Narrator: 0:10

Welcome to the athletes in motion podcast from race to recovery. With your hosts, Tom regal and Kenny Bailey.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 0:29

Hey, Tom, how are you?

Tom Regal: 0:30

Hey Kenny! I'm great. How are you?

Kenny Bailey<br>: 0:32

I'm doing fantastic. I would like to introduce you to Emily Bailey.

Tom Regal: 0:36

Welcome.

Emily Bailey: 0:36

Thank you so much for having me.

Tom Regal: 0:38

Great. Great to have you here.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 0:39

Emily is a ballet dancer from the Nashville Ballet second company. It's your first year here. Congratulations.

Emily Bailey: 0:46

Thank you so much.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 0:46

Welcome to Nashville.

Emily Bailey: 0:47

Thank you.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 0:48

I understand you just finished with Nutcracker. And that was probably crazy. Bonkers. Crazy. So how are you feeling about that? How did that? How long does Nutcracker generally go? And how long do you generally practice for that?

Emily Bailey: 1:00

So that was a marathon of anything. We started rehearsals for that in October. And then it just progressively got more intense. Starting with just learning most of the quarter ballet pieces, which all is all of the group pieces, which takes the most time in terms of rehearsing because it's getting the group of 12 Eight people to be the exact same perfect choreography every time totally locked in. Yeah. And we had about forecasts of that which alternated between different girls for each group piece. And then from there, worked on the solos worked on character stuff, and it was a whole thing and we start in studio, then we transition towards working in costume in studio. And then we move over to t PAC Tennessee Performing Arts Center, get everything there we have a whole youth cast that is wrangling all the children ready to be on stage, which is a lengthy process, but it's an exciting experience for them.

Tom Regal: 2:05

How many hours a day is that? What does that look like? Is that a 1214? hour day?

Emily Bailey: 2:10

That's like, yeah, yeah, from start to finish. Normally, we would be in by we would start class at like 1145. And then finish at like 10, six days a week, seven days a week, kind of alternated. It was a three week situation of shows. We had 14 shows,

Tom Regal: 2:29

shows. That's just the Getting Started

Emily Bailey: 2:33

getting started. And then in December, we had two weeks of shows the first week was mostly like one show a day. And then the weekends were like Friday, Saturday, Sunday with two shows a day. And then that following week leading up to Christmas, we performed until Christmas Eve it was two shows every day. So it was

Kenny Bailey<br>: 2:52

Yeah, very good. Are you are you tasked to be in every one of those shows, then?

Emily Bailey: 2:56

Yes. So I unfortunately, one of the girls that I dance with got injured. So I ended up having to do a lot more shows than I expected. So it was very physically taxing. But I had about seven roles total. Choreography remember a lot of characters to remember. But yeah, it was it was really, really fun. And one of probably one of my best Nutcracker experiences I've ever had. Oh my god. Yeah, right. Yeah,

Kenny Bailey<br>: 3:21

do you? Is it? Is it the second show kind of better than the first one because you warmed up on the first one or the second one? You're just trying to figure out how to just get this thing done. I

Emily Bailey: 3:33

feel like for me every show, is it new. It feels fresh. Obviously at that point, you have all the choreography in your muscles. Yeah. So you can start to have more fun with being able to perform it. And especially if it's an a character role, you can start to get more excited about the faces and like generally into it at that. Yeah, and especially after the last two years of not having a live audience. Oh yeah. In front of a camera and just sending it out to the donors and everyone. Yeah, it was really nice to have feedback if you like came on stage. There was actually like a reaction a gasp or a clap or some something that was you can react to right? Yeah. Especially on like that last show. It's like 830 at night and you're just dying to hear like one cheer or something.

Tom Regal: 4:21

For a reason. Yeah.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 4:24

So you've been doing this since you've been dancing your whole life is that? Yeah. Did you really start?

Emily Bailey: 4:29

I started when I was six years old. My mom, I guess it was kind of the traditional. Let's put her in ballet. I did ballet when I was young. Let's Yeah, yeah. So thrower and she put me and my sister in. And my sister hated it. Not her thing. And I actually really didn't like it either. But my mom was like to stick with it. There's there's something there. So I complained about it for three years and then I joined cobalt, which is the contemporary ballet of Pennsylvania. Yeah, when I was nine during their youth cast to perform Nutcracker and that was when it just like instantly clicked and I was like, This is it. This is what I love. Nice. I'm diving head in, which is like a lot for a nine year old to decide.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 5:14

Yeah, so at nine, I mean, you did you go through like, you know, high school years thinking, you know, I'm gonna go be a veterinarian instead or was it like this is it this is my life it was.

Emily Bailey: 5:25

It was a snap decision of I fell in love with it. And I didn't look back since I had like, a lot of people have like moments of doubt. Yeah, maybe I should go to college. Maybe I should do this, because that isn't a traditional path. And obviously that is nerve racking for parents that have been told, have a college degree you need to be successful. dot.so springing that on my parents have I'm doing this and I'm gonna audition for all these places and see what happens. It was like, Oh, my God.

