"Like having a knife in your toe"

Logi Guðmundsson sits in the reception area of ​​the physiotherapist's office and politely answers the phone when the clients call. At first glance, he seems like a normal teenager, tall and thin, doing his summer job.

But Logi has not followed the same path as most of his peers and is anything but a normal teenager. He has put in a lot of effort since childhood during ballet training and has come a long way in his field, despite his young age.

After two years studying ballet at one of the most prestigious ballet schools in the world, the San Francisco Ballet, he is one of the few students who gets to spend a so-called apprentice year. After that, he will be a full-fledged professional dancer and all doors will be open to him.

Mastering difficult routines ignited the passion

At the age of eight, in 2015, Logi started practicing ballet at the Icelandic School of Performing Arts and was immediately considered promising, the youngest in the group.

"I had a bit of an advantage because I had been dancing for so long. I didn't find it interesting at first because I was coming from the excitement and mood of the ballroom dancing to this disciplined environment where you weren't allowed to talk and you had to stay focused. I used to do samba and dance, but this was completely different," he says and mentions that his friends at school thought it was pretty cool that he was a dancer.

"I was respected. I could do splits, was the best in sports and swimming, and won the pip tests. I was an athlete and a very good runner. So my schoolmates and friends saw that I was an athletic boy, even though I was "tiptoeing", he says, and says that he soon found himself in ballet.

"When I started to gain skills in difficult routines, a lot of interest and passion arose."

Refused to study in San Francisco

Guðmundsson was admitted to a prestigious ballet school in Amsterdam, but it was not written in the clouds because fate took the reins.

"I was invited to a four-week summer course at the San Francisco Ballet and received a scholarship from Helgi Tómasson, who had seen a video of me dancing and invited me. I was going to the summer course and from there to Amsterdam and treated it like a training camp, but many people there used the course as a kind of entrance exam for the school and thus didn't have to go through an entrance exam. The last week of the course, I was called into the office and offered a place at school. I told them that I was on my way to school in Amsterdam, but my English was so bad that it was a clumsy conversation, a bit "lost in translation", if I may say so," he says, and adds that the conversation ended when he expressed them that he had entered another school.

"The San Francisco school is one of the best in the world, and while the Amsterdam school is also great, the other one is better." So I didn't tell anyone about this conversation, neither mom nor dad. There were my friends who had applied who didn't get in, but I didn't do anything and wasn't thinking of it as an entrance exam."

Guðmundsson had turned down an offer to study at one of the most prestigious ballet schools in the world.

"My family and I went out to eat on my mother's birthday and I told them this as a joke. They told me it was too good an offer to pass up, so I sent them an email saying I was interested. I knew after the course that the dormitory was nice, the school was in a nice place and the teachers were good. So this was more suitable," he says, who began studying ballet at the age of sixteen in San Francisco.

Will be the hardest year of my life

The training is extremely rigid, endless exercises where the technique is practiced until perfection is achieved.

"I am in ballet, learning to dance with a partner, learning ballet technique and one folk dance in ballet costume as well as modern dance. In between, we have pilates, stretching, endurance, and weightlifting classes. Then we learn choreography and after ballet practice, there is usually another ballet class where we learn big and difficult steps," he says, but there were about ten boys and twenty girls in the program. Guðmundsson says there is a lot of competition among students and respect for those who are the best. After two years of ballet studies, he is now going on a so-called apprentice year, after which he will become a fully-fledged professional dancer. Not everyone makes it to the student year; only the best.

"The last year of the program was very stressful, as it was the year of graduation and everyone wanted to get into the trainee program, but only a few got it."

Logi says he is excited for autumn, but also nervous.

"This is going to be one of the hardest years of my life."

Dancing with an ingrown toenail

Do you ever get stage fright?

"Sure, especially at the graduation show." There I had to prove myself, that I deserved to get into the student program because others didn't get in. There was a lot of pressure to make no mistakes. Then there were huge names in the ballet world watching. It was three shows and in the last two I had an ingrown toenail, kind of killing me! It was do or die. There was nothing else in the situation. My mom and dad had traveled halfway around the world and I told them I wasn't sure I'd make it on stage because I could barely walk. It was like having a knife in my toe. But before the show, I took painkillers and went on stage even though it was really bad and I couldn't enjoy it. But the adrenaline makes you forget the pain."

Following in Helgi Tómasson's footsteps

This summer, Logi has had a lot going on, as he has two jobs, creative summer jobs and distance learning in Verslunarskólinn College, as well as ballet training.

"I need to stay in shape because it is not possible to come back in worse shape. Many of these kids are so rich they don't have to work and are in endless summer classes. Of course, I have to work, like other Icelandic kids."

What is the dream?

"I would like to dance with the San Francisco dance company or even with a good dance company in Europe." Then I would also be closer to Iceland and could always go home," he says, adding that The Royal Ballet in London and the Paris Opera Ballet are high on his wish list.

Is Helgi Tómasson your role model?

"Yes, absolutely! I have often chatted with Tómasson and everyone respects him. Teachers and students were puzzled that I was chatting with him because he is a real role model and a legend. He brought the San Francisco Ballet to where it is. When I'm hurting, I often think, what would Helgi do? The answer is, that he would continue. We're both from Iceland and since he made it this far, so can I."