07:53 - Source: CNN
Life as a principal dancer of the Joburg ballet
Johannesburg CNN  — 

Shannon Glover is one of South Africa’s most prominent ballet dancers. She’s tasked with taking on Camellia - the lead role in Alexandre Dumas’ tragic romance, and highly prized ballet production - La Traviata.

Choreographed by Veronica Paeper, it’s a version that’s been a staple of South Africa’s ballet season for almost three decades.

Fusing a sweeping dance composition with Giuseppe Verdi’s emotional score rearranged for ballet - Paeper’s production has been very successful.

Staged by countless ballet companies each year since it was first performed in 1990, the much-loved tale follows the tragic love story of a courtesan and her admirer.

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For Joburg Ballet’s principal dancer each performance is “addictive.”

“It keeps me alive,” said Glover. “If you use maybe skydiving or bungee jumping in comparison – that rush that you get.”

Jo Munnik/CNN
During her 14 year-career principal dancer Shannon Glover has performed in 13 ballets including Romeo and Juliet and ballet's most well-known romance Swan Lake.

This month she takes the lead in South African Veronica Paeper's choreographed La Traviata. Pictured here, she rehearses at the Johannesburg theater.
Courtesy Barry Goldman/Joburg Ballet
Lauded as one of South Africa's most prestigious, Joburg Ballet opened in 2012 as an institution for the masses, adapting classical techniques with an injection of traditional African identities and dance rigor.

The ballet company has been attempting to reach out beyond its predominantly white audience since its launch.

Pictured: Ballet soloist Kirstel Jensen rehearses for Swan Lake.
MARCO LONGARI/AFP/AFP/Getty Images
Joburg Ballet and Via Katlehong Dance Company are involved in the promotion of ballet in disadvantaged areas of South Africa.

Pictured: Members of the ballet company rush backstage after a performance ahead of an open discussion on dance as a powerful means of change in society.
MARCO LONGARI/AFP/AFP/Getty Images
Using ballet and dance to promote healthy and positive choices, in 2014, it provided lecture demonstrations to twenty schools in Soweto, raising awareness and informing students of the available free classes they provide together with the provincial department of education.

Pictured: Senior soloist Kitty Phetla performs in a classroom at the Nka-Thuto Primary School in Soweto.
MARCO LONGARI/AFP/AFP/Getty Images
Around 250 children have been offered classes as part of its satellite schools around South Africa's neighborhoods, at a lower costs for parents.

Pictured: Senior soloist Kitty Phetla waits to perform in a classroom at the Shalomanne Primary School in Soweto.
MARCO LONGARI/AFP/AFP/Getty Images
Choreographer Adele Blank looks on while dancers warm up before a full dress rehearsal of the Nutcracker Re-Imagined - an African reworking of the popular ballet piece with traditional African elements. The role of the Sugar Plum Fairy is instead played by a Sangoma known as a traditional healer in South Africa.
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Dancers get ready to enter the scene during a full dress rehearsal of the Nutcracker Re-Imagined. With a stage backdrop representing the Kalahari desert, it premiered to an audience of 970 strong at the Johannesburg Theatre.

"We are trying to sustain the existing audience, but grow a very new South African audience, particularly a young and black and exciting audience," CEO of the Joburg Ballet, told local paper Mail & Guardian back in 2014.
Courtesy Susanne Holbaek/Joburg Ballet
For a full-length two or three act ballet such as Swan Lake, Giselle and Romeo and Juliet, rehearsals take place for eight to ten weeks prior to opening night.

Pictured: Kitty Phetla takes to the stage in The Dying Swan.
Courtesy Joburg Ballet
Ballerina Monika Cristina and head seamstress Evancina Mokwebo during a costume fitting in Johannesburg.

Given the expense lavished on ballet costumes, they are often reused for a production for many years and adjusted to fit individual dancers.
Courtesy Lauge Sorensen/Joburg Ballet
A very basic costume takes two to three days, a tutu takes anywhere from four to fourteen days to design depending on how elaborate the beading and decoration designs requested are.
Pictured: Nicole Ferreira-Dill and Juan Carlos Osma in Swan Lake.
Courtesy Bill Zurich/Joburg Ballet
After each season costumes are cleaned, repaired if necessary and taken for storage at a warehouse in Pretoria, South Africa.

Pictured: Juan Carlos Osma and Shannon Glover in Giselle, act II.

Born in Durban, the ballerina started dancing at the age of four, was snapped up by Joburg Ballet aged 18, and promoted to principal dancer just six years ago.

Glover took CNN Africa behind the scenes before the opening performance. “There are many challenges,” Glover said of her role.

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“One is technique, you are working on technique every single day. Nothing is ever good enough, you know you can do better,” said Glover. Such an emotive performance, requires her to step things up a notch.

“It’s all about the connection. Dance is not just about learning steps. You are playing a role without any words…

“It’s all about your mannerisms, how you look at someone, how you touch someone.”

Ballet, she feels, is an important art form: “I touch people everyday, just being able to do that, take people into another world, there’s nothing like it.

Watch the video above to go behind the scenes at the Joburg Ballet and see Glover’s journey to principal dancer.