For those who believe that ballet is not a sport, junior Ali Lake agrees.

“Ballet is an art form,” Lake said. “It’s definitely just as demanding as a sport, if not more. In sports, endurance and strength tend to be more important than technique, whereas in ballet you need it all.”

Lake’s passion for ballet began in fifth grade, when she first started ballet lessons at the Pacific Ballet Academy in Mountain View. “I like how precise everything has to be,” Lake said. “I enjoy the challenge of trying to achieve perfection.” Currently, Lake attends ballet classes seven days a week, adding up to a 14-hour weekly total. However, when there are rehearsals for performances, Lake spends roughly 19 to 20 hours a week practicing ballet.

Just how does Lake fit in all this ballet into her schedule? On Tuesdays, Lake goes to the Zohar Dance Studio at Cubberley for private lessons with Kristine Elliott, a former ballerina of the American Ballet Theatre and lecturer at Stanford University. During the weekend, Lake drives up to Petaluma in Sonoma County for lessons with Maria Vegh, a well-known ballet instructor and artistic director. On top of that, Lake still attends classes at the Pacific Ballet Academy.

Lake recently obtained her driver’s license. “Before, I used to take a taxi from Gunn to get to my lesson,” Lake said. At first, Lake had the same taxi driver pick her up every week. However, after a while, “there would be a different taxi driver every week, and it was kind of scary,” she said. “Some of the taxis didn’t have a meter, and I would think to myself, ‘Please don’t overcharge [or] kidnap me.’”

Nonetheless, what draws Lake into ballet is the technical aspect and trying to achieve perfection. “Ballet is all technique,” she said. “There are 1,000 things you have to perfect, and every movement can be combined in a million ways. You also have to do it all on Pointe, with the added pressure of an audience, moving in time with the music, thinking about your face because you can’t be a stone face. It needs to be ‘performance quality.’ And you can’t fall and break your ankle.”

Although Lake strives for perfection, she has had some bumps along the way. Some ballet terminology to note: a “pas de deux” is a partner dance in ballet in which the male assists the female and allows her to complete more complicated movements. “Passé” is similar to a tree pose in yoga, and “penché” is doing the splits vertically on Pointe, which is on your tippy toes. “On Saturday, I was practicing my pas de deux, and while I was doing a penché and trying to go to passé, I accidentally hit him on the head,” Lake said.

According to Lake, she sees male ballet dancers mostly at her classes with Kristine Elliott, but generally they are much rarer than female ballet dancers. “Most of the guys are at big studios because they’re in high demand,” she said. “At our studio we hire professional dancers because we have no guys.”

For the past two summers, Lake has gone to summer intensives for ballet at the Walnut Hill School in Natick, Mass., and the American Ballet Theatre (ABT) in New York City. “I got to see people from around the world at ABT,” Lake said. “There were people from Japan, Italy and South America.”

Besides improving her skills as a dancer, the summer intensives have influenced Lake into considering attending a ballet school. “Every year I’m trying to figure out if I want to go to an away school like Walnut Hill or Joffrey,” she said. “I know that after high school I want to audition for [ballet] companies. I would like to go somewhere in Europe.”

For the past two years, Lake has participated in the Youth America Grand Prix, an international student ballet and contemporary dance scholarship competition. Last year, Lake was only a few points shy of qualifying for the finals in New York City. Lake plans to participate again in the senior division early next year.

Lake’s passion for ballet extends beyond the dance floor. “She’s amazing,” junior Talia Mahony said. “I was in her [chemistry] class last year, and when we were doing labs at the lab stations, all of a sudden she would get really tall. I’d look down and see that she was doing Pointe in her Converse.”

Although Lake is an intense ballerina, she does not fit the stereotype of being an anorexic ballet dancer. “I’m doing ballet so much that it doesn’t really matter what I eat since I burn it all off,” Lake said. “I wouldn’t necessarily call myself a healthy eater. I still eat ice cream and cookies and stuff like that.”

Besides ballet, Lake is also a member of the Gunn Dance Team. “It’s different, but it’s good for me,” she said. “Ballet companies also have contemporary repertoires, and Dance Team is totally fun.”

Be on the look out for Lake and the Dance Team at the Homecoming Night Rally on Thursday. She will also be performing in the Pacific Ballet Academy’s annual performance of the Nutcracker Arts from Nov. 28 to Nov. 30 at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts.