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(train passing)
(music playing)
Voiceover: When a male dancer
is paired with a ballerina,
he can support, stabilize, lift, and turn her,
allowing the partner to perform feats
she could never do alone.
Craig: One of my favorite parts of dancing is partnering.
I love having a connection with someone on stage.
Andy: There's a saying we have,
that ballet is woman.
The best thing I can do as a partner
is to kind of disappear and make sure that
everybody in the audience is enjoying her performance.
Amar: Because it's not about you.
It's about making the woman look beautiful.
Andy: I end up with Ashley a lot,
mostly because of size.
We're the small couple.
Our styles, our energies, our looks,
we match up very well.
Maria: Women are so different in general.
I'm a very tall ballerina.
I have hyper-extended legs,
which makes it hard for people to find my balance
when I'm en pointe.
Amar: There's still times where I've been partnering
a shorter girl, and Maria says,
"Who've you been partnering?"
She can tell, feel the difference, that I had to adjust.
Maria: Because he's partnering up here.
Amar: Yeah.
Maria: Partnering, in general, is just a
collaboration between two people,
so if you don't have a lot of time
to work with that person, this can be hard.
If you've never worked with a person before,
it's really difficult.
Amar: Really difficult.
Megan: Even just learning new things in general
eventually becomes like second nature,
but if you didn't know how long it took for us
to acquire all of this and digest it
and then have it become part of us,
you'd be probably freaked out,
like watching us try these steps for the first time.
It's not really cute.
Chase: It takes true artistry to make a woman feel
that safe on stage while she's trying to do
all these different things.
You just have to have that trust.
Megan: It's not always perfect or safe,
but usually they'll catch you
before your head hits the ground.
Andy: Usually?
Megan: Well, I got dropped on my head once.
(laughs)
Craig: Sometimes you don't get the luxury
of actually liking your partner.
Sometimes I've had that, but we, at that moment,
we're characters, we're actors.
Amar: Our personal lives have nothing to do with it.
You're in love with this person,
you hate this person right now,
the audience doesn't care.
Man: Oh! Here we go.
Lauren: Like that?
Sometimes it feels like we're fighting.
Craig: Yeah, but I think because
everything's off balance right now.
Lauren: Yes.
Craig: With dance, a lot of times it's not perfect.
I'm not in the right position sometimes
and she's not,
but if we know each other's language,
we're able to kind of fix little things
as we go along.
Lauren: Partnering's a lot about confidence
and you have to go for things
because if you don't go for it,
then it doesn't work out.
Craig: Right. Yeah.
Lauren: And a lot of these lifts, I've never done before
and they're kind of scary.
I'm sort of afraid of heights.
With Craig, I'm not afraid at all.
(laughs)
Well, I know he's not gonna drop me, right?
Craig: Yeah. Not yet.
More than anything, not so much like muscling things,
but it's the little, like it's the fingers,
it's the little touching moments
that makes or breaks the movement.
I feel more comfortable knowing that there's
someone else out there with me,
looking at me in my eyes,
and feeling something.
Once you get it right, it's like a puzzle,
and all the pieces kind of fit together.