Interview With A Professional Ballerina - Romy Macias

Romy (Romelia) Macias is a professional ballerina living in Querétaro, Mexico, She is a graduate of Texas Christian University and is the retired First Soloist with Ballet Clásico de Querétaro Fernando Jhones.

Romy in Giselle

Some of the ballets Romy has performed in range from the "classics" such as Swan Lake, Don Quixote, Sleeping Beauty, Sylphides, Giselle and Nutcracker, as well as a number of modern ballets.

Nowadays she is an entrepreneur and online publisher, her website being How To Grow Success. I know her as a caring and supportive lady who has a generous spirit.

Control And Letting Go As Ballerina

Romy: Yes, you're absolutely right about control, starting with discipline. But let me begin by backing-up just a bit.

I remember as a young girl, when I first began taking ballet lessons (and I still see this with new students) it was all new to me, the language - literally - anywhere you travel in the world ballet classes are taught in French. So I had to learn new words in French - but not just the spoken language, I also had to learn ballet terms - the jargon of the trade.

Ballet Terms

Romy in Position

So, first getting acquainted with this new language was very important if I wanted to be able to dance.

Now back to the control. Yes, to train as a ballerina I had to study 8 years everyday, about an hour and a half to two, not counting rehearsals. And you had to start young, at around 8 is the average. I started "late" at 11. The reason for this is that your muscles are still tender and are more apt to molding themselves to the technique, than when you’re older and your muscles are already stiffer.

So, day by day you train your muscles to work in a certain way. It is an amazing process, really! Which just goes to show, that anything we set our minds to is possible with consistent daily and long term effort...anything.

Romy Stretching

So the first goal is to learn control of your muscles, and within each exercise you must also learn to relax other muscles. It's a paradox, in order to control,you must also relax. Don't you find this amazing? I do!

Life is the same way.

I'd like to share a story that made such an impression on me an my fellow dancers.

Ballet Positions

Romy(2nd from right) & Others in Practice

My teacher's urging made me really think about what she wanted the professional ballerina to achieve and how this applied so well to life. I've learned you go to school get an academic education, from home, you also absorb values, a moral education, habits and beliefs. When you turn into an adult you question some of what you were taught, but inthe end it is all this learned "stuff" that carries you in life: this is your "technique."This is what you have to work with. Life and dance has taught me to: "Go with it, and let life show you the rest. Be 'open' to learn."

Yes, I have control of some of my thoughts and actions, "movements," "life techniques," if you will, but I need to also let go, so that life can move me and together we can createa beautiful dance!

The Art Of Allowing

Romy(left) in Copelia

Romy: After several years of training in the technique, you begin to let go and just trust in what you've learned, the technique. You let your body to do it's thing and you begin to allow your feelings and passion to take over and interpret a role...it's really quite exciting! Isn't this what we do in life too? I believe that you do!

Proper Breathing In Ballet And Life

Romy: Yes, one thing I learned early on was the importance of breathing during ballet moves; to breath in deeply, otherwise you just cannot finish a piece, (a ballet) even a class - if you don't breathe properly, you simply can't dance!

You see, breathing involves inhaling and exhaling: taking in air and releasing air; it is a taking and giving flow of energy, kind of like the oceans' waves.

As with life and breathing, dancing is a metaphor of life: you take and you give and the secret is to flow with your breathing, that's when your energy soars and so does your dancing!

Being A Creator

Romy: Dancing, and especially ballet, is very much about bodily sensations. Whenever I approach a class I say to myself: "Let's see what new sensation I will discover today." Sometimes it can be a familiar sensation but with a new awareness and this realization helps me to dance differently.

Romy and Friends

I try to take this to my life: "What new lesson will I learn today? What amazing happening will I experience today? Whom will I encounter that will teach me something or that we may learn from each other?" It's what makes every day exciting. I believe it's being open to the ability to marvel at life!

Passion Is The Key

Romy: Yes, Philip. This process makes me remember so many times when I was learning this, the life lessons as well as the ballet! Or rather life lessons through the art of ballet.

So often I hear comments from people who say: "It must be so hard." Or comments like: "You must get tired all the time." And thinking, geez it is hard work to be a professional ballerina, but not as hard as they make it sound. I soon learned that because I loved doing it so much, I was so passionate about it, that it didn't seem so hard to me.

Custom Search

The ties Romy and I have are an amazing manifestation of the Law of Attraction. We both have built our websites through a fantastic company called Site Build It! Back in the Spring, she wrote to me and said some nice things about my site.

I appreciated hers because the woman who is the inspiration for her site, Elizabeth Towne, published a magazine about what is best described as “New Thought” for fifty years, starting around 1900. New thought is actually the foundation of nearly everything that is being published today about the Law of Attraction. Elizabeth would have known Charles Haanel and most likely publicized his foundational book, The Master Key System, the very book that inspired me to study and apply the Law of Attraction!

I later found out that Elizabeth Towne had moved from Colorado around 1900 to a city in Massachusetts - Holyoke. Holyoke? MY HOME TOWN! In fact, the very building that housed Elizabeth’s magazine, Nautilus is literally around the corner from where my brother used to live.

IT'S THE BEE'S KNEES!

I was in Holyoke at Thanksgiving 2008, just before my brother moved. It was a real treat to see the building that published a literal pioneer work on the Law of Attraction; the one that my friend Romy had read about. What’s also amazing is that the building is now used to help pregnant young women have the opportunity to complete their education and learn job skills, which is very similar to what Elizabeth Towne did with young ladies who worked for her!