It’s been over eighteen months since I quit ballet so I feel more than a little rusty… but the rest of the cast are really impressed with my dancing. None of them could do it and all of a sudden, I feel proud to be part in this year’s school play… not to mention proud of myself. Then, two weeks before the performance, John Sully, the boy’s who’s dream I’m performing has to have his appendix removed and will be off school for about three weeks. At this stage in the rehearsals it’s disastrous to lose a key player and Miss York is struggling to find a replacement for him.
The last thing the drama teacher wants is to drop my scene, and I don’t want that either… especially after all the work I’ve put in. I’d resurrected my daily stretching routine which involves thirty minutes in the mornings and evenings as well as practising my steps at home too. After a few days of not knowing if I’m going to be part of the play, Miss York gives me some ‘great news’. She’s found a replacement for John but since his last minute replacement is a girl called Kelly, some minimal changes need to be made to the script. Instead of the scene being about a boy dreaming of becoming a ballet dancer, it’s a girl dreaming of becoming a ballerina. “But… I can’t dance like a ballerina… it’s completely different… it’d mean changing the choreography and everything.” I state.
“Not really.” the drama teacher claimed. “Just a change of costume is all that’s needed.” she says. “I’m disappointed too… I really wanted to have an homage to Billy Elliot in this play.”
“Well… surely Kelly could play a boy?” I suggested. “That makes more sense.”
“She’d need a hair cut.” the drama teacher said. “And I doubt she’d be willing to do that just for one small part in the play.” she claimed.
“She could wear a wig.”
“Possibly… but she is very pretty… even with a wig I don’t think she’d be very convincing.” Miss York replied. “I know it’s a big ask… but you’ve put so much into this already, it’d be unthinkable to find a girl who does ballet to replace you.” she said. “Two minutes in a tutu. That’s all it is.” she assured. Reluctantly, I agreed to go along with the changes. I did change the choreography a little to make it a more convincing routine for a ballerina. I dug out my old DVDs of the Bolshoi Ballet doing Swan Lake and the National Ballet’s Nutcracker and focused on the ballerinas. I wasn’t too happy about changing my choreography at this late stage but… if I’m going to do it, I want to do it properly. It was only as we prepared for the full dress rehearsal that I began to wish that I’d never agreed to the changes in my script.
As a ballet dancer, I was only going to wear shorts and a T shirt but now I’m playing a ballerina I have to wear a pink leotard with a big pink pancake tutu which means everyone can see my bum regardless of whether I bend or not. In addition I’m wearing pink tights, pink shoes, full make-up, false eyelashes and a tiara. Even Miss York couldn’t help but snigger when she first saw me in costume. Everyone did. My boyish hair is scraped into the tiniest ponytail, held with a bobble, hairpins and hairspray before a fake bun was pinned in place. A pair of magnetic diamanté earrings completed my costume.