Ballet Teacher's Catechism

You'll practice every day until you die.
When years of sweat have dried, call it Art.
Eight en croix, thirty-two on each side.
You kids only like the easy parts.

When years of sweat have dried, call it Art,
glittering threads whose weft you never see.
You kids only like the easy part.
You don't understand the work behind simplicity.

Glittering threads whose weft you never see,
beauty is woven on a loom of pain.
You don’t understand the work behind simplicity.
The dancer needs to have a one-pointed brain.

Beauty is woven on a loom of pain.
Only repetition can make a movement pleasing.
The dancer needs to have a one-pointed brain
to train sinew and bone past habit and reason.

Only repetition can make a movement pleasing.
Eight en croix, thirty-two on each side.
To train sinew and bone past habit and reason
you'll practice every day until you die.

© Rachel Dacus

from Femme au chapeau, David Robert Books, 2005