My name is Precious Adams. I am a first soloist with the English National Ballet, and I’m a ballet dancer.

My earliest memory of ballet, so I kind of started dancing by going to kind of jazz and tap classes, and I kind of was one of those competition jazz kids.

We got into lyrical dance at the jazz studio was kind of when I first had access to something that was like a different style, and then a teacher was sort of like, “Have you ever considered signing your daughter up for ballet classes?”

I probably would have been about eight years old, and I really I really didn’t know anything about ballet. I’d never seen it before.

I went to a ballet class and at first I really didn’t like it. I thought it was so structured, but boring. And then I saw a ballet, and I got involved with The Nutcracker,

like doing the children’s part in The Nutcracker with the Joffrey Ballet Tour to Detroit.

And so that was kind of my earliest memory of, ballet and professional ballet.

When I trained in Monaco at the Princess Grace Academy, that was a lot more of a kind of French influence style, which I think gave me a lot of the maybe regal qualities that I can access sometimes within my training.

When I was again in my later teens, around 16, I went to an academy in Moscow. I think that kind of toughened my skin up. That definitely prepared me well for my professional career, because I think that was kind of the hardest period of my training.

I don’t really know where my desire for discipline or my willing to be so disciplined in my art form comes from. Routine was already baked into my upbringing anyways, so I think that probably played a part.

And I think also the idea of seeing what the end result could be also probably played a part was that you were working toward a goal, there were levels you could achieve, and I think also seeing when you worked really hard, you could do more technically.

And then that kind of freed up more that you could do artistically. So when you look at the history of why ballet shoes are pink, it does have to do with skin tone.

That’s a modesty thing. That’s also a part of why tights are pink. I remember one of my cousins asked me. She saw a picture of me with my dance troupe when I was like, a little kid. She was like, “How come you’re the only Black kid in your dance troupe?” And I was like, “What? I don’t know.” And it just never crossed my mind.

I think it was like in my later teens, I started to kind of like realise I was kind of like the only, I’d be like, the only Black girl in the academy, or the only Black girl in the school, or the only Black girl in the ballet class.

At the turn of the 21st century, the art forms really began to have to diversify a little bit more. And so as I’m not fair skinned, it just kind of made sense to me to wear brown tights and brown shoes. And I think it looks really good on me. And I think the whole idea of ballet is to have a continuous line and to have a beautiful, continuous line.

And so what a beautiful continuous line for a dancer 200 years ago versus what a beautiful continuous line of a dancer of today in a globalized world, ballet dancers aren’t all lily white and fair skinned. So I wanted my complete full line to represent who I was and to kind of make sense and match my skin tone.

I would say I’m inspired the most by my colleagues. If there’s anyone who’s going to understand your best or your worst or, you know, whatever you’ve achieved, it’s the people who you’ve spent all day with and the people who are also kind of doing the same thing.

My parents, maybe they don’t fully understand, like the scale of what it’s like, oh, like, this is my life’s work. But my colleagues, they get it. They’re like, “Oh, you did your double pirouette. You were so on your leg or your triple pirouette you were so on your leg, well done.”

And it’s like, oh, like that. It means the most coming from them. I think it’s really healthy to do things just for, for the joy of it, or just to be creative or curious about something and not to expect to be perfect or really good at something, but just to do it because you’re interested.

I would tell a younger dancer, to make sure that they maintain a well-rounded life. It’s really important to have hobbies and other interests, and I think that goes for anything that you end up doing with your life.

Whatever it is that you’re passionate about, be passionate about it and give your all to it. But also make sure that you find a balance and have time for family and friends.