The Most Perfect Ballerina. Ever.

Red Writing Hood

Physical beauty.

It can open doors - and can also shut them.

Write a scene in which a physically beautiful character is somehow impacted by that trait. If you are doing non-fiction, you can write about yourself or someone you know.

Come back and link up here Friday. Word limit is 600.

She was so excited when she first met me. We were both shiny and brand new. She was all rosy pink and chubby cheeked and I was smooth and satiny, my ribbons perfectly trimmed and glossy. 

The moment she slipped me on her feet I could tell that she felt like the prettiest girl in the world. The most perfect ballerina ever.

As Mummy bent down to crisscross my ribbons over her sturdy calves she could barely keep still and I felt the pull and tug until I was finally knotted and tucked in carefully out of sight. Perfect. Neat. Beautiful. 

The pianist began her opening call and the beautiful little ballerina and I pointed battement frappéd and plied together both of us feeling the joy and swell of the music fill our soul from the outside in. Her eyes carefully fixed on Teacher every movement an unspoken question to be noticed for her beauty and her swan like grace.

I knew she felt beautiful. She had always felt loved and protected by Mummy and Daddy. Daddy even had another funny name for her that made her giggle and she loved music and books and Barbies and the colour blue, not pink. Never pink. All girls loved pink. She was special. So it would be blue for her. But dancing was the thing that she loved to do most. It gave her a way to fall into a song she loved or pretend to be someone else for a little while. Or to put a smile on her family’s face. And the clapping made her feel even prettier.

It wasn’t until I caught sight of our reflection in the mirror together that I knew that things may not always stay this way. I knew that she didn’t see what I saw.

In the far distance, past her face filled with dreams of bubbles and fluffy clouds and fairy princesses dancing with glass slippers, I looked at the other little girls and their ballet shoes somehow reflected differently making the two of us look distorted, strange in comparison.

It was also the look on Teacher’s face that spoke of future hooks and barbs directed at her, intended to streamline her in skill and eventually body structure but I knew that so many of those would land in the part of her that filtered what she would see in future mirrors.

As we gracefully glided out of dance class that day Teacher smiled at us tightly, tapped her cane on the floor and shut the door firmly. I secretly knew that Teacher didn’t think we were all that beautiful at all.

But at the bottom of the stairs Daddy was waiting there with the door of the station wagon open with his special name which made her giggle. And as we slid in and he leant over to close the door, he dropped a kiss on her head. I knew she felt beautiful.

I didn’t quite understand how Teacher didn’t see how beautiful she was. But maybe if the two of us stayed together we could feel the music from the outside in and we could dodge the tapping of Teacher’s cane on the floor and hooks and barbs together.

xxx Size 3 Bloch Ballet Shoes

Size 3 Bloch Ballet Shoes

So as you've hopefully worked out by now I am starting to write stories taken from my memories of real life events or feelings but from the POV of whatever shoes I may have been wearing at the time. I haven't written properly for years so to do this and to post it for all to read just freaks me out somewhat but I feel like I have just picked up another puzzle piece to myself that I thought I had lost for good.....

Anyway, these weren't actually my first ballet shoes but they were probably the ones I wore when I was ten or eleven when some of the hooks and barbs had found their target but not too many quite yet.

Hope you enjoyed reading this one even though I feel like I didn't stick too closely to the prompt. It's almost midnight and I've been writing this now for about 2 hours. It's time to publish and go to bed. Sweet dreams everyone. I'll be dreaming of bubbles and clouds and dancing princesses, the colour blue tonight....maybe ;)