Tom Regal: 5:57

What happens mom? Careful what you wish she wanted to know he was

Kenny Bailey<br>: 6:05

going to Italy. You're not? Yeah. So did you start going to the valley schools then? Or do you just are they companies? Or how does that work? I guess. Yeah. So how do you balance that sort of passion? Oh, nine? Not really.

Emily Bailey: 6:22

Yeah, so at that point, that was when it kind of clicked of like, okay, I really want to do this, I'm gonna take this seriously. And then that sort of progression of starting to move towards more professional lism starts, probably about age 13. There are these things called summer intensives, which are exactly what they sound like. It's over summer, and you go, you travel to a certain city that has like a pretty big ballet company, and you train like hell for five to six weeks. And those auditions happen from like January to March. It's a really big ordeal. I remember in high school every weekend traveling with my dad, I'd go to high school because I went to public high school, which is seven to two every day. Yeah. And then dance from two to nine every night. Okay. And then the weekends, my dad and I, we would travel. I'm originally from Lancaster, Pennsylvania. So we would travel to Philly, DC, Baltimore, New York, every weekend audition, doing like two or three auditions every weekend. And then back and going to school on Monday morning.

Tom Regal: 7:25

So yeah, and having to keep the grades up. Yes. On top of that,

Emily Bailey: 7:29

which thankfully worked out in my favor, but yeah,

Kenny Bailey<br>: 7:32

yeah. So I don't think I think Tom and I and I, if I'm speaking for you, Tom, I apologize. I don't know if you know the depth of belay or not. Okay. I'm assuming Yes. On that one. Yeah. All right. Yeah, sure. So Right. Are there this is gonna be dumb question time. So are there are there different emphasis emphasize on ballet? Like, I'm trying to equate it to football, which is terrible, terrible analogy. Like, are there certain or cheerleading, right? There's tumblers. There's yeah, there's, you know, a top of the pyramid kind of thing. Are there different? For lack of a better term positions in ballet? I mean, is there one that you focus on? Or how does that work? Sort of? Yeah, my asking the right question, I hope

Emily Bailey: 8:14

kinda okay. Yeah, I think um, with ballet, you kind of have to be a base level of like, pretty good, yet everything. There are obviously things that everyone has like is their niche. For me. I really love jumping. It's a big thing in ballet. I was trained in a studio that really focused on being more of like a all round dancer versus fitting into a certain box. So there's different training types. There's Raghava technique, which is very Russian oriented Balanchine, which is like American Ballet. New York City Ballet in New York City is George Balanchine's company.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 8:56

So how are those different is it more Russian is more traditional sort of movements and then American I'm

Emily Bailey: 9:01

Yeah, so Vaganova ballet is kind of like what you I feel like what most typical people think of when they think of ballet. It's the very strict like, angry. Do you have to do this? Yeah, there's no joy.

Tom Regal: 9:20

Okay. Yes, that's Yeah.

Emily Bailey: 9:26

To be fair, there is still that in all ballet. And George Balanchine was a choreographer that in the 1900s really kind of just broke that barrier. And it became more I think, at least from my perspective, audience oriented of this is for people that want to go and see a show. That's exciting. So it wasn't as technique focused, it wasn't as perfection. In ballet focused, it was more about what you're actually seeing. Sure. Which, personally is my favorite kind of choreography. But yeah, so I think it was more audience pleasing, and especially in that era of change in America, it was exciting to see.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 10:09

So when you're so you're in Pennsylvania, and you and your dad are traveling around, is it whatever's available? Or do you try to look for different dance groups that have something that that more plays to your strengths?

Emily Bailey: 10:22

Pretty much second. Yeah. Um, when I was younger, it was pretty much just scoping out what I was looking for. I grew up in a really small studio, which I think had benefits and downfalls. I had a lot of like hands on attention, which you don't get in a group of

Tom Regal: 10:41

get more of a private lesson. Exactly. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, kinda

Emily Bailey: 10:45

cool. But it was also a very smaller perspective of that. So traveling to these places, and kind of having to figure out okay, I hated this audition class, who I fell in love with this was kind of a learning curve from 13 to 17. Yeah. And going to summer intensives. And figuring all that out. was weird.

Tom Regal: 11:11

Yeah, that's as a as a teenager going through that. Trying to figure all that stuff out. That's pretty impressive. Yeah, we're actually able to drive yourself through that. And it's for doing schoolwork and auditions and craziness is.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 11:31

Hilarious. Yeah. When you showed up to some of these places, I mean, you're coming from a smaller ballet company, right? When you went to DC or Chicago? Was there an intimidation factor of like, oh, my gosh, these are really good people? Or is that something that you felt like you were on par? Because your technique was similar? I guess.

