Magic Ballerina 7-12

by Darcey Bussell

  Nutmeg swung Rosa round. “You did it! You saved the day!”

  “Only with help from you and Tangleweb,” said Rosa. She stopped spinning for a moment and reached for the spider.

  Tangleweb smiled happily. “It looks as if it all worked out perfectly!”

  “So what are you going to do now, Tangleweb?” asked Rosa.

  Nutmeg looked shyly at the spider. “You can come and live with me, if you’d like.”

  “Sounds lovely, dearie,” Tangleweb nodded at Nutmeg. “So much better than being stuck in that horrible dungeon for ever more.”

  Rosa couldn’t help herself from laughing when, at that moment, she felt her feet starting to tingle. “Oh, wow! I’m about to go!” she called out, realising that her shoes were glowing as her work here was done. “Bye, Nutmeg. Bye, Tangleweb. Bye, everyone!”

  “Bye, Rosa!” everyone called.

  A swirl of colours surrounded her and she was whisked away…

  Rosa landed in the upstairs corridor of White Lodge. It took her a moment to remember exactly what had been going on in real life, but as she looked around her, it all came flooding back. Of course! She was at the Royal Ballet School auditions, and she was upstairs because Sukie had persuaded her to look at the dorms.

  What am I doing?

  Rosa remembered how much trouble she’d got into in Enchantia by rushing into things. I shouldn’t be here. I should be downstairs waiting for my interview.

  Quickly Rosa ran back down the stairs. She only just made it. Despite what Sukie had said about having loads of time, as she reached the hallway, the door to the interview room opened and Olivia came out with a teacher.

  “Rosa Maitland?” the teacher said.

  “Yes,” Rosa gasped.

  “If you’d like to come in now, please…”

  Holding the lingering magic of Enchantia close around her, Rosa ran into the interview room.

  Three days later, Rosa hurried home after school. Her mum was in the hall. “Has the letter come yet?” Rosa asked. She half expected her mum to say no, but Mrs Maitland nodded and pointed nervously to the table. Rosa saw a thick envelope with the Royal Ballet School logo at the top.

  Her heart flipped in her chest.

  “I’ve been dying to look inside it all day,” her mum said. “Open it, Rosa!”

  Rosa stared at the envelope. Her mouth was suddenly dry. “I-I can’t.” She handed the letter to her mum. “You do it.”

  Mrs Maitland took a deep breath. “OK, if you’re sure.”

  Rosa watched her mum take the letter out, unfold it and quickly skim across the words. She looked up.

  “Well?” Rosa whispered – hardly daring to believe – but from the look on her mum’s face she was sure she knew the answer.

  Her mum smiled in delight. “You got in!”

  Rosa squealed and flung her arms around her.

  “Oh, Rosa. Well done!” her mum said.

  “I’m going to the Royal Ballet School.” Rosa leaped into the air. She could hardly believe it. “I’m going to the Royal Ballet School!”

  Just then the phone rang. Could it be…

  Rosa grabbed it.

  “Rosa!” Olivia gasped on the other end. “It’s me! I got in!”

  “Me as well!” Rosa yelled.

  They both shrieked.

  When Rosa finally put the phone down, she pirouetted around the hall. She felt like she was in the best dream ever. I’m going to the Royal Ballet School and one day soon, maybe I’ll go back to Enchantia again. She didn’t think she’d ever felt happier. My real dreams are only just beginning, she thought to herself…

  1. Stretch your right leg out to the side and point your toes, bend your left knee and hold your arms down by your side in a lovely oval shape.

  2. Draw your right leg back behind your left leg, straighten your legs and rise on to your tiptoes.

  3. Step your left foot out to the side and rest it on tiptoe, keep your right foot on tiptoe and your legs straight.

  4. Bring your right foot to your left foot again and lower into a demi-plié and then spin round, before beginning again.

  “Isn’t it weird to think that it’s our very last day here?” Rosa said as she and her best friend, Olivia, walked into the changing rooms at Madame Za-Za’s ballet school.

  Olivia nodded in agreement. After the holidays they would both be going to the Royal Ballet School in London!

