I have a super long day of school and dance, so let's do it.

["Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy"]

Hi, I'm Kayla Mack, and I'm a 16-year-old ballet dancer.

["Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy"]

I dance six days a week, five hours a day, and I'm a junior in high school.

["Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy"]

From breaking in pointe shoes to balancing schoolwork, this is one week in my life.

["Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy"] ["Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy"]

Every day, I have to balance dance and school.

Here's what my day actually looks like.

I try to wake up at 6.30 a.m.

I usually set four alarms.

Good morning.

I eat cereal for breakfast.

I pack a pair of tights and a black leotard.

I sprint to catch the bus at 7.15.

The hardest class I'm doing right now is AP Psyche.

Beautiful AP Psyche.

But actually, I got a 92.

Throughout the day, if my muscles are sore,

I usually apply some Tiger Balm or I do some splits out in the hallway.

After school, I usually have a snack before I get on the train.

He got the goods.

Oh, guys, this is my dog, Tucker.

I take a train for an hour to Harlem.

I usually try to get as much homework done as I can, and I take the subway to my dance studio.

Yo, right there.

Before class, I stretch with my friends and I roll out my muscles with my rolling balls.

Dance class usually lasts about five hours.

After class, I usually stay another hour on my own just to work on my piece.

Let's get into bed.

At around 9.30, I start heading to Grand Central.

And I'm so excited.

If I didn't get my work done before,

I try to get it done after.

I usually get home at around 11, and by then, I am starving, so I eat dinner really fast, and then I go upstairs to my room and do the rest of my homework.

I usually go to sleep at around 12.30, and I love when I get into my bed.

It's the best feeling in the whole entire world.

Good night.

And then I wake up and do it all again the next morning.

Good morning.

As a dancer, you break in a lot of shoes, and it's a very rigorous process.

I kind of dread Newpoint shoes.

Basically, I have to sew my elastic and ribbons on and then try to bang on a concrete floor to get the sound out of them.

I step on them, try to make them as soft as possible for my feet, getting the whole body weight on them.

Banging the sound out of your pointe shoes allows a dancer to have a softer landing when jumping, because sometimes loud pointe shoes can be kind of distracting to an audience.

So when you first put your foot in a pointe shoe, it's really hard.

It's made out of fabric and wood.

At first, your foot feels pretty squeezed in there, but then after a while, when you break in the shoe, your foot should be feeling normal.

Usually, going up on pointe, you're basically on your tippy toes.

It is pretty painful in the beginning, but by the end, it feels good.

I mean, it feels less painful.

It's first period, and my Achilles is already hurting.

This week, my Achilles has been bothering me.

I think it's just from all the extra rehearsals.

Usually, I try to put on some Tiger Balm if it's feeling really tight, or I try to roll out my muscles using my rolling ball.

Tiger Balm is my best friend.

It is basically like an Icy Hot or Bengay.

It just helps relieve muscles from, I guess, stress or tension, and it smells really good.

Some people don't like the smell.

It smells weird.

I think it smells good.

It just trails.

Like, the smell just trails with me.

So, I mean, it's a win-lose situation.

It smells like cinnamon.

Yeah, it's my signature scent.

After a long day of rehearsal, my Achilles has been kind of bothering me.

It's just been feeling super tight.

I think it's time for some Tiger Balm.

Today, I will not be rehearsing, just so that my body can take a break, and I can take a nice, long bath for my really long day tomorrow.

I decided not to rehearse my piece just because I was having some issues with my Achilles, so I can't wait to go home.

Good morning.

Right now, it is 6.15.

It is Wednesday.

My legs feel like jello.

For a dancer, an injury is not very good.

I mean, it's not good in any situation, but especially as a dancer, because your body's your instrument.

I'm always super careful about listening to my body, and for me, stretching is the best feeling.

So, I usually take a block that I have.

It's like a yoga block, and I do some oversplits just to stretch my hamstrings, and then I try to roll out some muscles that are knotted.

Rolling knotted muscles is actually a pretty painful experience.

It's like a torture machine.

I'm kidding.

I mean, it doesn't...

Ooh.

Yeah, but after, your muscles are super relaxed, and it just feels a lot better.

So, at home, to reset my body,

I usually use some heating pads, which help me.

Usually, I use it on my lower back, so it helps my muscles release tension.

I am elevating my feet.

I was lying down on my back, and I put my feet up so that all the blood can rush out of my feet, because they were super swollen.

But yeah, just from all the rigorous dancing, and on top of all the dancing,

I have to walk to and from the subway and my dance studio, which does put a lot on my body.

I'm sprinting for my trains all the time, because I'm gonna get home at 11 if I make my train.

