There was a warrior princess and prince who wanted to dance on pointe at The School of Dance. Warrior Princess Anna needed to work on strengthening her feet and Warrior Prince Keane needed to work on his posture. They both knew they wanted to dance on pointe with grace and strength but didn’t know how to do it. They both were very flexible and growing in height super fast; making it difficult to progress like other students. They asked their dance teacher how long it would take for them to dance on pointe. Well, their teacher told them in time and with more practice. Anna and Keane didn’t like this answer. One day after class, Anna and Keane just couldn’t just couldn’t wait to dance on pointe, so they tried and tried to practice in the studio after class so they could catch up with their peers. Anna ended up spraining her left ankle and Keane ended up hurting his back when doing a back backbend.
While Anna sat down on the floor and looked at her ankles and Keane laid on the floor trying to hide his tears because he just couldn’t practice anymore, a little mouse scampered by and noticed these sad dancers in the room. He wanted to help them. This mouse and his family had lived in the dance studio for many years. They have seen many dancers attend and graduate from The School Of Dance. The mouse, named Anthony, wanted to cheer them up and asked them what was wrong. Anna, having heard about the family history of this mouse before, asked if he knew of any dancers like them who were able to dance on pointe? Well, Anthony didn’t, but his grandmother might know. His grandmother, named Sylvie, was a dancer herself when she was young and loved watching all of the dancers practice everyday from the back of the studio.
Anthony told them to follow him to the back of the room, where his grandmother watched from a small entrance in the back wall. To everyone’s surprised, Sylvie was waiting right outside of the little doorway and ready to shake the young warrior’s hands when they arrived. Before her grandson could explain anything further, Sylvie said, "It was about time she met these warriors!" Sylvie couldn’t wait to share her wisdom and what students, like Anna and Keane, did to get stronger and dance on pointe with grace and with minimal injuries.
Stay posted! I will share some of the exercises Sylvie shared with Anna and Keane in part 2 of Because They Wanted To Dance.