The red velvet curtains rise to reveal a waiting audience eager to watch the ballet that was about to begin. Beth laid a tender, hesitant step forward, and in the second when the bright stage lights hit her illuminated face, and her shining white dress billowed around her, Beth was happy. She loved this moment, that feeling before she commenced her dance. All of the potential of the ballet for that night weighed down on her, suspended in the floating particles of air that Beth inhaled. With that first breath she took on the stage, she left behind herself and became Odette, the beautiful swan in her dance academy’s production of the famous ballet, Swan Lake. Beth had practiced long, taxing hours for these precious moments. Here, on this stage on a chilly December night, Beth was making her debut as a professional dancer.

In the second act, Beth made her first appearance as the swan. She sported a magnificent crown, twinkling jewelry, and a beautiful dress. But Beth payed no attention to them because for her the dance was about the story, about the graceful movements she executed as she leaped across the stage. To her, the stage seemed too small to convey the heart-breaking love story of Odette and Prince Siegfried. When Beth transformed from the swan to Odette, she was consumed in the precise beauty and significance of it all. When she practiced in the studio each night, she was absorbed in perfecting each movement, each leap, but here on the stage, with the music and the captivation of the audience, Beth forgot to pay attention to each minute detail, and instead saw herself getting lost in the story, now at the point when the Prince first sees her.

As Odette was torn away from Siegfried, Beth felt the pain and loss penetrate her. To the audience, this day would end up being a couple of hours of quality entertainment, a way to pass the time. But to Beth, this dance held importance. These precious few hours on the stage were a blessing. Beth was given an escape, the opportunity to become someone else. She could dance like Odette as much as her heart desired without any other thought in the world. On the stage, life had given her a new script, except this time, she was allowed to make it a routine where she could dance through the trials and joys of her character.

In the third act, betrayal, hurt, and anger coursed through Beth as she saw Siegfried dancing with another woman. When the Prince proclaimed his love for this impostor, Beth saw in it the cruelty of the scene. How mortifying it was to have one’s life stolen from them, taken without any sign of remorse. Beth imagined what her life would have been like if she was not Bethany Wood. She wondered how the ballet would have gone if someone else had played Odette and immediately cringed at the thought. There were very few gifts bestowed upon people in life, and of those is their identity. Beth’s identity as a dancer allowed her to have numerous faces, numerous characters, and numerous lives, but in the end she lived the life of Beth. Beth was, as a ballerina, every character in one, every Odette ever played in the history of ballet encompassed in this single rendition.

No one could ever take away Beth from herself. When those curtains closed, Beth could wipe off her makeup, take off her dress, and return to her life. No one would have known the journey outplayed on the stage that night. All they would have seen was the story of Odette and her Prince, of their heart-warming tale. But Beth knew there would always remain the swans that danced forever in us on the stage of life. At times, we will leap and soar through the air, landing perfectly on our feet. Yet other times, we will twirl alone, in our own little space on the stage, around and around and around. And like the swans, one day, we too will transform into a beautiful being and have our own little tale. As the night ended, the lasting shimmers of glitter left from Beth’s swan costume floated to the ground of the stage, left to twinkle each night in the spotlight unbeknownst to the dancers. And so we are left to wonder what other such mysteries lay hidden as the curtain closes each night, as the spotlight dims, and as the swans fade away into the background.