MaNiC mOnDaY ~ Grace

To me, nothing says grace like the ballet. When I was younger, I took dance lessons for ten years, and all ten included ballet. By my tenth year, I was in pointe shoes. And let me tell you, it may look effortless on stage, but dancing en pointe is a LOT of work! Just getting across the dance floor without sounding like a gang of klompendancers is a feat in and of itself, considering that the box, or support, in the toe of the shoe is made of several layers of cardboard and glue, and can make as much noise as a wooden shoe when banged against the floor. It was a lot of fun, but in the end, I just wasn't flexible enough, and didn't have enough of an arch in my foot to do anything lucrative with ballet as a career. Plus, after ten years, I was ready to move on to other things.

The following is a video of the pas-de-deux from the Nutcracker, with the Sugar Plum Fairy and the Nutcracker Prince. (Pas-de-deux is like a dancing duet, by the way) I'd also like to send a quick Happy Birthday, to a real-life Sugar Plum, Amazing Gracie!