then arrive in the wing breathless, swearing in their effort to catch their breath again.... they would then put a smile back on their face as the time came for them to 'effortlessly' jump and pirouette into the stage again...

He compared it with acting: like these dancers, you should give everything you have. You should give your mental and physical strength, and your soul to the audience - and come offstage exhausted without a single breath of air left in your body. Because it is too easy for the audience to drift off if we ourselves are not working our hardest to convey some emotion to them.