In the last five years, Emperor Marcus Aurelius has been a constant in my life, a role model, impossible to emulate, but always a good Sage by my side.
I know he has been dead for a little while, at least 1845 years, to be accurate.
Information about him could be incomplete, biased, or subject to interpretation. Still, something sure about him is that when he was emperor of Rome, he was the most powerful human being in the world.
In his Meditations (a personal private diary that was not intended to be public), he starts the book by expressing gratitude to all the people who positively impacted his life.
That made me wonder if the most powerful person on the planet, someone that could feel like a god on earth, felt the need to express his gratitude to his mentors and family in a private diary, acknowledging that he would not be the person he was without their influence. It must be that gratitude is an essential trait we humans have, and we should practice it more often.
Representation of Marcus and my dear fox friend created by AI DALL.E 2
In reflecting upon my journey as a dancer, if I started to make a list of all the people I feel grateful to, it would be a very long list starting with my family. This time, I write about some of the professionals that work tirelessly behind the curtain and whose contributions help not only the show’s result but also the well-being of us dancers. I feel immensely fortunate to have shared my last nine years as a dancer with them.
Their names are Tommaso, Gregor, Jessica, and Susi.
Dancers and physiotherapists are bound together like two sides of a coin; the shared goal of maintaining the dancer’s physical health and the level of trust and collaboration we create through the years have an infinite value.
In Ballet Basel, we are lucky to have a physiotherapist almost at all times with us, his name is Tommaso Pennacchio, and he is like a big brother to us all, not giving only physical support but many times also mental and moral. Unfortunately, not all ballet companies have this possibility, and it definitely should be a must, a top priority.
I cannot overstate the importance of their role in a dancer’s life. In my case, I have a body prone to getting injured more often than I would like to admit; thus, without Tommaso in Basel, Pilar in Valencia, and Luis in Madrid, I would not have had a career of 20 years. I owe them big time.
Thank you Tom, and all the physiotherapist that helped me to get all the way here.
Sometimes injuries go south, and even with prevention work, they are unavoidable; that is when we need a doctor and sometimes a surgeon. The problem is that it can be challenging to find a doctor that treats you (manually), advises you, and understands that sometimes, what we do as dancers is so meaningful to us that we feel like stopping for two weeks is not an option.
In Basel, I met Dr. Gregor Deitmer, who, during these nine years, gave me support at all times; working with him for me was great because of his genuine interest in understanding my needs.
I had to go through surgery because of a knee injury, and my goal was to at least dance for two years more after it was done; at that moment, with the amount of pain I had, I couldn’t imagine dancing for long.
Thanks to Gregor, I extended those two years to seven more joyful seasons! Dancing not totally free of pain (I don’t know if that exists) but happy and with the feeling of having great people around taking care of me.
Thank you Gregor.
Talking about people taking care of us, I must mention Jessica Kube and her costume team. She is always making sure that we find our costumes in a perfect state and takes care of the logistics for quick costume changes to be practical and comfortable, among many other things.
To take these photos, I followed her for a couple of hours, and I can tell you it wasn't easy to keep her pace. She is fast, preparing three productions simultaneously, ironing for a show in two days, taking care of the laundry from the evening before, and moving costumes around, up and down. I was exhausted just from looking, but she was committed to her task admirably.
I am always amazed by the level of attention to detail that Jessy puts in her job, labeling even our socks and organizing chairs next to the stage with a towel for us to clean our sweat. A good anecdote about her is that once, not long ago, I was feeling a bit sick, and I found my chair like six meters away from the rest of my colleagues! So basically, she put me in a “side stage quarantine” If that is not thinking of everything and the well-being of everyone, I don’t know what it is. It is just beautiful and inspiring to work with people who love their job and don’t stop in what they “have” to do but are always looking for ways of being helpful and kind.
Thank you Jessy and team for all your effort and everything you do for us.
And if I say the word kind, it brings me to Susi, our favorite makeup artist in the house!
She is such a professional, passionate about her craft, creative, with patience without limits, and the proof is her work making wigs by hand, hair by hair. I asked her once how long it takes to make a wig, and my jaw dropped when I heard from 40-60 hours, depending on head size, length, and thickness.
I rarely have to do makeup, and my hair often needs some work before the show. Still, even on days when I don’t have to do anything, I always have to stop by her workshop either to get candy (she puts candy for us every single day) or to get a bit of the good vibe that is always around her.
Thank you Susi for always giving me positive vibes.
These professionals create a safety net of support that binds dancers and the art form together. They are special to me and the whole ensemble, and we should acknowledge the importance of their roles in this industry. They are a silent part of our success, and since the audience cannot cherish them on the stage, our duty as dancers and colleagues is to be as Marcus was in his meditations, grateful, forever grateful.