The rise of the music reaches her ears. She is ready. Her toes curve and flex, ankles straining as her feet arch. Her thighs are solid and her posture rigid. Her dance is released and her breath grasps at the air in each effort of her small frame. Her feet lift her body and float her across the stage, carrying the weight of her world. The energy travels up her legs through her chest and down her arms. Each one of the thirty-five muscles within her hands are taut and strained, her tension wrapped up and freed from the tips of her fingers. She is the most unprotected of artists, her energy bearing her emotion to the world.