As a teenager, ballet was just one of my extracurriculars, a hobby alongside piano and watercoloring. But as it turns out, ballet demanded more from me than tickling the ivory. Six days a week, we met ...

We are 11 or 12 years old, but most of us look younger; we have been chosen, in part, because we are small for our age. Our smiles are tense, our necks stretched, our backs erect. Perhaps we are ...