  Rosa looked round at the familiar green walls and rows of pegs for hanging their clothes on and breathed in the smell of hairspray. “I’m really going to miss this place,” she sighed, taking off her coat.

  “Me too,” agreed Olivia.

  Rosa thought of everything Madame Za-Za had taught her since she had started at the school – and everything that had happened to her, not just the classes, and the exams and the performances…

  Taking her red ballet shoes out of her bag, she smiled to herself. She had a secret. Her shoes were magic! Sometimes they would start to glisten and glow and then they would whisk her away to Enchantia, a land where all the characters from the different ballets lived. Rosa had been on some fantastic magical adventures there.

  But the shoes will still take me to Enchantia even when I’m at the Royal Ballet School, she thought, stroking the soft leather. I don’t have to say goodbye to them.

  She felt slightly uneasy though. She hated to admit it, but it almost seemed as if the shoes belonged here, with her ballet teacher, Madame Za-Za. It had been Madame Za-Za who had given them to Delphie Durand, and then Delphie had passed them on to Rosa.

  Trying not to think about it, Rosa got changed. She was just tying the ribbons on her shoes when a girl walked into the changing rooms, her chin held high. She had bright green eyes and brown hair.

  Rosa groaned inwardly. Holly!

  Holly was a new pupil at Madame Za-Za’s ballet school. She had recently come to live in the town with her aunt and uncle, and had started in Rosa and Olivia’s class. She was very good at ballet but she knew it and, although she was a little younger than most of the other girls, she seemed put out that she wasn’t in the highest class.

  “I want to sit there,” she said to Rosa. She pointed at the bench where Rosa’s bag was and gave an imperious toss of her head. “Move your bag.”

  Rosa frowned. “No. There are plenty of other places you can sit.”

  “But I want to get changed there because it is next to the radiator,” Holly told her.

  Taking off her coat she threw it down, covering up Rosa’s clothes, and then she went into the little sideroom where the sinks and toilets were.

  Rosa’s temper flared. She jumped to her feet and grabbed Holly’s coat, intending to dump it on the floor.

  “Don’t,” Olivia said quickly. “It’s our last day.”

  “But you saw what she just did!” Rosa exclaimed.

  “But after today we won’t ever have to see her again,” Olivia pointed out. “Don’t have a row, Rosa. Please.” Some of the other girls had started to come in and were looking at Rosa and Olivia curiously.

  Rosa forced herself to calm down. Olivia was right. It was their last lesson; she didn’t want to ruin it.

  “Just ignore her and let’s go and warm up,” said Olivia. “I want to make the most of every second today.”

  “Me too,” Rosa agreed and put the coat down. They smiled and hurried out of the changing rooms.

  It was hard to ignore Holly. She argued with Madame Za-Za when the teacher corrected her movements in the exercises. She tutted at the other girls when they got in her way. Rosa felt cross. She found it hard to enjoy her last class when Holly was being so awful all of the time.

  “I want you to imagine you are a butterfly emerging from a chrysalis,” Madame Za-Za said as they sat and listened to a piece of beautiful music. “You are stretching your wings, the colours sparkling and glowing, and then with a burst of energy you start to fly, swirling and swooping…”

  As Madame Za-Za’s voice and the mu
sic swept over them, Rosa longed to get up and start dancing.

  “And now the butterfly’s energy is fading. Its life is coming to an end,” Madame Za-Za said as the music slowed. “It pauses, flies on, pauses, flies on, until finally it lands for the very last time.”

  It was time to dance. The girls ran to find a space in the studio. The music swelled out again and Rosa imagined herself as the butterfly pushing out of a chrysalis. It was wonderful to swirl and spin, imagining she was as light as air, soaring through the sky and then gradually slowing down and coming to rest.

  Madame Za-Za split them into two groups so they could watch each other.

  “Look at Holly,” Olivia whispered as she and Rosa sat on the floor. Holly was moving lightly, her body expressing joy and flight. But it was as the music started to slow that Rosa found she couldn’t take her eyes off her. With every pause, the dark-haired girl seemed to get a little weaker. Her arms, lifted behind her like wings, seemed to be gradually losing their strength, fingers fluttering. Every movement she made expressed sadness, the coming to a life’s end. As the music finished, she took three last steps forward and then sank to her knees, her arms folding around her, head sinking down.