Emily Bailey: 11:50

I think it was kind of a mix of both from ages like 13 to 15. It was more of a. Okay, this is what my competition is. I got to step it up a little bit. Yeah. But once I hit 1516, I kind of started to find my groove a little bit and be like, Okay, this is pretty good. Like, yeah, I'm pretty much up I can, I can, like, kind of fit in here and hang with them. Yeah, yeah. My first I actually grew up doing ballet and modern, pretty equally, which is not super common. I kind of made that switch in like sophomore year, my freshman year of high school of I want to really just do ballet. But as much as I just wanted to ballet, I really appreciate that. I grew up with a modern background, because especially here in Nashville, there's a lot of contemporary ballet work that comes in and different choreographers that throw stuff at you. And you're like, what was that? What just moved? What is happening right now? Yeah, yeah. But I think that background gave me a little bit more of a grasp on being able to pick up little nuances and things that with ballet, because it's so strict and working in millimeters. And like, even if like your fingers wrong, correct that like yeah, versus being able to find a little bit more freedom and not look like a ballet dancer when you're trying to do other movements, which is still hard when you do ballet all day, every day. But it's able, it's like deep within so I can pull it out when I need to.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 13:19

So when you you have choreographers that we kind of talked before yeah, there's each one's going to put a thumbprint on sort of even Nutcracker, for example, there's going to be a different choreographer that wants to make it different from the previous person, right? Or they want to be able to do it on their way. Is there certain types of choreographers you tend to gravitate towards versus other types of choreographers? Or is there, like you said, a little bit more modern, a little less, completely structured?

Emily Bailey: 13:44

I think one of the things that drew me to Nashville specifically was Paul van Sterling. He's the artistic director for the company. He his movement style is very musical based. And I grew up playing the cello. Which

Kenny Bailey<br>: 14:01

Oh, hold on, so yeah. Okay, so public school, just I play the cello do modern dance and ballet. Yeah. And were you splitting genomes, but anything else? Right?

Emily Bailey: 14:15

My grades weren't quite that good. Because they were close. No. Um, but

Kenny Bailey<br>: 14:22

she needed to fall back. So cello she thought like most people fall back.

Emily Bailey: 14:26

Yeah. Classical music. Yeah. Um, doesn't require any time at all. Oh, but yeah, so I think that gave me a really huge appreciation into music and learning a little bit about music theory. Obviously, I was pretty young, so it wasn't as depth as it could be. But it made me a very musicality based dancer. So when I started learning some of his choreography that like when I came for the Summer Intensive at Nashville, and being able to kind of see like, Oh, this is just feels right in my body versus going other places and being like, this feels really weird. I can't figure out the counts for this and everything just feels like uncomfortable. This like a lot of his choreography just feels innate for me. So that was one thing that really pulled me towards Nashville.

Tom Regal: 15:17

And it's like a conductor. Yeah. For the for the symphony, same thing where they're, they're stylizing that piece and working with you work with composers you like and composer you don't like exactly conductor? Exactly. The same sound. So yeah, I could see where that would translate across. But yeah, pretty easily. So yeah.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 15:35

So let's talk about sort of your you're in Nashville now. You talk about sort of, you know, up at, you know, there by 11. there till 10. So, what does a typical day look like? I mean, clearly, it's hard to check.

Emily Bailey: 15:50

But yeah,

Kenny Bailey<br>: 15:50

what is the what that makes it difficult? Is it just physically demanding? I mean, how does that how does that day look?

Emily Bailey: 15:57

Yeah, so that that 11 to 10 is normally like performance schedule. Our typical Monday through Friday schedule is we have a almost two hour technique class in the mornings, like an hour 45. Which is pretty much just to like warm up for the day, maintain the technique you've built as a student. And also keep working on the things that can always be better because yeah, yeah, the finger finger finger. Um, because really, there's no end to how good you can be in ballet, which is one thing that I really clicked for me, I think once I once I got not turned nine, and I was like, let's do this. Um, was there's no end to really what you can do. So every day you can strive for a little bit more, and well figure out that felt weird yesterday, how can I make adjustments to really working on

Tom Regal: 16:52

fundamental spending a lot of time exactly going over those fundamentals?

Emily Bailey: 16:56

Yeah. So then you have that base to work off of. So when you do get a choreographer that comes in is like, can we throw in this crazy thing when you're supposed to traditionally be doing this? It's like, okay, I have the strength muscle memory that I can do that. And then also, like, let my head fault completely backwards or close my eyes and not be able to see anything and have that body trust, like body mind connection that you can figure that out without falling on your ass? Yeah, yeah.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 17:25

So that brings me to the kind of injury I guess you mentioned, before that you were you were doing more shows because of an injury. How prevalent are our injuries? Is it is it something you deal with every day? And it's always something that's either, you know, tweaked, or is it? How does that world look like?

Emily Bailey: 17:45

Yeah, so I think it sounds horrible, but there hasn't been a day that I've woken up without paying.

