Each year during parents’ weekend, the dance department puts on their annual dance concert, featuring originally choreographed pieces preformed by the student dancers. Following the choir, this year’s four dance pieces included two ballet numbers set in the rehearsal studio, a dance and martial arts piece aimed at conveying the movements of the dragon, and a duet with a monkey’s paw as a prop.
As a member of the intermediate ballet class that put on the large ballet piece, the Little Dancer stood out to me the most. It featured quartet, duet, and solo performances, along with a large company finale. Aimed at giving the audience a peak at the rehearsals that might have inspired Degas’s ballet paintings and his sculpture The Little Dancer, the piece was set in the dance studio during a regular rehearsal. Interspersed among moments where the dancers reminded the audience that they were watching a “rehearsal” by fixing their hair and pulling their tights, the company performed wonderfully choreographed pieces of ballet, in ethereal tutus reminiscent of frothy drinks.
Despite the skill and beauty of the older ballerinas, it was, as the title suggests, the littlest dancer – a local ballet student – who stole the piece. The first to enter the stage and the last to leave, this little ballerina fearlessly led the company and brought the audience into the world of Degas’s paintings by adding just the right touch of fantasy to make a “rehearsal,” a true performance. It was the ending that marked the real beauty of the performance, as the little dancer sneaks back on stage for one last solo, only to be caught the by the company leader. As the lights go down, we see Degas’s Little Dancer statue standing in place of the little girl, staring boldly back at the company leader, asserting her place in the piece and our memories.