Elina Miettinen of American Ballet Theatre

@elinamiettinen

Saturday April 1st //
My name is Elina Miettinen, I'm from Finland and I'm a dancer with American Ballet Theatre.
I took some time documenting my day and here is how my typical Saturday looks like!

I woke up at 8 am today. It's our last day at the studios before we head on tour to Oman to perform Giselle.
The first thing I do in the morning is drink a glass of lemon water to replenish my body. Then I make my breakfast. I can't start the day without a cup of coffee and some food in my system.


Today I had multigrain toast with butter, Swiss cheese and cucumbers on top. It's a very Finnish thing.. I also had a coffee flavored Liberte yoghurt, delicious.
I like to switch it up every morning. Sometimes I have granola with milk or an omelet, depends what I'm in the mood for.

While I eat my breakfast my love, Sofie keeps me company by sitting next to me. And of course she is hoping to get something from the table.
(@sofiedoggy)

It's always hard to leave her at home for the day. Today, since it's Saturday my husband stayed home with her.

I packed some fruits with me to snack on in between rehearsals and to keep my energy up.
We normally have 5 minute breaks in between each rehearsal so it has to be something you can eat quickly.




I got to the studios at 9.45. Our morning class starts at 10.15, so I had about 30 minutes to warm up and do my exercises.
Our class runs from 10.15 to 11.45 and after that I'm warm and ready for the day.

 

Elina Meittinen Footwork from WorldWide Ballet on Vimeo.

Today we ran the whole ballet of Giselle, because we will be performing it in Oman next weekend. Our run of Giselle started at 12.00 pm and went till 3.00 pm with a couple of small breaks in between.


3.00 pm was time for lunch.

I went to Pret and got a salad with chicken, walnuts, avocado, tomatoes and greens. I'm not a big fan of greens, but I try to eat them since it's good for you ;)
It's important to eat well to avoid injuries and help your body recover quicker.

At the end of my lunch break I went to see our physical therapist.
As a dancer you have aches and pains pretty much every day. Each day is different and sometimes you wake up with a completely different problem than for example the day before.
Today it was my hip.




Getting some ultrasound treatment for my hip before heading back to rehearsals.

I normally have an hour lunch break, but today it was a bit longer, so my next rehearsal started at 4.30.
After lunch was a different ballet. We had Onegin act 3. We will be performing Onegin later in the summer at the Metropolitan Opera House.


Elina's rehearsal tutu locker 

Before the Onegin rehearsal started I had a few minutes to catch up with my friend ZJ. 
And before the last rehearsal of the day which was Aftereffect by Marcelo Gomez, I decided to start breaking in my new pair of pointe shoes so now I have a pair ready for the first day when we get to Oman.

My last rehearsal ended at 7.00 pm. I packed all my dance stuff that I need for the tour and headed home to drop it off before I went to my friend's house.



My husband and I had made dinner plans with our friends Alex and Christine. So we headed over to Alex's place for some sushi.
He actually made all the sushi himself and it was delicious!


He also prepared avocados with crab and mozzarella cheese for appetizers.
It was nice to sit down with friends and relax after a long week of rehearsals.
After our sushi feast we headed over to a comedy show in the neighborhood. We had a great time!
Tomorrow is my day off and I'm looking forward to sleeping in. I'll also get a massage and will have to pack for the tour. We are leaving on Monday!

This is how my typical Saturday looks like :)

Stay tuned for some pictures from our tour in Oman this upcoming week!