Tom Regal: 17:53

A professional so yeah, I think that

Emily Bailey: 17:56

a lot of people can connect with that. But I think it's really hard to figure out glein of what's a pain to work through and what's a pain stop. Yeah, because a lot of say like, a lot of people say pain is weakness, leaving the body but I'm more it's just pain. Or it's just pain. Yeah, I feel like soreness is weakness leaving the body. Yeah,

Tom Regal: 18:16

but yeah, and there's a lot of people that that cross that pain. What is pain? Right? Pain, sharp, acute pain is not good. Yeah. But people also I think, equate to your point soreness as pain. And it's not it's not Yeah, needs to be differentiated. Because that's it's a huge thing. Like, yeah, you wake up with well, we're getting old. So we wake up with soreness every day. Yeah, that's just part of it. But we're also athletes, we also move around and do a lot so but there's no acute pain. And we have that. And that's a problem. Yeah, same thing I would imagine for you. Yeah,

Emily Bailey: 18:46

exactly. And I feel like once you get in, I normally get in like an hour before class starts. So I can actually have time to warm up and like, kind of figure out okay, what, what do I need to do to facilitate? Is this muscle tight? What do I need to roll out? Is this thing not feeling right? What do I need to engage

Tom Regal: 19:03

on? Mobility is key. Exactly. So what's your mobility routine? Like? What What would you do in that hour before your warm up?

Emily Bailey: 19:10

So I start almost every single day with some sort of yoga flow. That's been one thing that has, I've started that during quarantine and I've done it every day since June 1 2020. And that was like a huge change in general, for mental health, physical health. It's really just helped me grow in a lot of ways and I'm incredibly grateful for that journey then keeps going on. Yeah. And that kind of is like my initial start of like, okay, let's get the body moving, blood flowing. And then assess. What do I need to do if my foot hurting? What theraband exercises can I do? We do a lot obviously, our feet are part of our life. Yeah, and we're strapped into progress. Little blocks of wood every day. Yeah. Um, and on our toes. So taking care of oh, do I have this like blister that I need to wrap and be careful Before I start or what, what's stiff and working through that, and doing some stability exercises, a lot of core work is involved. So normally do like five to 10 minute core workout before. And just get everything like stacked up for the day. When you're like, your ear, you aren't.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 20:23

So what's the what's the most common types of injuries and are they generally ankle injuries are

Emily Bailey: 20:27

usually a lot of foot injuries. Surprisingly, not just foot injuries. I think a lot of people just expect since you're on our toes that our toes are broken all the time, but really broken toes very rare. A lot of ankle injuries, a lot of hip injuries, back injuries and then for a lot of men do do like all the lifting and stuff like that shoulder injuries are really, really common. Yeah. I would say primarily, from just experience and like being around people, most of the things that hit hurt most of the time are hips, hips, I

Tom Regal: 21:02

can say yeah, kind of makes sense on the hips, right? Because

Kenny Bailey<br>: 21:05

you're driving from there. You're leaving from there, right?

Tom Regal: 21:08

You're not lifting properly if you're not in that proper position. Yeah, I could see him tweeting out. Yeah, hang tight.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 21:16

And then of course, I think we were joking around, like, you know, you get three almonds on a piece of lettuce. What is the typical everyone thinks ballets? Like you know, I get tea? Yeah. And then I get a smell. Yeah. I think I get a smell meat later. But I mean, I think there's two sides means thinking, Well, you have to obviously have to maintain a river of your own body. So yeah, and it's fuel at that point. It's not just food. Yeah. What what, what does that diet look like? So we don't think it's three omelets and a piece of lettuce? Yeah, is it three almonds.

Emily Bailey: 21:48

It's I think that's a very tricky topic. In the ballet world. I feel like it's gotten a lot more well rounded in terms of the dancers that went through that era of like, just the brutal smoking cigarettes to get like skinnier all that stuff. They are the ones that are now becoming in charge of things. And it's either you get the good side of the people that are like, I want to make this experience for the dancers that are working now. Better and not what I have to want to have to go through. Or you get the flip side of it when you have to do it's a rite of passage.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 22:28

This podcast is brought to you by marbre. Know your belly leanness, Marlboro.

Emily Bailey: 22:39

But yeah, so I think it is a very tricky topic, and it's still very taboo. We don't get a lot of the resources that I think a lot of like college sports do in terms of the support of you're an athlete, you need to feel like an athlete. Do

Kenny Bailey<br>: 22:57

you guys have like a nutritionist that that? Or is that not a thing?

Emily Bailey: 23:00

Not on staff? We do like we have, like the cards at the front of the desk where you can

Kenny Bailey<br>: 23:06

grab one yeah, if you want to get in Yeah,

Tom Regal: 23:08

it's up to you. It's up to you. Yeah, take care of your body and fuel yourself properly. They leave that up to you exactly.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 23:14

But in the shape of I mean, cuz it also goes back to sort of taste right. I think 15 years ago, having a very lean skinny kind of look was something that most of America is doing now. It's sort of on what's a thicker but people tend to be okay with athletic. Yeah, yeah, body shape. It's different. Has that had that influence on you guys as well, like people want to see a little bit different look on your belly or they want to bet traditional kind of thing, the way Flook?