Hopefully, I make it.

Wish me luck.

Thursday, I was getting a little worried because my Achilles was still bothering me, and so I took extra care of it on Thursday night.

My Achilles, hopefully, will not be as aggravated tomorrow, but I'll see you guys tomorrow, and good night.

Having schoolwork is pretty hard, and I have to try to find as much time as I can in my day to fit it in.

I just got back home from dance.

It is 12 a.m. right now.

I'm going to try to eat dinner as fast as I can, and then do some more studying for my AP Psych test, and try to start an essay for English.

I don't know how I'm gonna do it, but we got this.

I'm trying to find a day where I didn't have homework, but yeah, almost every day is a late night of homework for me.

I am going to work on my essay that is due in 25 minutes.

It's 11.35 right now, and it's due at midnight.

Wish me luck.

When my friends find out about my schedule, they're usually like, I don't know how you do it.

Like, how do you have time for work?

How do you have time to sleep?

I'm just like, you just gotta go with it.

You just gotta do it.

I mean, it's just like Nike, just do it.

So I just got done with my essay, and I just made it to the deadline.

Thank goodness.

Let's go.

A day or two before the big performance,

I usually have to color my pointe shoes.

Sometimes dancers have to color their pointe shoes to match their skin tone.

People use foundation or makeup products to color their pointe shoes, or sometimes the pointe shoes come pre-dyed.

I use foundation and a toothbrush.

And now I am going to put them near my vent, so then they will dry.

I think tomorrow's gonna be a great day, so I'll see you guys in the morning.

Good night.

Leading up to big performances,

I start to get kind of nervous, but also super excited.

Is there a really, really hard part in your performance that gives you trouble when you're a person?

Like, all of it's hard.

So the choreography for my performance was made for TV.

And for instance, I'm a dancer, and for TV, it has to be sharper, I guess, because you're portraying it to an audience that is not live.

Your movements have to be really big and super energetic, so this piece was super difficult.

The most difficult part of my routine is the lame duck.

A lame duck is like a pique, which is you're doing a turn on a straight leg, but then you kind of substitute the supporting leg for the other leg.

And it's tough.

Every time, I just pray that I make it, but I usually just try to stick to the basics and keep my foundation in order to do a good lame duck.

The morning of a big performance,

I wake up and I instantly think about it.

I'm like, oh God, today's the big day.

And usually, I start getting super nervous, which makes me not eat too much, but I do force myself to eat because it's important to have just a good breakfast before you dance.

Can't wait to perform.

I'll see you guys there.

Getting to meet fans is the most amazing and humbling experience.

Just to know that you've inspired people or just to know that they've seen you dance before is just really cool.

So the ideal flooring for pointe shoes is Marley.

It's like a texture of the floor that's smooth, but not slippery, because it has friction for the pointe shoes so that you don't slip.

In the cases where the floor is not Marley,

I have to either use rosin, or in this case, I did not have rosin with me.

We're gonna have to improvise, and I'm gonna have to use some buck glue.

Buck glue is a sticky, clear substance that you usually put under your leotard to make sure that your leotard doesn't ride up and show anything.

Basically, I just had to rub it on my shoes and make sure that it was tacky and make sure that I don't slip on that slippery stage.

We're gonna get started, okay?

So Kayla, Trey.

You can't help it.

30 seconds?

Yeah.

All right.

Yeah, girl.

Kill it.

All right.

Walking out on stage,

I try to keep my breathing controlled, but usually my heart rate just gets super, super high.

I just start getting real,

I just start breathing super heavily.

We'll be at six months.

We're Kayla.

And when I get into my beginning pose,

I just take two deep breaths and try to calm myself down.

After I take my two deep breaths,

I start performing my piece.

Go.

Usually in my brain,

I get pretty scared for the hard parts of the piece.

But then after those are done,

I feel super relieved.

It's the most liberating feeling.

And it just gives me this environment that allows me to be myself and express my emotions through my art form.

By the end of the piece,

I get into my finishing pose and it's just super nice.

Like, I feel super proud of myself.

And even if I didn't do that great,

I just feel super happy that I got to perform.

The hardest thing about dance is just never, you can never be perfect.

Even though dancers are such perfectionists sometimes, it's hard to realize the fact that nobody's perfect and you just have to keep working harder and harder.

Go.

I feel like the performance actually went pretty well considering the floor.

It was kind of slippery, so I did get a little scared on stage, but I think I was super proud of myself that I actually danced on that floor with the Buckwood pointe shoes.

And so now I'm going to do some homework and try to go to sleep early because the next day is Monday and it starts all over again.

So yeah, thank you so much for watching.

Love you guys.

Bye.