One day Maia got a call from a Wall Street Journal reporter, Emily Steel, asking about her experience as a young dancer. The article, On Their Toes and Asking for Trouble, Self-Taught Ballerinas Go Online, was about how some young women were learning how to dance in Pointe shoes via You Tube. Maia shared with Ms. Steel that she wasn’t able to even consider point shoes without several years of experience, her teachers feeling she was ready physically and that she had the basic skills necessary. Maia was quoted in the article:
Young dancers usually don’t start putting on toe shoes until the age of 11 or 12. And even when children are ready for toe shoes, they often suffer through lessons with bloody, blistered toes. “My toes are always sore,” says 12-year-old Maia Charanis, who dances four days a week with the Dancer’s Studio/Backstage in Alpharetta, Ga.
The bottom line, Maia was committed then and she is today – Ballet is not for everyone, only the committed and passionate about the discipline of dancing in this fine art. Something you can’t learn via a Youtube Video.
