Elf Sternberg

Kouryou-chan has finished out her year of ballet, and at the end of the year the school puts on its annual performance. This year, the ballet of choice was Cinderella, which is, like most ballets, and excuse to have lots of pretty people float about the stage, looking pretty and demonstrating some pretty crazy athleticism. Kouryou-chan is in Ballet III, which is one of the last grades before the school start to get serious about actually dancing, weeding out the ones who'll never be graceful on the stage. Ballet IV through VI is all the upper grades, where the kids get the hard stuff. And the solos. Kouryou-chan is so looking forward to solos.

She's a great dancer-- to the chagrin of her peers. She is precise and completely in time with the music. Unfortunately, those around her are not, and she sometimes finds herself running into someone who's a half-beat slower. She's gotten so much better with her arms, too; last year she was sloppy with them.

She's also so much taller than everyone else. There is one girl in her class who is a year older and an inch taller than she is-- and when they stand side by side Kouryou-chan's waistline is two inches above hers. The kid is all leg.

Unfortunately, when she doesn't have anything to do, she fidgets. Which is why she fronts a routine when her class is on stage, only to be rotated to the back when they're being asked to pose prettily and be backdrop for another act. We're working on that.

The rest of the cast was fairly amazing, too. I can't speak for other dance schools, but the principals for this performance were much better than they have been in previous years.

The biggest standout is the young woman who played the Blue Stepsister. You can barely see her in the group photo, back row on the left, in the blue dress and black braids. (They labeled them "blue stepsister" and "green stepsister" because the school director didn't want to label them with the traditional names, "skinny" and "dumpy," and they aren't specified as Anastasia and Drizella in the original dance score.) The stepsisters had the hardest job of all, because they were being asked to do ballet as physical comedy. And while the green stepsister was game, the woman who played the blue stepsister was not only game, she was absolutely fearless. She was willing to fail, and it showed in her every second on stage. Her facial expressions were bright, broad, and communicative all the way in the back row; when she "practiced" dancing, she showed just how awkward a stepsister could be, willing to be off-balance, willing to fall over. I hope she stays in show business, because that's a rare gift.

On the other end of the spectrum, during Act I all of the tiniest kids, the toddlers from "The Joy of Movement" classes get dragged out and put through their adorable routines to adoring parents and relatives and randomly chosen music from the score, which would be boring if it weren't for the overdoses of cuteness. Apparently one little girl got so freaked out during the second show she had to be taken off, crying. The infinite patience and grace of those dance instructors is wonderful in its right, and I can't imagine what it must be like to deal with that, day after day.

And while this show of smalls is going on, the Fairy Godmother character has to stand at the edge of the stage and pose prettily. This goes on for something like 40 minutes, with her arms slightly out in a stage-filling expansive gesture. Good grief, her arms must be strong.

Kouryou-chan made it through two brutal six-hour dress rehearsals, and then two performances in which she had roles in all three acts. Reminding her to stay hydrated and with protein was quite the challenge. I was very grateful to Storm's mother for letting Storm out for the night so she could attend.

Afterward, we took Kouryou-chan out to The Cheesecake Factory, where I overindulged in their carrot cheesecake. Which was... meh. Two great tastes that fail together.