lotusblossom:

I am a very cautious person and prefer security over risk. I am uncomfortable walking downstairs without being able to see the steps (yet another reason I am not a dancer). 

Peripheral vision, eye on the last step. It appears you are looking straight ahead, and the part of you that is Juliet or Clara or Aurora, that part really is looking straight ahead, or at the prince, or at the infinity of beauty toward which you are running. But the machine part, the part that is making sure you hit the next step with the tip of your toe first, that part is using the lower edge of your peripheral vision to focus on the last step, and meanwhile to learn what each step feels like, what the distance is between leaving one step and touching the next, what the grip of the floor is like. You get to a place where you see your peripheral vision is about to expire, one more step and you won’t be able to see that last step anymore. You take a snapshot of that moment, it’s usually about four steps from the end. So you know you have four blind steps. For those four blind steps you rely on the information stored by the machine, replicate everything you learned about distance and grip. 

For added brilliance you can afford a little jump off of the last step because you’ll land on real floor, a comfortable old friend who knows how to catch you and send you effortlessly into the dance.

But there are those times when, when you took your snapshot, you were just a little doubtful: three blind steps, or four? At those times you skip the jump and add the brilliance in somewhere else. Brilliance is only accomplished through foolishness once in every great while; the seasoned ballerina never gambles with her dignity at such high odds.