“Willpower is what separates us from animals. It’s the capacity to restrain our impulses, resist temptation – do what’s right and good for us in the long run, not what we want to do right now. It’s central, in fact, to civilisation.” – R. Baumeister

If willpower is a kind of moral muscle that you can train, as with any muscle, then the Russian State Ballet are the best exercised in willpower, exuding a self-control and discipline that is so finely executed, so perfect that it must be otherworldly. And yet despite their perfect form, effortless beauty, stunning adonis-, athena-like bodies, ability to fly through the air, transform into swans, they are human.

Makes you wonder at the limitless potential sitting wrapped in a chest of willpower deep inside us…

[Grand Canal evening light]

[inner childhood swan comes out to play…]

[curtain call]

[beautiful perfection]