I feel really relieved. On Pointe Magazine’s website, they had an article on 4 dancers and their diets. The article is called Your Best Body: The Food Diaries. The 4 dancers they choose were Patricia Hachey; a company member of Complexions Contemporary Ballet, Jennifer Robinson; a corps dancer of Ballet West, Ariana Lallone; a departing principal dancer of Pacific Northwest Ballet and Kathleen Breen Combes; a Principal of Boston Ballet. Each dancer wrote out exactly what they ate on a given day and under it explained their everyday diet/nutrient intake and how it helps them physically and mentally keep up  as a professional dancer. Check it out:

Dancers are mad scientists of nutrition: They know what every bite will do to their bodies and are constantly adjusting the formula. We asked four professional dancers to tell us exactly what they had to eat on a given day and why. These aren’t menus that were carefully crafted by a nutritionist. They’re the actual food that fits into each dancer’s hectic schedule, giving her the energy she needs—and the treats she’s earned.

Patricia Hachey
Company dancer, Complexions Contemporary Ballet
Performance day on tour in Lucca, Italy

9:15 am Complimentary breakfast at Hotel Universo:
• Multivitamin and vitamin D
• One glass of orange juice
• One cup of coffee
• Granola and yogurt topped with fresh kiwi
• One hard-boiled egg with salt and pepper

3:00 pm Snack after class at the Teatro Del Giglio:
• One Kashi GoLean Chocolate Caramel Protein & Fiber Bar
• One tangerine

5:00 pm Mid-rehearsal snack:
• One big handful of raw almonds
• One pear

7:00 pm Dinner break at the theater before the show:
• Yogurt with müesli
• One hard-boiled egg
• One banana

10:30 pm During the second intermission:
• A shot of honey

11:45 pm Dinner at a restaurant in Lucca:
• Fresh bread drizzled with olive oil
• Insalata classico: lettuce, carrots, tomatoes, fresh Parmesan with olive oil and balsamic vinegar
• Gnocchi al pesto
• One glass of house red wine

Late night snack at the hotel:
• Two pieces of dark chocolate

Hachey is a vegetarian, so making food choices that will sustain her high activity level, particularly while on tour, is a constant challenge. She chooses hearty plant-based foods like granola and müesli to keep her feeling full for longer. She meets her protein quota with snacks like eggs, almonds and protein bars. “A vitamin supplement was recommended by my doctor because there are important vitamins usually found in fatty fishes or certain meats, which I no longer eat,” she says.

A dancer on tour is often a scavenger; you never know when and where you will find the kinds of foods you need. The fruit, nuts and hard-boiled eggs Hachey snacked on for most of the day were lifted from the complimentary breakfast buffet at the hotel. The Complexions dancers call their food stashes their “bodegas.” Included in Hachey’s bodega stash was a packet of honey (which she’d also swiped at breakfast). She ate it during the second intermission to give herself a shot of natural sugar to push through the rest of the show.

If you want to see the others click here it’s really interesting

MR