  “Oh, wow!” Rosa breathed, despite her dislike. “She’s brilliant.”

  “Amazing,” agreed Olivia.

  “Excellent girls,” Madame Za-Za said at the end of the lesson. “There has been some really good work today. We’ll finish there.” She curtseyed and they all curtseyed back.

  As Rosa and Olivia collected their character skirts from the end of the room, Rosa saw Holly walking nearby, her face composed.

  “Your free dancing was brilliant,” Rosa said generously.

  Holly shrugged as if to say of course and walked away.

  “Honestly!” Rosa exclaimed crossly to Olivia. “She is so rude!”

  “Rosa!” It was Madame Za-Za.

  Rosa looked round.

  “Would you mind coming to my office for a quick word?” the teacher asked with a smile.

  “Sit down, Rosa,” Madame Za-Za said, patting the sofa. Rosa sat. She loved Madame Za-Za’s office. The walls were covered with ballet photographs and there were shelves of books and a large desk, as well as the sofa.

  “So, it was your last lesson today,” Madame Za-Za said. “I will miss you very much. I hope you will come back and visit when you are home in the holidays.”

  “Oh yes, I’ll come lots,” Rosa said eagerly. She only lived just around the corner.

  Madame Za-Za steepled her fingers. “Before you go, I want to talk to you about the ballet shoes.”

  Rosa felt herself stiffen slightly. Was Madame Za-Za going to ask for them back?

  Her ballet teacher seemed to read her mind. “I know they belong to you, but soon the time will come when you should pass the shoes on. They are only ever really lent to us, Rosa. And whilst the person who wears them helps the people in the land of Enchantia, the magic of the shoes is such that they also help the wearer too.” Her eyes gazed into Rosa’s. “There may be someone around you, Rosa, who needs that help.”

  Rosa frowned. Everyone in her dance class seemed happy enough, everyone apart from…

  She stared at her ballet teacher. “Not Holly!”

  Madame Za-Za held her eyes with a steady gaze.

  “But, Madame Za-Za, she doesn’t need help, she’s rude and…” Rosa broke off, suddenly realising her voice was getting louder and louder.

  Madame Za-za spoke softly, “Sometimes everything is not quite as it seems. I told Delphie that once.”

  Rosa’s mind guiltily flashed back to how she had acted when she had first been given the shoes. She’d been defensive and prickly and hadn’t made friends easily. Not only that, but she’d rushed into things too quickly and lost her temper too fast. Her adventures in Enchantia had taught her a lot. But, even so…

  “Not Holly,” she said in a low voice, shaking her head. “Please don’t tell me I have to give them to her.”

  “I am not going to tell you to give them to anyone,” Madame Za-Za reassured her. “That decision is yours. But do not judge Holly only by what you see. She has not had an easy life.” She patted Rosa’s hand. “Your heart will tell you what to do, my dear. Go now. I’m very proud of you – both as a dancer and as a person.” She stood up and as Rosa stood up too, the teacher kissed her lightly on both cheeks. “Good luck, Rosa.”

  “Thank you,” Rosa said softly. She walked slowly to the changing rooms, her mind turning over everything Madame Za-Za had said.

  An image of Holly dancing the end of the butterfly dance filled Rosa’s mind. She saw again the intense sadness in the younger girl’s face and Madame Za-Za’s words echoed back to her: Holly has not had an easy life.

  Rosa felt torn. She respected Madame Za-Za so hugely, it felt wrong to go against what the teacher had been saying. But she couldn’t bear the thought of letting Holly have her precious shoes.

  She probably wouldn’t want them anyway, Rosa told herself as she walked into the changing rooms. I bet she’d just turn her nose up and say they weren’t good enough for someone who was as brilliant a dancer as she was and…

  Rosa stopped dead. The rooms were empty now apart from Holly. She was sitting on the bench reading a letter. Hearing Rosa come in she looked up. Rosa saw the tracks of tears on her cheeks.

  Jumping to her feet and looking embarrassed, Holly quickly thrust the letter in her bag.

