having not done since 2019 how are we feeling how's your body doing um I mean it's like different air up here you know like say yeah it's it's like this um very Sacred Space to be in um it's magic you know what we get to do up here one of my favorite things to do is to be on the stage before the the you know they let the the house they open the house they let the audience in um I always am on the stage by myself it's a different very different feeling than being in a studio the mirrors you know it's it's a completely different depth that you have to get used to it changes your center of gravity your balance everything so it's something that I always do um is just to kind of be out here and breir Val you listening to the music no no I know it in my head enough that I could even just like um just go through the movement and and I have like the Rhythm and everything in my in my body um no I never like put on any music or I just am there I like to walk through you know certain parts of the ballet can I see something can you do oh my gosh I don't even know you could do a PA for me and I would be I mean in my heels I don't even know what I would do there's like the firebird movement that in he can still you okay when I get back into my ballet classes which I am going to do CU I've looked them up now which still scary for me after so many years obviously my body can't do what it could do when it was 13 14 15 but you it shouldn't you know it shouldn't and it shouldn't and it's just how are you coping with that how are you coping with a body that is 40 you've had a child it's not you're not is your body how is your body's relationship with ballet it's 9 even to me about it's more about like the injuries that I've had and kind of dealing with that um I feel good having had a baby um you know I'm in the gym I'm doing Pilates and things like that do you still have the same amazing reach it's I would say so it's been a while I it's it's been really inconsistent in terms of like what I've been doing with ballet um and that's because of uh an injury I had to my shin that I'm still managing it will never be the same I I recently had another operation on it to relieve some of the pressure and it didn't do anything um so that's that's really the biggest pattle that I'm that I'm facing not so much my age or you know baby um because I feel like we're ever evolving as artists as people as women and so it's like you kind of have to just move and adjust with that but when you're dealing with pain that's a whole other story so that's kind of where I'm at so you it's so you're going to give your body a bit of Grace as it gets older yes and forgive it for not being Misty at 20 yes and that's how it's been my whole career you know that you're never going to go back to that person your body is never going to be you know you have to just continue to let it grow and and change is it hard to accept that is it hard to think that one day you won't be dancing the way you have been you ballet has been in your life for 27 years and is it a little scary to think that there's going to be a post performance Misty not at all I mean I already feel like I'm kind of in this place where it feels really natural I haven't haven't been on stage in about 3 years I know I'll be back on the stage at some point and it may look very different from what it's been throughout my professional career but that's feels so healthy and normal to me I have so many things in my life that um kind of fulfill what ballet has been and ballet is still in that you know again it's it's the work I'm doing through my Foundation it's these incredible projects I'm creating with my production company um it's having a son it's all of these things so to me this feels like a really Natural Evolution um that I'm just kind of going with the flow it's so healthy I I don't know you know I feel like um towards the end of beginning of the pandemic like right before I had a back injury and I think I had just been really overworked you know it had been 20 years of working nonstop you know I think about vacations where I was still you know taking ballet class every day and I had my point shoes no matter where I was in the world my poor husband would find a studio or a gym and we'd drive an hour so I feel like I'm just at a place now where I'm so content and I'm so proud of the career that I've had and I know that there will be more performances um and it just feels right you know