I've Been Behind the Curtain

I enter the theatre once more Ready to watch the pink satin glide across the floor. Only now I know what happens inside those shoes of satin, the hard shank and box seize the toes and prepare to flatten. The audience watches as the girls spin on and off stage but they don’t know that those tutus are a cage. The girls will starve until they fit inside with their teachers poking their stomachs until they lose what was left of their pride. They probably trained all year for this show— Rehearsals, bruises, and bleeding that the audience would never know. All those pirouettes took years to master and their flexibility came no faster. Despite their pain, the ballerinas always come out all ready to dance and they flash every audience a smile with a sweet little prance.