  “Are you OK?” Rosa asked.

  “I’m fine!”

  But Rosa could hear the tears in the other girl’s voice. She went over to her. “Holly…”

  “Leave me alone. I said I’m fine!” Holly pushed past her and hurried out of the changing rooms. Rosa looked at the bench and realised Holly had left her coat behind. She started to go to the door and call her back but just then she felt her feet start to tingle.

  She glanced down. Her red shoes were sparkling and glowing!

  “Oh, wow!” she gasped, her heart leaping. She was off to Enchantia again!

  Rosa felt herself spinning through the air in a cloud of bright colours. After a few moments, she was set down lightly. She looked around and saw that she was standing on a cobbled street in a quaint town. The houses were tall and thin, and the shops were old-fashioned with curving front windows.

  A crowd of people were gathered at one end of the street outside a large, double-fronted shop with a sign that said Leonardo’s Toy and Model Shop. The crowd seemed to be calling out to someone who was standing on the steps in front of the door.

  “Let us in!”

  “We need to buy presents!”

  “My son’s birthday is tomorrow and I must buy him a toy!”

  What’s going on? thought Rosa curiously. She made her way to the back of the crowd.

  “You have to let us in!” several people cried together.

  “I’m really, really sorry, but I can’t,” the person on the steps said desperately. “The shop’s closed.”

  Nutmeg! thought Rosa, immediately recognising the voice of her friend, the Fairy of the Spices. Rosa wriggled her way through the gaps to the front of the crowd and saw the fairy in her pink and pale brown tutu standing on the steps that led to the shop. Her silvery wings were fluttering slightly and she was looking upset, dancing on her toes in agitation. “Please go away,” she begged, looking at the people.

  The crowd around Rosa started muttering angrily. Rosa slipped to one side. “Nutmeg!” she called.

  Nutmeg’s face lit up. “Rosa!”

  “What’s going on?” Rosa demanded as the fairy ran lightly down the steps.

  “Oh, it’s awful!” Nutmeg’s brown eyes looked anxious. “Leonardo, the toymaker, has shut his shop and everyone is getting really cross.” Nutmeg glanced around at the crowd who were starting to push and shove each other now. “I’ve got to do something. There’s going to be a riot soon. They all want to get into the shop but he won’t open it!”

  “Can’t you distract them?
” Rosa suggested. “Why don’t you magic up some food or something?”

  “Great idea!” gasped Nutmeg. “Oh, Rosa, I’m so glad you’re here!”

  She pulled a magic wand out of a pocket in her tutu and waved it. There was a silver flash and suddenly there in the street was a big table laid out with currant buns and hot chocolate sprinkled with nutmeg!

  The crowd looked around, their angry mutterings fading as the delicious scents floated towards them.

  “Help yourselves!” Nutmeg called. “Please, everyone. While you eat, I’ll try to persuade Leonardo to open his shop.”

  Looking surprised and pleased, the people turned from the steps and crowded around the table instead. Nutmeg’s shoulders sagged. “Phew! Oh, Rosa. We’ve got such a problem here. I hope you can help.”

  “I’ll try,” Rosa said. The shoes always brought her to Enchantia whenever the people there needed her help. “What’s been happening?”

  “I’ll tell you inside.” Nutmeg looked at the crowd. “But maybe we’d better use the back door!”

  Nutmeg led the way in through the back of the shop. Rosa gasped. There were amazing toys everywhere! There was a fairy doll dancing on a shelf, a rocking horse who was snorting and nodding his head, a row of teddy bears who looked so real you could almost imagine them hugging you and shelf after shelf of models with handles and buttons, many of them moving and making noises. A toy monkey was working an organ on one side of the room. Sweet notes flooded out and all over the ceiling were twinkling fairy lights. It was like being in an enchanted cave!

  “Leonardo is the best toymaker in Enchantia,” Nutmeg explained. “Everyone loves his toys and models. Even grown-ups. He puts a little bit of toy magic into each and every one of them, to make them special. He’s through here.” She led the way towards a door. As she pushed it open, Rosa saw a man in a cloak sitting at a desk, his head in his hands.