Emily Bailey: 23:45

Um, yeah. So in George Balanchine, who I was referring to earlier with New York City Ballet, there was a very deep aesthetic that was driven into America because of the lucky wanted, which was long legs, small head, small neck, short torso. And that was the blueprint and that kind of lingers in ballet still. I don't. One thing I really like about National Ballet is they're very open to not having that aesthetic. They're very forward in terms of what the company needs to look like. It doesn't need to be a flat slate. They want people that look different and they want people that can dance not Yes. Not look like they should. Yes, yeah, yeah, right. Um, but I think there is regardless of where you are there is that overlying you need to be a certain you need to have a look. Yeah, yeah. And more so I think it's now leaning towards, you have to be fit for your body type. Because realistically, muscles are built differently on different people regardless of like, everyone could eat the same three almonds and yeah, lettuce every day and not look the Same Yeah. So I think that is still very tricky subject and it's still very much not talked about as much as it should be in the ballet world. But

Kenny Bailey<br>: 25:11

so how do you navigate that? So what are you? I'm assuming you try to lean and healthy is kind of Yeah.

Emily Bailey: 25:17

Yeah. So I full disclosure, we're getting deep. We're getting deep. Um, eating disorders have been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. Realistically, yeah, like 10 years old. I made the decision. And I was like, Okay, here's the way yeah, um, which I still struggle with. To this day. It's not anything that I'm afraid to hide because it's part of life. You think ballet, you think? Ah, there she is. Yeah. Um, so it is difficult navigating that, but finding the support that you need and having the resources that are now becoming more acceptable, and I guess reliable, in terms of people that know ballet, because it's different working with people that don't know that world and that side of recovery and just being like, Oh, you can go to this hospital or whatever like that. And it's like, no, I have a career. Yeah, I still need to maintain that career. Yeah. How do I navigate that? Yeah. In a world where you're still, you can't just close your mirror or anything like you're, we're surrounded by mirrors every day. Yeah, we're working in millimeters. It's a perfectionistic. Career. Yeah. And that's a perfectionistic mental health issue. So I think, yeah,

Kenny Bailey<br>: 26:33

are there guidance that you tried to give kind of younger dancers behind you about that?

Emily Bailey: 26:37

And yeah, yeah, absolutely. I teach at National Ballet as well. And I do see like, oh, my gosh, it just breaks my heart when I see some of the dancers that I work with, like, get stuck in the mirror, like when I'm teaching a combination, because I'm, as a student, I know exactly where their brain is going.

Tom Regal: 26:53

Yeah, I was gonna say you probably spot it. Before they even acknowledge it to themselves. Yeah. The issues that are kind of popping up.

Emily Bailey: 27:01

So I think just even, it's like, obviously, I'm not their parent. It's not my place to jump in. And, like, say anything that strict, but I at least tried to like change how I'm talking about things versus that's huge. Yeah. Because I mean, you have teachers that say, Oh, we can see your breakfast. And it's like,

Tom Regal: 27:21

those little, little thing. Yeah. servic. Little jabs. Yeah. Build up. And I can't imagine that, especially in a young girl coming up. We've talked about so much now. In the sporting world college sports with the running community. Yeah. cycling community still has issues with that. Yeah. And like wrestling to wrestling, you're saying, yeah, it's just like, yeah, they're, they're, yeah, they're looking at every little ounce and gram. And it's just, it's crazy.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 27:49

Well, and the weird part about it is to, you know, at 13, especially for a girl, they're going to change, their body is going to naturally change no matter what their genes, their genes are going to do what they're gonna do. You maybe yeah, a fuller person at 17. And here you are, like, I've decided at 13. This is my career. Exactly. And there's only one or two ways to do it. Right? Either, you know, go back to cello or, like, you know what I mean? Yeah, it's like, yeah, or either move to a different dance type to that would be more, you know, quote, unquote, accepting of different body types.

Tom Regal: 28:20

Like you, you grow all at once, like, your arms are longer legs. It's just growing. Yeah, as it gets through this thing. So you hit that whole dorky age, and you're just kind of like, wow, yeah. And then that's working on you. And then you have someone saying, Oh, we can see your breakfast. I mean, I just want to be crazy.

Emily Bailey: 28:38

Yeah, it's ridiculous. So I think just changing the way that teachers address things can be huge. Because if you're going home and beating yourself up every day, which ballet dancers we do, and then you come in, and you're beating yourself up already. And then you have another person who you probably hopefully look up to Yeah, coming over. Yeah. poking at you.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 28:58

You tell when you're sort of getting in that mode? No, absolutely. Like, where before, you wouldn't know the signs, and then all of a sudden, it's like, yeah, I'm starting to my habits are starting to creep in that are not helping. Absolutely.

Emily Bailey: 29:11

Yeah. And I think I really do think that every there should be more therapists and psychologists readily available for dancers for that, because it is such a insane career. And there are so many factors of it of, obviously, aesthetics of eating aesthetics of looking and creating these lines in the mirror. And then obviously, standing in front of a mirror for eight hours a day. That's just not good for anyone, no matter how healthy you are. That can't be Yeah, yeah, massive impact.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 29:45

