What can I say about me? Ballet is pretty much my life. I practice ballet since I was three years old and I dream about playing the main part in the Swan Lake Ballet. I just love Tchaikovsky’s music, it’s so inspirational and you can find in there the whole range of emotions. There fight love and hatred, happiness and sorrow, bravery and folly – you name it. You just close your eyes and dance. And then the whole world just disappears with the first chords of the music.

So, every morning when I get up I the first thing I do is to play some music and start my warming-up for my ballet practice even before I have drank my coffee. Well, I am supposed to drink mostly green tea, but I like coffee and I can’t actually wake up without it. Then I have a shower and usually have a light breakfast – some fruits and a couple of biscuits.

And then, the miracle begins. I dress up, I grab my leotard and my ballet shoes, I make my hair in a bun and I get out of home. I live in South Kensington but the ballet studio is a few block away and I have to walk to there. I can get the public transport, of course, but as a matter of fact, I prefer to walk.

And today, I had a practice, too. I got up early and I went to the ballet school earlier than usual, because I wanted to exercise some new steps that our teacher showed to me the day before. I left my coat and my clothes in the locker-room, and I put on my leotard and then went to the studio we usually dance in. I turned on the music system and the music starter, but I saw that one of the ribbons of my ballet shoes is not tighten well enough, so I sat on the floor to do it properly.

Imagine my shock when I found out that I have just sat with my freshly washed leotard on a non-cleaned floor. Obviously, no one from the cleaning company didn’t come here from the day before yesterday, which is just unacceptable. They are supposed to do what they have to do, and do it well.

Ballet dancers are used to dance on a perfectly scrubbed and mopped dance-floors, this is one of the things that are really important to them. Dancing is our religion. We can’t dance with dirty or dusty shoes, and that isn’t all. Sometimes you just dance and dance, and dance. And in the end, you are so tired that you have no other choice but to drop completely worn out on the floor of the ballet studio.

A studio which is not cleaned properly means not enough respect for the dancers, and they are the people who give their heart and soul for ballet, they live and breathe ballet and they have spent years and years of tiring practice just to become as good as they are. Maybe today I met the severe reality. Maybe sometimes you have to be a ballet dancer dancing on a dirty floor to understand that there isn’t only ballet and music. Sometimes you just must get your feet dirty to grow up and become a better dancer.