Juniors Isabella Ballard and Saskia Randel dance at the Brookline Ballet School, which is co-owned by their parents. Photos by Caroline Fishkin.

Whether they play football or soccer, run track or play basketball, any athlete can tell you that playing a sport requires hard physical work. For most athletes, the number one goal is to win, but imagine trying to score a goal or win the race while having someone strictly critiquing your every move. For juniors Saskia Randle and Isabel Ballard, the stage is their field.

From the early age of three, Randle and Ballard began doing ballet.

“I grew up watching ballet and going to the studio. Seeing all the dancers made me want to dance too,” Ballard said.

Randle and Ballard first met at the Boston Ballet School, where both of their parents had been working. Later on, their parents decided to open up a ballet school together in Brookline. Randle’s parents took on the business side of the company, while Ballard’s parents took on the teaching and directing.

Six days a week for two and a half hours, Randle and Ballard train at the Brookline Ballet School on Beacon Street. According to Randle, they both also take a body conditioning class once a week.

From barre work to jumps to foot exercises, ballet class involves a lot of strenuous physical exercise. Not only do you have to have the physical strength, you have to have the mental strength to remember the steps for a particular dance.

“People don’t really think it’s that difficult, they don’t think it’s athletic. It’s not like running, obviously, but it’s very physical. We don’t just go into a room and prance around,” Ballard said.

Ballet has different levels. According to Randle, she and Ballard are in the seventh level at their school, which is the highest level.

“In a ballet school, you’re training to become a professional dancer. It’s not like tae kwon do where you gain belts. It’s more like your age, your ability, you’re just trying to get that professional status,” Ballard said.

According to Randle and Ballard, it is hard to look pretty while doing every step perfectly because ballet is not like regular sports where you can see how hard it is.

“Being in front of a mirror all day, the pressure comes more from yourself because ballet is all about what you look like and how you dance and how it looks on stage,” Ballard said.

Training to become a professional dancer comes with some sacrifices.

“When we were younger we played soccer and basketball since we had fewer ballet classes per week,” Randle said. “To become professional ballet dancers, we need to fully concentrate on our ballet training.” According to Randle, ballet and schoolwork come before activities, and sometimes it’s difficult to make plans with friends.

“We can’t miss a class,” Ballard said. “We have to go to every single class, otherwise we get behind. If you miss one class, it takes two days to catch up because it’s so physical.”

Like any sport, ballet comes with serious injuries and full recovery is essential. According to Randle, in 2011, she broke her foot a few days before she was supposed to go to a ballet summer intensive program in Pennsylvania.

“It was very disappointing,” Randle said, but she quickly recovered and was back to dancing at the end of the summer.

“As a dancer, or any kind of athlete, you often experience pain every day because of the strain you put on your body,” Ballard said. “I have been dealing with FHL tendonitis [a tendon that goes from underneath the foot, through the ankle and up to the calf], for almost a year now and it still has not healed. Sometimes I have to modify the exercises I do in class to not increase inflammation,” she said. “But I still have to work through the pain in order to continue improving as a dancer. It is frustrating to be injured, but you cannot let it affect your motivation or attitude.”

According to Ballard and Randle, ballet needs to look easy and flawless no matter how hard the dance.

“When you do something really well and correct and you’re dancing while you’re doing it, then you feel good about it and you just want to keep getting better,” Randle said.

Caroline Fishkin can be contacted at [email protected].