Because it's, you know, some sports, your body type is going to turn out it's sort of, if you're long and lean, and you can jump, well, you're going to play a different position in basketball than you are. If you're five foot nine, you're probably going to be the point if you're six, six, you weigh 270 pounds, you're going to fill up the middle and be the Senator. Right. Same thing in football, when you see professional football players, their body types are practically designed. And it's partly because they built it that way. But also mostly because that's what they turned out to be. Right. Yeah. Whereas cheerleaders, dancers and people that have an aesthetic that people expect to have in their head, you not only have to perform just as well as these professional athletes as well, I mean, you're a professional athlete as well. But you have to look great doing it. Exactly. They don't. Yeah, they're gonna look great because of the conditioning. They have not because that's what they need to do to look exactly. I mean, you're gonna know, linemen. They're not, you know. Exactly. Statically. Gorgeous. Yeah. But you know, they're strong and they're, they're fast and they're able where you now it's not only do you have to hit it like every millimeter, but you have to make sure you have that look to hit it as well. Exactly. just insane. Yeah. So

Tom Regal: 30:50

it's like, people's first comments are what you look like. And then

Kenny Bailey<br>: 30:54

how good you doing? Yeah, how are you? Good. Yeah, exactly. Not the top. Yeah, we're

Tom Regal: 30:58

looking at your first going. Wow, okay. Whoo. You know, and then oh, but the dance well, yeah.

Emily Bailey: 31:03

And that that was another thing too. I was thinking back to one of the auditions I went to we walked in and obviously, pink tights, black leotard, were all like trying to look the same. They didn't even like start the class. First. They lined us up. And then we just sat like, we literally stood there for like, 20 minutes while they look through, like wrote down stuff. Like and you were just like, okay, like, we're standing in front of a mirror where they're literally comparing us to the girl next to you, like, a whole brutal at 13.

Tom Regal: 31:35

process that

Kenny Bailey<br>: 31:36

Yeah, yeah. So did you. How did you talk through that, then? Did you was it mainly your dad that you leaned on to be able to do that? Were there I mean, what there's obviously some some traditional things that they're that are happening in the company sometimes that aren't healthy. Yeah. It sounds like when you landed in Nashville, there's a much healthier sort of way that's going on. Yeah. You know, knock on wood. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. As you started getting older, did you start realizing that that okay, I need I need to be surround myself. I mean, who helps you sort of gets you ready? I mean, who do you lean on when it comes to that other dancers? Like you said, is it a mentor? Is it Yeah, Dad,

Emily Bailey: 32:13

I think both of my parents have been incredibly supportive. In my journey, which I'm very, very grateful for a lot of dancers don't have that support. Yeah. But, yeah, mentors, at the ballet friends and family that I can trust with that kind of information therapists, like eating disorder specialists, all that stuff just helps. Incredibly and like obviously, there's never a one solution that fits for everyone. But I feel like if I can get as many resources resources as possible, then I can't go wrong with more information and more knowledge about how to handle things.

Tom Regal: 32:54

Theory. Yeah. Build a little team around you to exactly support around you to get through that. Yeah. What was what was your trigger point that you kind of recognized it and reached out for help? I,

Emily Bailey: 33:09

this was when I think I was 15. And it was when I was balancing school. Yeah. cello, cello. Ballet, cello, cello damn cello. Um, and I think I just hit like a threshold of I can't keep this a secret anymore. I and I just like, yeah, literal breakdown in the car with mom, on the way to ballet. Yeah. And yet from like, next day, I had an appointment with a therapist and stuff like that and started that. And really, it's been ups and downs since then, because you get better and then something happens. And if that's a vulnerability of yours, if something goes sideways, what do you fall back on? Yeah, yeah. So

Kenny Bailey<br>: 33:55

Well, sounds like yoga was helping both mentally and physically, right? Because you are in the middle of COVID. Your whole life is in front of an audience. That's gone. That's gone. Yeah. I mean, it seems like yoga was a nice kind of way to get that balance back.

Emily Bailey: 34:08

Absolutely. Yeah. So during quarantine, we were dancing in our living rooms. We still we still had like zoom classes and rehearsals to like stay in our best shape as possible. Um, which is that was terrible. Yeah, I think any dancer can say the same thing. Um, but yeah, yoga was something that really helped me in a way of like, okay, I'm moving. It doesn't have to be perfect. And I'm not in front of a mirror. Yeah. And it's solely for me. It's, however many minutes a day I can manage. If it's a busier day, maybe it's only 10 minutes. If it's an somehow off day, which doesn't happen. Maybe I can go to like a hot yoga studio or something and do it in a group setting. But that was something that was really transformative to me of being here. Take just a few minutes every day for myself to do something that is still movement oriented, because regardless of whatever happens in my life, I don't think I could imagine myself doing anything. I don't think I could imagine myself at a desk job. Yeah, it would have to be some sort of movement oriented, or something like something like that. And it was still movement, but gentler, and I could tailor it to what I needed for that day.

Tom Regal: 35:27

Plus the breathing. Oh, my God, the breathing, the breathing aspect of it that really, really cleans you out

Emily Bailey: 35:32

and taking get you. Yeah, lessons from yoga, like the breathing and stuff like that. And then being able to bring it into the studio. Like, okay, I'm doing this really, really hard variation that I'm dancing or like, groupies that I'm Nancy for four minutes straight. I don't leave stage. How the hell am I gonna do this?

Tom Regal: 35:50

Don't hold your breath all the time. Yeah. On stage. Yeah.

