Pain is Beauty

"Pain is beauty." A famous quote that girls are told from childhood on. Well, being a dancer all my life, I know that this quote to most certainly be true. Everyone knows that dancers are supposed to look beautiful on stage, but the time and effort that goes into creating the look is vastly overlooked. However, it may be one of the most important aspects of the performance.
First, comes the hair, or the "pain" portion of that quote. Hair can either hurt or help you in a performance. If your hair is messy or in your face or in a crazy style, it could be a huge distraction. At a competition, the judges are trying to score you based on your dancing and if your hair is catching their eye rather than your leaps it could really cause damage to your score. That's why my dance studio requires tight, gelled, pulled back buns. Not only do they look clean and crisp, but they also are functional. Dance requires a lot of balance and focus and with your hair off center or in front of your eyes it can cause you to lose control.
Next, comes the "beauty" part of the quote, which is my favorite. I love makeup and the way it can transform anyone's look. To me, it's like an art form, much like dance! For dance, the makeup is really dramatic and incorporates bold colors and thick lines. For the face makeup, we wear foundation to make our skin all one tone. Then we use dark colors to define the bone structure of our face. Lastly, we use blush to make our faces have a natural glow. These steps help to unify the look of the group, along with adding definition to everyone's faces. We also put a lot of makeup on the eyes. We darken our eyebrows, add dark eyeliner, bright eye shadow, and fake eyelashes. The idea behind this is too extend every line on the eyes to make the change in facial expressions easier too see which will help us score better because the judges will be able to pick up on our emotions more easily. And lastly, who could forget that lipstick to show off that wonderful smile!
It's a lot of small details that add to the performance in a big way. It may take a lot of effort but in the end it's worth it to look good, feel good, and score well.