Cinderella’s grand entrance to the ball in Act 2: We courtiers have already
danced our sweeping waltz, whirled around the stage by gentlemanly partners, who
are elegant in red velvet tunics and tails to match our Romantic tutus. Little
ribbon-adorned ponytails are bobby-pinned to the napes of their necks in the style
of the fairy-tale era. The ladies’ jeweled tiaras are flecked with rubies.
Chests still burning from exertion and exhilaration, we—the twelve couples of
the corps de ballet—separate from our triumphant final pose into a
long V formation to frame the arrival of Cinderella’s coach—but where
is it?
Her Prince peers, curiously, eagerly, now anxiously, to upstage right as it creeps
into view, behind the raised balustrade where six supernumerary guards stand at
attention. The coach is aslant, strangely, lurching forward as if its wooden horses
were old and drunk. The conductor (a veteran of ballet performances) senses trouble
and brings the orchestra down to a liturgical pace—the music sounds unrecognizable
for its slowness. A courtier, positioned at the top of the steps near the guards
and able to see behind the balustrade, has a view: four sweaty, heavy and heaving
stagehands on hands and knees pushing and pulling the carriage, straining to keep it
upright and cursing out loud, the waistband of one’s pants well below where it
should be. Up above, Cinderella grips her stomach muscles and prays for dear life.
is a former professional ballet dancer. Over the course of her 18-year dance career,
she performed with Pacific Northwest Ballet, Alberta Ballet, the Suzanne Farrell
Ballet, and Oregon Ballet Theatre. She retired in 2010 to focus on teaching and
writing about dance. Her articles and essays have appeared in Dance Magazine,
Pointe, Dance Spirit, Dance Teacher, Dance USA’s journal From the Green
Room, Threepenny Review, and Page & Spine. In 2015 she was a fellow
in residence at the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation in Taos, New Mexico. She lives in
Portland, Oregon.
