Music blares above water as senior Ivana Angelova and her teammates twist upside down, legs pointed high above the surface. Every movement has to be perfectly timed, every kick precisely synchronized as the team pushes through the final seconds of their Junior Olympics routine. Then, just as they reach the formation, one swimmer resurfaces for air too early, costing the team crucial points at the 2021 competition in Arizona.

“One second can ruin everything,” Angelova, who has performed in synchronized swimming for over 10 years, said. “Judges score everything from start to finish, from the moment we walk on before the music starts until the second it ends. Performance, choreography, presentation — every second counts.”

The pressure to perform through mistakes is something other artistic athletes recognize as well. Senior Sthavyashri Chaithanya, who has practiced Bharatanatyam, a form of classical Indian dance, for over 11 years, said dancing must appear effortless despite exhaustion.

“People don’t feel your pain, but you have to keep smiling no matter what,” Chaithanya said. “Since you’re acting, since it’s storytelling, if you stop smiling even for a moment, the audience won’t want to see you because they won’t understand what you’re trying to portray.”

Dance coach Alanna Williamson said storytelling is especially important in contemporary or lyrical dance routines.

“You’re really thinking about the lyricism of the song, the quality of the music and how it develops and progresses and tells its own story, and then you’re trying to create dancing that matches that,” Williamson said.

However, Williamson said every performance has elements of storytelling, even if it doesn’t convey a complete plot, through movement, music and facial expressions.

“Facials, the way that a dancer uses their face as part of their dancing, really pull you in,” Williamson said. “It can change the mood and inform the audience how the dancer wants us to feel about their movement quality or about the choreography that they’re executing. Their face acts as the storytelling device in some ways.”

Angelova said the same exhausting performance demand exists underwater. Breath control isn’t just about endurance, she said, but about hiding the strain so the routine still looks flawless.

“It’s not just holding your breath and sitting in place,” Angelova said. “You’re moving a lot, and it’s for over a minute, and it can be really hard to train that, especially when something goes wrong, and you get kicked. You may lose your breath, but you have to stay underwater until it’s time to come up and smile again.”

Competition preparation starts long before entering the pool, Angelova said, with every detail meticulously planned to maximize the team’s artistic impression score.

“It’s not only about our choreography,” she said. “It’s about our makeup, how well our hair looks, waking up earlier to do it, reapplying makeup when it comes off in the water — everything has to be perfect all the time.”

The balance between performance and precision extends to figure skating as well. Junior Ananya Adya, who has trained in figure skating for 12 years, said judges expect more than just strong technique. Skaters are evaluated on posture, expression and overall presentation — qualities that can make a performance stand out even when technical execution falters.

“In skating, it’s really important to present yourself gracefully — so we spend a lot of time on that to express that to the audience — but it’s also really important to look like a solid skater,” Adya said. “It’s a balance, but I probably spend a little more time working on the athletic side, making sure jumps are high and look impressive.”

Williamson said emotional expression or storytelling can sometimes leave a bigger impression than technical perfection.

“Sometimes in contemporary (dance), people have a really phenomenal performance and showmanship that they didn’t need to do any technical skills — maybe they can just walk at the audience and it’s captivating,” Williamson said. “I have some dancers who are phenomenal performers, and they don’t have a lot of technical background, but they’re amazing to watch because they have innate movement quality.”

In Bharatanatyam, Chaithanya said performers are judged on how convincingly they embody stories of the gods and characters from Hindu mythology.

“Presence is definitely important,” Chaithanya said. “Most competitions are in groups, so judges will also judge groups and everyone has to be on beat.”

Due to the effort required in appearance and execution, Williamson said she thinks dance is one of the hardest sports in the world.

“Not only is it horrendously athletic — the things we do as athletes are absolutely wild — but you also have to perform and look good doing it,” Williamson said. “In dance, you have to emotionally connect to what you’re doing, put it on your face and not look tired. The level of perfectionism that goes into this sport is outmatched.”

Still, Adya said, what makes a performance memorable isn’t perfect technique.

“I think it’s performing,” Adya said. “If you see a skater who’s really in love with the sport, that’s where the magic happens.”