Taking Flight: From War Orphan to Star Ballerina by Michaela DePrince Elaine Deprince

Author:Michaela DePrince,Elaine Deprince [DePrince, Michaela]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-385-75513-9
Publisher: Random House Inc.
Published: 2014-10-13T16:00:00+00:00

Mia loved dancing in The Nutcracker that year. Mama and Papa took Mariel and me to see the show several times, and each time I felt just as excited and longed for my turn. But there were many months of hard work ahead before the next Nutcracker audition, and soon the holiday season was over and we were back to work in the dance studio.

The Rock School is what is known as a syllabus school. That means it has a list of dance steps and combinations of dance steps that you have to learn at each level to move on to the next level. For example, in Level 1, you might be expected to do a combination of dance steps like: tendu to second, relevé, demi-plié, return to first. But in Level 3X you would be expected to do a combination like: fondu front en relevé, close; fondu back, inside leg en relevé, close; fondu outside leg to second en relevé, then plié with the standing leg while the working leg is at forty-five degrees, then go to passé. Repeat in reverse.

Students didn’t move up from level to level without being ready. Everybody had different muscle strength, coordination, and basic ability, so some kids spent one year in a level and others spent two or three years in a level before moving up.

At the end of that year, Mia and I danced in the Rock School’s summer intensive, which was an all-day ballet program, and we’d hurry home at the end of the program to our swim team practice. Swimming had become nearly, but not quite, as important to me as ballet.

In the fall Mia and I learned that we had each been moved up to the next level in ballet, but Mariel had not changed levels. She remained in Level 1, and she was very disappointed because her best friends in Level 1 had moved up to Level 1X without her.

On the way home from class, Mia and I couldn’t contain our excitement over our new ballet levels until we heard Mariel sniffling.

“Mariel, do you want to be a ballerina when you grow up?” I asked her. “If you do, I’ll tutor you at home.”

“Of course I don’t!” she answered, with a pout on her face. “I want to be a babysitter.”

“Then why are you taking ballet lessons?” I asked. “Because I want to be in The Nutcracker,” she answered. “Well, you’re eight years old now, and you can be in The Nutcracker. Level 1 kids are the Angels.”

“Whew! That’s a relief,” Mariel admitted. “I really didn’t want to move up to Level 1X, because ballet is too hard for me. I’d rather play drums.”

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