As of Tuesday night, The New York Times featured eight stories about ballet on its Dance webpage, furthering my excitement about the upcoming Christmas season and the various ballets that come with it.

“The Nutcracker,” the always popular winter classic, and “The Black Swan,” a dark film yet to be released about a professional ballerina’s journey through her career, are both subjects of discussion on The New York Times’ website. Both performances, while each a portrayal of ballet, illustrate drastically different sides of one of the most graceful forms of dance to ever cross the stage.

My own experience with ballet as a little kid wasn’t dark by any means, but growing up taking dance lessons nearly every week for nine years will show you both the highs and lows of a career in dance. On one hand, if you’re good enough, you’ll travel the world dancing beautifully choreographed ballets. On the other hand, negative elements that sometimes accompany a dancing lifestyle, like eating disorders and the pressure to be the best, are often too much to take.

The New York Times’ Alastair Macaulay reported in his most recent article that American audiences have continually loved “The Nutcracker” since its first American performance in 1940 in New York. This ballet, while written for an old-world Russian audience 118 years ago, has become such an ingrained part of American culture (at least at Christmas) that ballet in general became a subject of fascination for many Americans. After all, don’t American audiences love a good dance movie?

However, American fascination with ballet isn’t limited to dance films and “The Nutcracker.” Ballet-infused bridal fashion made its way into Martha Stewart Weddings magazine last year, and Teen Vogue features up-and-coming ballerinas training in New York from time to time.

Not to mention that Natalie Portman’s role in “The Black Swan,” which comes out in theaters on Dec. 3, is a role that explores the darker aspects of ballet. Pressure to beat the competition is stressful in any field, of course, but the specificity and intensity of ballet is incomparable to most forms of dance out there. Mental breakdowns, while not as frightening as the one Portman’s character has in the film, happen more often in ballet than they do in most mainstream sports.

Growing up taking dance lessons, at least from my perspective, was a fun activity that most of my friends did with me. Unfortunately, dance is generally one of those things where if you’re not good enough or you can’t take the pressure, you get out early. That’s what I did (but not for lack of sanity, mind you). Although ballet is a pressure-filled form of dance, it was still an extremely rewarding hobby that I was passionate about for many years. Although dance isn’t a part of my life anymore, it’s still something I appreciate seeing in any form. Thankfully, I live in a country where ballet is greatly celebrated and I get to indulge my ballet craving every Christmas.

In this day and age, where MTV and blonde techno-pop singers rule American culture, I’m just glad that we still have ballet as a part of our culture, even if it’s really only celebrated at Chrismastime.