No Pain, No Gain: Ballerinas Balance the Pain and Euphoria of Dancing in This Breathtaking Video

Let’s be real—as much as we love dance, there are days where the pain and discouragement that come from perfecting our craft can make us question why we do what we do. Well, five principal dancers of the Czech National Ballet got on our level and revealed that pain and pressure are as much a part of the process of dance as joy.

Director Tereza Bila’s exquisite documentary accentuates these professional ballerinas’ acceptance of the balance that pain and pleasure play in performing such a demanding art form. We love how honest the film is about the demands that dancers and the dance world place on themselves and especially their bodies. “I think that dancers in general have a higher pain threshold… than the average person because we live it every day,” one dancer explains.

So the next time you wake up sore after a long rehearsal or feel a blister start to form as you break in your new pointe shoes, find comfort in the fact that even professional ballerinas have to live by the age old motto: “no pain, no gain.”