Many ballet dancers courageously pursue a career in dance against all odds,
making incredible personal sacrifices for their love of dance. Seth Belliston,
on the other hand, became a ballet dancer to avoid doing his homework.
"I realized that if I didn't dance then I would have to get serious about
school. Dance was much more entertaining and fun," he jokes.
Fun is right. Belliston, now a professional dancer in Seattle, has managed
to avoid serious study and travel the world in the process.
"I've been to Arizona, L.A., Edmonton, Calgary, Australia. I have a very
full passport."
Belliston's story is an unusual one. While many aspiring ballet dancers
relocate from a young age to dance with prestigious dance schools around America
and Europe, Belliston began his classes in an unusual location -- his basement.
"My memory of my first class is kind of vague," he says. "My mother owned
a dance school that she ran in our basement. She was always teaching. If I
was dancing around the kitchen she would be giving me corrections. It was
kind of neurotic -- her non-stop ballet."
From his early "underground" training at the Belliston Academy of Ballet,
Belliston found his way to summer school at the larger ballet schools like
the School of American Ballet.
Now, Belliston is a soloist with a ballet company. He credits his success,
in part, to his mother. He cites the fact that his sister is also a professional
ballet dancer as proof of his mother's teaching ability.
"My mom's school was very good. She insisted that we study different forms
of dance -- modern, jazz, tap."
While Belliston speaks lightly about most of his experiences as a professional
ballet dancer, he has faced his fair share of hardship. "In April [of 1996]
after spraining my ankle, my body was starting to shut down. I hurt a disk
in my back somehow."
It was the first time he had been concerned about his career. "After 15
years of training and only two years of professional dancing I thought: 'It
can't be over yet.' Luckily, it wasn't."
In contrast to Belliston's carefree attitude towards his career, Stephanie
Hutchison took her ballet seriously from the start.
"Some dancers are naturally talented. I really had to work to get where
I am," she says.
Don't be misled by Hutchison's modesty. At only five years of age, she
began her career in ballet by taking classes. She was accepted into the National
Ballet School by the age of 10.
After completing eight years in the program, Hutchison graduated in 1989.
While most teenagers were still in high school, Hutchison was already a professional
ballet dancer.
Hutchison insists sacrificing her childhood wasn't really a sacrifice at
all. "Starting so young may seem abnormal to many people, but I developed
a stronger level of independence than many kids. There is a lot of discipline
involved. While other kids were in the shopping malls, I usually danced from
about 9 in the morning to 6:45 at night.
"I guess the difference between a dancer and other kids is the discipline
and the amount of time that you spend working on your future career. Most
people discover what it is they would like to do later in life. I just knew
a little earlier."
Working towards a high school diploma combined with daily ballet rehearsals
isn't an easy way to grow up. Yet it taught Hutchison independence and the
ability to deal with a lot of pressure.
"As you're growing up, you wonder, 'Am I good enough?' There is a very
real possibility that you could spend all of those years of training and get
out of school and won't be able to find a job."
The possibility of failure was a heavy burden for Hutchison. Many ballet
dancers who dance in a company's school are invited to join the company when
they graduate. But Hutchison's hopes to dance with the National Ballet were
shattered in her final year at the school.
"Most dancers know that they're going to make it between 18 and 20, if
they are going to make it at all. In my last year in the National Ballet School,
they didn't take me into their apprenticeship."
While Hutchison's ego may have been crushed at the time, she says that
looking back things worked out for the best. In 1989, a young company picked
her up fresh out of dance school.
"We were a small company of 12 dancers. The experience gave me a chance
to grow. If I was in a large company where there are 70 dancers I might have
got lost. A large company is right for some dancers, but I don't think it
would have been right for me.
"You might start a piece and think: 'Oh God, I don't know if I can do this.'
But after rehearsing a few times, I usually think: 'I can't believe I was
having so much trouble with this.'
"The greatest challenge is overcoming your fear of failure.
If I do this 110 percent and fail, what then? But it is when you give into
the fear that you usually fail. When you give it all you've got, then you
succeed."
Now that Hutchison has found a way to conquer her fear of failure, she
feels ready to move on to the creative side of ballet. Eventually, Hutchison
wants to become involved in choreography.
As she moves onto her fourth season, Hutchison has no regrets about her
dancing career.
"I am here. I am doing it. I have a job that is great, that I love."