I like ballet for the same reason I loved theater.
It gives me that opportunity to completely escape myself. I can throw off what encases who I am and become someone else.
When you get up on that stage and the lights shine down and you step into character it's... freeing. It's draining and scary and hard but beautifully liberating. I was driven by theater. It was the most creative and inspired I've ever been. I could be anyone! I was born a white, American, female and raised to be a certain person. I can't change some things. But in theater you can see what it's like to be someone else with a different story and different circumstances. It's an exploration process that shows you who you are in the end.
Ballet is the same for me. It lets me step out of who I usually am and do something completely different. I get to be graceful and confident and talented. I change into that leotard and tights, tie on the slippers, stand at the barre and it's like I'm really a dancer. And, if you know me, you know I am definitely not a dancer. Heavens I'm uncoordinated and clumsy. Ballet gives me a chance to escape that.