A biography for Mary Helen Bowershasn’t been written yet.
“I'm very sensitive to salt. I always see and feel a big difference in my body when I eat it, so I try to consume salt in moderation.”
“Most of the time, even if I'm at home in my sweatpants, I probably have a pair of slippers on.”
“For a ballerina, the center of balance is everything - creating a strong center of balance begins with building strong abdominal muscles.”
“I like to think that when you take care of yourself, when you do nice things for yourself, it has a nice ripple effect on the rest of the world.”
“A simple ballet wrap sweater heats the back muscles but is easy to put on or take off without disturbing a dancer's makeup or hair before a performance or during a workout.”
“Carrying a baby is such hard work, I've found that the stronger I am, the better I feel.”
“Pregnancy is magical, I've never felt more connected to my body.”
“With ballet, you're really focused on the inner thigh and butt and just lifting and lengthening everything, including your arms. You're not using weights, but holding up the weight of your own arms is a challenge.”
“Ballet targets smaller muscles that you don't often use - instead of working your quads, it works the inside and the back of your leg.”
“I had the opportunity to train with Natalie Portman for 'Black Swan,' and the program we created was intense and involved a lot of travel.”
“It's not realistic to say never eat sugar, but I try to limit my sugar as much as I can to buckwheat honey and dark chocolate, which I love.”
“A calming place, where you can go to escape it all and just focus on your body, is so wonderful to have.”
“I adore the tapestries at the Musee de Cluny in Paris!”
“For ballet dancers, style is about melding personal expression with physical form.”
“Posture has such a big impact on the way people perceive you.”
“I love berries, greens, and salmon.”
“I find that the thing that makes every body look the best is great toning, and really, really targeting the muscles, and low cardio, where you're sculpting and getting your heart rate up but not beating yourself up.”
“I think most people don't need as much cardio as they think they do.”
“Ballet can be hard on your joints, and when you're on a movie set doing take after take, it can become really repetitive.”
“Sometimes people feel really trapped by the body that they have. Women are told, 'You have this body shape; you're a pear or string bean, and you can't change the way you look.' That's just not true.”