Emily Bailey: 35:56

slumped against the bar. Yeah. So I think incorporating that breath and using it to help me. Like, stay in a balance longer or something like that, I think has helped me. Yeah,

Kenny Bailey<br>: 36:08

yeah. I've talked about sort of the, the danger aspect or the uglier side of it. I mean, there's also beauty in kind of what you're doing. When you're on stage, obviously, you're getting that feed from the audience and all that good stuff. What are those things that light you up? Like? Is it I you hit the you hit the you hit the mark? Or is it that it that thing that just brings that joy back? When you when you're going through this practice, and you're doing these things? What is that one thing that just sort of? Yep, that was worth it?

Emily Bailey: 36:40

I think, for me, it's honestly the whole experience. I think the one thing that I learned through COVID was the rehearsal stage process is really just the part that I hold dearest to my heart. Being in a studio with people that I love so much, I really am grateful that I have such a good environment here in Nashville Ballet, I love the artistic staff, I have such a good group of people that I get to dance with every day. And those moments of laughter in the studio, or one thing that we do is if something, if someone does something like really impressive during class or rehearsal is like we snap because it's a less invasive form. So I think just those moments of seeing someone do something that just like, literally makes your jaw drop to the floor, and you can like snap for them or like haven't being snapped for those little moments of being like, Okay, this is this is what makes me feel alive. And like, like, even on days where you're, you wake up and you feel like garbage. And all you want to do is take a hot bath, lay facedown on the ground. I still am like, okay, I get to I get to get up, I get to do what I love every single day, no matter how exhausting or painful it is or how much Advil I have in me. I still get to go in and brought you by Advil. Over an Advil,

Kenny Bailey<br>: 38:05

drip a boost thing we can throw in California.

Emily Bailey: 38:13

Yeah, but I think the whole experience as a whole and feeling that transition of, hey, I couldn't do this as well, six weeks ago, as I did on stage. Yeah. And being able to feel that process in your body. And then also like, there's video footage of it, being able to see it, I think is just the most rewarding thing. And, like, I have no doubts ever about that. This is what I'm meant to do every day. That's cool. Yeah.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 38:39

I mean, that's, I mean, the affirmation of that is is really kind of neat. Yeah. And I'm

Emily Bailey: 38:43

so lucky that like, I'm so young, and I'm found it. Yeah. So many people I know that like I went to high school with or something like that. They're still figuring out, like, what their passions are. And I like I'm just incredibly lucky that it clicked. Yeah. So soon. Yeah, at nine.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 39:00

So what is the average sort of career? Shelf life if you will of a ballet dancer. So do you like at 33? Are you now considered old and terrible? Oh, wow. You know that one like football? Yeah. Is it? Or how does that? How do you see? Yeah,

Emily Bailey: 39:15

it's kind of dependent on the individual, I would say, um, one how well you take care of yourself is a huge part of longevity. Because there is a very common, like baby ballerina problem of their prodigies at 16 they get a contract at 17. And then they're done by 22. Yes, they burn out so easily. And because they were just beaten to being two popes, and by the time they were 15, and then it just kept going from there. So I think how you take care of yourself is a really, really huge part of it and how you what do you do after that technique class and then six, six hour rehearsals until 6pm And a lot of us work side jobs like I teach in the evening. So sometimes I'm there until eight o'clock at night. And yeah, what do you do when you get home? Do you just go to bed? Do you have a drink and pass? Or do you take the time? Roll out your muscles, ice? Yeah, take the time on the weekends to go. Do NormaTec cryotherapy things that you can do to help yourself feel better the next morning, I think is a huge part of how you can maintain and also cross training to a lot of I do yoga is cross training. I have a personal trainer, Lily Saito, who's a soloist with the company of National Ballet, actually, and she has her personal training. Nice certifications. So she has helped me a ton with building up muscle strength

Tom Regal: 40:50

training. Yeah, so Yeah, cuz I would say that would be critical, too. Yeah. So

Emily Bailey: 40:54

balancing out unevenness so that you're not relying on certain muscles too much. And falling back on?

Kenny Bailey<br>: 41:02

Is there lack of a better term? Is there an ego thing involved too, if you've been a soloist or you've been at a certain level in your career, or you're dancing for a certain company, and then as you get older, you know, it's just it's not hitting? Is is that? Is that? Does that happen? Where then suddenly, you're no longer the soloist? And and you have to reconcile with that. Is that part of the of the issue of sort of going through that professionalism?

Emily Bailey: 41:28

I'm not fully sure. That actually is a good question. I haven't gotten there yet.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 41:35

Okay, we're gonna meet again, in 2020. We're gonna find out smoking a cigarette?

