Beloved Ballet by Maddie
“Ugh I’m going to be late,” I told my father. “No, you’re not. Look you have ten minutes until it’s 1:30,” my Dad replied. I opened the car door and slammed it behind me. I rushed inside and saw the note in the cubbies that The Carnival of the Animals parts were up. I went in ,said hello to Andrea, and rushed over to the call board.
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I scanned the board for the piece of paper. I saw the Giselle character list, the YGAPs performance time, and suddenly my eyes passed over the words Carnival of the Animals. I looked over the board and found my name. Looks like I’m a can-can dancer, long ears, and pianist. Darn it. No solos. But it sounded like those parts are going to be fun. I realized I only had ten minutes before class started and I still needed to do my hair and get dressed, and I know how heather feels about being late. We have had multiple chats with the whole class about being on time on top of all the other chats, that included hair being up in a bun now that were older, and a lot of other ones. So as fast as I could I rushed down the stairs already putting my hair up in a ponytail. I passed Rhohini and said hi, pushed open the curtain and stepped into the dressing room.
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I was greeted by Rebecca and Maya fooling around in the dressing room and gobbling down last minute snacks. I had to duck underneath the tutus and costumes to change. I slipped on my tights and leotard, pulled my hair up and twisted it into a bun. Thanks to the bobby pins I got for my birthday I can put my hair up in a record 2 minutes. “Hey Rebecca can you tie my skirt for me?” I asked her. “Sure,” She replied. She took the strings and pulled them so tight I could hardly breath “Not so tight,” I said fairly loudly. “Sorry,” She said loosening the strings. Now That I was all read I could relax a bit.
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I couldn’t help but peek at the other side of the dressing room to see what costumes they had picked out for us. I was that excited. That’s where they always keep the costumes (even though it’s the boys dressing room). I saw the dresses we used in the wild swans. Underneath the plastic bag I saw a sign that said Carnival of the Animals on it and underneath it were two tutus that had feathers on them. But I didn’t want to get caught snooping around so I headed back to our part of the dressing room.
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Heather called us and we went into the studio and dance around while Heather got the music ready. I always dread the start of ballet class , first because it’s the most painful because I’m not warmed up yet, and second because I know I have a whole class of ballet ahead of me. But once I start dancing all of those feeling go away. We started at the bar and after we had done jete, grand battement, tendu, and some other things we headed into center. Heather gave us a routine to do and we had to memorize it right away and be able to do it perfectly (that doesn’t usually happen instead we have to go over it a few times). She gave us a routine that involved a lot of devlope. I especially don’t like devlope because it uses your stomach muscles and to be able to get my leg up high I can only hold it there for a couple of seconds. For my New Years resolution I said that I would work really hard because since I’m in level 5, I’m going to be in the upper school this year which is really exciting because I’m going to be on point.
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So now that I have a goal I have been trying harder then before. So when Heather said to do the combination once more I went through Grande Plie making sure not to wobble squeezing my stomach muscles on the way up “ I,2,3,4, up to passe and devlope.� Heather counted to the music as we did the routine. Here it was. I brought my leg up and held it there. It was even pretty high. Ugh now I had to do the other side.
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“Time for jumps. I want to teach you something,” Heather said calling us to the bar. She told us a story about a king that couldn’t do a certain ballet move. Since he was the king, his teacher made up a new move called the royale. She showed us the move and we tried it. “We’ve done this before,” a few people mumbled. “ Then you will be able to do it really well,” Heather replied and at that we all rushed to the bar. She was using the kind of voice that said no matter what, you will not be able to get out of doing this. After we practiced she gave us another combination. I glanced up at the clock. It was almost 3:00 which is when class ends. We just had enough time to do Giselle which is the dance we are doing for the end of the year school dance. We almost know all of it. We spread into two groups Mia, Maya, and I on one side and Rebecca and Rohini on the other side. I got to the corner and put my left foot forward in tendu and the dance began. Sometimes we were all in together and sometimes only a few of us were together. I love the feeling of flying through the air! We went through the dance, slowed down at some of the slow parts and started right back again at the fast parts. We get into our finishing poses and on the last note spread our arms out wide. 8
“ Thank you girls,” Heather said. “Thank you Heather,” we replied. I grabbed my shirt that I wore over my leotard and went to go change. Out of breath, I went to go to watch my brother’s practice. He was practicing before the rehearsal started. I watched him do a couple of cambres and leaps. He has gotten much better but I still correct him on some things. Which he always gets annoyed at for some reason. Heather yelled down,“ Carnival of the Animals rehearsal is starting now.” Toler stopped dancing and ran up the stairs to the other studio. I watched them until I got bored. I waited for my mother to pick us up. She had my lunch and I was really hungry. Good thing she came 45minutes later or I have might of died of hunger. “Come on Toler,” I yelled to him from down the stairs. “Just a second,” he yelled back. Ugh, how long can he take. “We’re going to be late for Amelia’s birthday party,” I yelled back to him hoping that would get him to hurry up. “OK,” he said as he came down the stairs. We walked down the hall and said goodbye to Andrea. I opened the door and stepped outside and feel a rush of fresh air. We got into the car and drove home. On the way home I told my mother about class and how the Giselle dance was coming along. But I kept getting interrupted by Toler who was trying to talk to my mother over me. When he finally stopped yakking I told my mother that we were pretty much done with the dance. I also told her the parts we got in the Carnival of the animals. “ Nice,” she said. “I can’t wait to see the show.” 9
Pronunciation Guide tendu (ton-doo)
devlope (dave-low-pey)
plie (plee-ay)
jete (zhe-tay)
royale (roy-al)
cambres (cam-bray-es)
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