Showboat dancers: Making the difficult look easy!

It’s all about the show on Sydney Showboats… it’s glamorous, it’s burlesque, it’s jaw-dropping! And, all credit goes to the talented and versatile Australian cast that makes the show what it is… they’re nothing short of brilliant!

Without a doubt, Showboat’s glamorous entertainment rides on the shoulders of its sprightly young singers and dancers. Their professionalism and passion for perfection take their performance to a whole new level of entertainment. This Australian dance ensemble has been dazzling Showboat guests with creative and flawless high-calibre routines, and they always have loads of fun doing it.

But, what the audience doesn’t see is the rigorous training routine that goes on behind the scenes to make the difficult look easy! Self-discipline, coupled with hours and hours of training, is what it takes to execute what appears to be an effortless performance. To a great extent natural talent does play a role, but without the hard work that goes into building stamina and perfecting technique, dancers can never make it big.

Professional ballet dancers are as much athletes and artists as they are dancers. On one hand they have to train their bodies and perfect technique to execute the highest level of performance, on the other they have to explore their creativity and find ingenious ways to make their thoughts and expressions sync perfectly with the music. 

Most of the Showboat dancers have been dancing since a very tender age and it’s definitely been no fairy tale with frilly frocks and satiny pink shoes. It’s taken them more than ten years of dedication and intensive training to gain mastery over difficult jumps, kicks and pirouettes, and execute them with grace and perfection.

And, it doesn’t stop there! Once they attain that perfection, they have to strive to maintain their co-ordination, physical strength and stamina. Some dancers even work out at the gym and take acting lessons to sharpen their expressions and improve their skills to help portray their character better.

 

Dancing is a very physically demanding profession and dancers are as prone to injury as athletes and sports persons. They do their best to stave off strained muscles, sprained ankles and twisted joints with daily warm-up sessions and lessons. This helps keep their muscles strong, loose and warm, but it doesn’t cover all contingencies. 

Professional ballet dancers like most sports persons, crash and burn by the time they hit 40. But, it’s definitely not the end of the road for them. They pursue their passion for dance through alternate careers as teachers, choreographers or probably by starting their own ballet institutes.

It’s definitely a tough life for professional dancers, but their love for dance and the satisfaction they glean from entertaining audiences, makes it all worthwhile!