Emily Bailey: 41:42

Yeah. Um, but yeah, so I think, obviously, there is a bit of ego involved in ballet. And once you get to, I think certain positions of like, yeah, like directors and stuff like that different companies can get to that level. And there's power complexes, run this whole thing. Yeah. How much can I get away with? Yeah, um,

Kenny Bailey<br>: 42:04

but I know. So I'm just trying

Emily Bailey: 42:07

something to aim for. Yeah. Um, but again, I feel like it's how you handle it and how you were raised to handle it? And are you going to take that and make it a better experience for those around you? Or are you going to put them through the wringer like you were? Yeah. So I think, yeah,

Kenny Bailey<br>: 42:24

it kind of sounds like for, for what we're hearing, you're sort of more of the former than the latter, right, which is learning. And it sounds like you're, I mean, like you said, you're dealing with struggles you're dealing with, but it sounds like you're fairly balanced in understanding kind of what's going on. Right? Yeah, you understand that? This is, this is a grind, but the grind itself can be part of the reward. Absolutely. I understand that. Yeah, sort of, you have to be careful, especially in those formative years. And that you just sort of make sure that you bring other people up versus saying, Okay, I'm here. And, and now you have to go through the same sort of torture I do that you can learn and so forth, which is, which is a great attitude. Yeah.

Emily Bailey: 43:02

And I think that I'm lucky that I've encountered quite a few people that are like that. And that's just kind of added to my inspiration of, there's only gonna be changed if someone does anything about it. Yeah. And even if it's a small thing, if it's not, if it's saying phrasing something a different way, phrasing a correction a different way, or just being more of a guidance versus a I don't know, beating someone down. Yeah. To make them better. Yeah. I think that that's yeah, I mean,

Kenny Bailey<br>: 43:31

more, there's a hammer approach that you can do it right. Yeah. And there's a fear approach, or there's a mentor approach, right.

Emily Bailey: 43:36

Yeah. And I think yeah, being hopefully being a mentor to younger dancers, but still having that discipline and being like, you do have to kind of be crazy.

Tom Regal: 43:48

To get, yeah, really have to put the work in Yeah, but there's a positive spin on it that you can that you strive for, and I think, starting to see a little bit of change in that hopefully, is what's happening, and that'll be much better.

Emily Bailey: 44:00

And if you have that love for it, then yeah, realistically, anything. makes it worth it. Yeah.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 44:05

So So what are you doing now? What do you have coming up?

Emily Bailey: 44:08

So we post Nutcracker we had a little bit of time off, which was nice.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 44:13

A little bit of time, like eight hours.

Emily Bailey: 44:15

We get a solid 20 minutes now. Um, yeah, so right now we are working on a show that's gonna be happening in April. It's our future artists showcase which features the artists of natural ballet second company, and then their professional training division, which is where I started when I first came to National Ballet. Okay. So the PTT program, professional training division is more of students based and then the second company and trainees are leaning more towards professionalism. It's kind of like the internship of the real world in ballet. So we had we just finished up a resident choreographer, Alia cache, she was performing with the Lion King AT T Pack. She's a former rehearsal director for elite two, which is a Alvin Ailey company in New York big deal.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 45:07

Comedy like Yeah. Daily, daily,

Emily Bailey: 45:13

which is really exciting. We have. We're doing we're bringing back a work that artistic director Paul masterlink did in the 90s, which is really fun to watch that video and try to figure out how to like learn from a video and put it on our own bodies. The Associate Artistic Director is doing a new work, Nick Mullikin. So that we'll be working on that in the next few months. And then we have another resident choreographer coming in Charlotte Boyd Christiansen who she staged a piece on us over summer, which I loved. So I'm so excited that she's coming back. And then in I believe, May, we're going to be performing at screamer horn, downtown Nashville, and we're gonna be doing Firebird and then Billy the Kid, okay, with music from Aaron Copland, which is really fun. Yeah, yeah.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 46:06

So that's good. So sounds like a nice eclectic mix, right? It's gonna be

Emily Bailey: 46:08

a busy season. But it's there's so much choreography and different styles. And it's going to be a lot for the brain to handle. But I'm, I'm couldn't be more excited.

Narrator: 46:20

Good. Yeah. How

Kenny Bailey<br>: 46:21

was Nashville supporting sort of ballet? Are they? They're really good.

Emily Bailey: 46:25

Yeah, we have a really, really nice facility that we work in. And there are a lot of community outreach programs that we do to try and bring value to schools in the city. And we have like a whole adult division, and for like, adults to be able to take ballet classes haven't played. And then we have a whole we have our academy and National Ballet, which is like the serious students that like they're, they're going for it. Yeah, um, age nine, me. Yeah. And then we also have a community youth division, which I teach a lot of the classes for, which are people that just like ballet, and they just want to come and they don't want to make it a whole life. But they can still, they still find the joy and growth in that. And I love teaching those kids because the pressure isn't quite as high. Yeah. So they can have a little bit more fun with it. But they still have incredible drive, which is beautiful to see. And teenagers and yeah, yeah. That's so cool.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 47:36

Thank you for showing up. Absolutely. Yeah.

Tom Regal: 47:39

Really? Yeah. Great to get to know you and learn all about.

Emily Bailey: 47:41

Thank you so much for having me. This has been fantastic. Yeah. And we

Tom Regal: 47:45

want to thank everyone, this is where I get to do my tag. Thank you all for listening. Give us some likes and thumbs up all that good stuff helps the algorithms and allows us to get this out to more people. So this is our first episode of the second season. We're we're having a lot of fun with this meeting some great people. Thank you all so much. We appreciate all your comments and we'll catch on the next one.