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Claire Lee took her first ballet lesson as an 11-year-old and trained as a competitive gymnast for seven years. She joined Terminus Modern Ballet Theatre’s professional training program in 2019 and is thrilled to be in her first season with the company’s Protégé Program.
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I’m a different artist today than I was in March of 2020 [when the pandemic hit]. I’ve come to realize that perfectionism was holding me back and I doubt I’d have realized this had I not gone through quarantine. The isolation gave me an opportunity to work out dance improvisation in the comforts of my room. I realized that loosening my body and letting go doesn’t mean a loss of technique. As a ballerina, you may have the perfect body, perfect lines and perfect turns. But if you can’t express yourself freely, what’s the point of dancing?
Now, when I dance, I’m eager to create a story and imbue each step with meaning. I’ve released former notions of perfection in favor of striving for artistic expression: pushing myself beyond imagined limits, allowing my mind to wander and exploring every part of my being with an open mind. My experience as a dancer has taught me that my unapologetic, imperfect self dances not to seek approval from others, but to dance for myself and the people I love and inspire. I dance to make others feel how I feel when I move to the music. I want them to dance with me and find their own artistry, just like I found mine.
Though it was hard to switch to virtual classes for the first few months of quarantine, staying motivated to dance was never a challenge. I was motivated by my teachers’ consistency and perseverance in their commitment to their students. I learned to hone in on what I wanted to focus on — whether working on a particular turn or movement. I enjoyed going at my own pace. And getting to take online classes from other companies, including the Dutch National Ballet, was an unexpected benefit of training throughout the pandemic.
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Gail O’Neill is an ArtsATL editor-at-large. She hosts and coproduces Collective Knowledge a conversational series that’s broadcast on THEa Network, and frequently moderates author talks for the Atlanta History Center.
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