Preparation: The Holiness of Setting Up

Preparation: five, six, seven, eight…

I think this might be the most familiar and loaded phrase to a dancer.

When I was a kid, it felt like a version of “get ready… get set… go!” There was an almost nervous anticipation of what was to come—the step, the turn, the leap.

As I advanced in my training, I learned there was technique to preparation. It wasn’t just “get ready, get set!” It was: get over the leg. Align properly. Bend the knee; put your weight here, not there. Don’t lean too much that way. Line up your arms. Don’t twist or overturn. Engage your center. The list goes on. “Preparation” would come to mean a million little things to set up so that you were not only ready for what came next, but you could enter it successfully.

From plies at the barre to pirouettes in the center, you’re taught that “preparation” is as essential to dancing as the steps themselves.

In the Passion accounts in the Gospels, we learn that Jesus was crucified on a “day of preparation” and as a result, there were certain customs at the time of death that had to be delayed. Delaying arrangements for a loved one who has just died simply to prepare for a day of rest may seem ludicrous to us today. But this tells us about the sanctity of observing the Sabbath: preparing for it was THE #1 priority.

I think there’s something important about this holy nature of preparation. It’s not a frantic scramble to “get ready, get set” for the Big Thing To Come (whatever that is); it’s that the BTTC deserves to be done well, and that takes some work. Our preparations can be as significant and sacred as what we’re preparing for—not a half-assed afterthought or a last-minute frenzy.

And as ballet teaches us, there’s a lot that goes into preparation if you’re going to successfully do the BTTC. It is a task of its own to line everything up, get it all set ahead of time. But leaning into the holiness of preparation takes us away from anxious anticipation and gives value to the work of preparation. And it is work. But it has tremendous value—and payoff.

Dear reader: What preparations can you make holy today?