The Life Of a Ballerina:
National Scholastic's Silver Key Award Portfolio
"The stages of a ballerina’s life begin from the ages 2-6. And as she dreams and grows, so does the pain of wanting to become the imaginable essence, the elegant sugar plum fairy. Leather shoes and ribbons wrap around the ankles of little Alina.
Longing for hard wooden Pointe shoes, unknowing of the requirements she must reach before she can graduate to her vision. As the advanced dancer lands her pirouette, she remembers her first pair of Pointe shoes and the agony that came accompanied them.
Now, the beauty arrives as she steps forward into a jump, charming the crowd. The older dancer has just begun to touch the magic the nutcracker holds, and still has much to learn in order to finally be able to accomplish all that she set out for; for the magic, for the beauty, for the grace, for the love of ballet."
