Hello, Nadia. Can you tell us a little bit more about yourself and your passion for ballet dancing?
My name is Nadia Tereszkiewicz and I am French. I started dancing when I was four years old, and it seemed obvious to me that it would become more than just a hobby. I danced during all my school years at the Ecole Supérieure de Danse de Cannes Rosella Hightower. When ballet became a real passion for me, I dedicated all my time to it. It was the only way I could get better at it. It is hard to succeed, and that is how I realised later that I would probably never become a prima ballerina. However, I worked even harder to get the precision, grace and discipline that it requires. I danced for four hours a day during the week, and a lot more on holidays and weekends.
Could you tell us what a typical day in your life looks like?
7am. I wake up and get ready for dance quickly. Then I start to stretch in the studio while I listen to music with my friends (Mozart is for later, rock and pop played very loud is for now!) and when we have enough energy we even dance like we’re at a party. We know how to have fun!
9am -12pm. I have a ballet class with pointe shoes. Even if it hurts, it brings at the same time a feeling of lightness which makes ballet so special. No glass in the other’s pointe shoes, that’s a myth!
12pm -1pm. I have lunch and I need to eat a lot in order to refill my energy levels. But I do not go to McDonalds (we have to stay fit), and I prefer fruits and vegetables anyway (and chocolate of course!)
1pm – 5:30pm. I go to school and study literature, maths, history, economics, English, Italian… Well, as every teenager would. We dancers are interested in many other things too, fortunately.
6:30pm – 8pm. I go back to have another dance class, contemporary dance this time, which gives me the possibility to be free and to express myself without any formalised steps. But I’m so tired at the end that I always hope to be carried back home…
Do you sometimes wish you had a normal life, like any other teenager?
I believe it is a chance to combine dance and studies, but it demands discipline and determination, which sometimes is hard to manage. The rhythm is tiring, but I like studies as much as I like dancing, thus I realised that I could never stop one or another. I also feel like I learn better at school when I have danced for hours beforehand!
Where do you see yourself in ten years time?
As for my future, maybe my desires will change with time, but for now I wish I could be on stage in ten years time. Since I discovered the overwhelming and poetic work of Pina Bausch, I would like more and more to evolve into ‘Dance-Theatre’, which is basically combining theatre and dance, but ballet is necessary for the technique and grace. On stage, we create with our imagination a complete world with our own perception of time and space. And I believe in the power art can hold over individuals, and that’s why I want to work hard to be able to defend that power.
What do you think? Are you interested in ballet and dance? Let us know in the comments below!
