Wednesday's Ballet: Cinderella

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In the StoryBook Ballet class(4-5 year olds) that I demonstrate, we dance Cinderella near Halloween, because of the pumpkin carriage. What better way to get into the season? So grab a cupcake (or theraband for that matter ), and waltz into the story of a common girl............


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Poor Cinderella. Left an orphan, she was forced to live with her evil stepmother and two stepsisters, Anastasia and Drizella. Instead of being taken in as a daughter or sister, they made her a maid, and ordered her around, day in, and day out. But instead of sitting in her misery, Cinderella was a cheerful young woman, and always had a smile on her face.


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One day, while Cinderella was happily scrubbing the floors, a message arrived from the palace. The prince was in search of a wife, and had invited every maiden in the kingdom to a ball. The stepsisters were overjoyed, but never considered poor Cinderella. But Cinderella read the note, too. It clearly said every maiden in the kingdom; not just rich ones. Cinderella asked her stepmother about the ball, and she responded with a sly smile: "Why Cinderella, the note did say every maiden, didn't it? Of course you may go, but only if you finish all of you chores." Cinderella gladly accepted, and went strait to work. She even found one of her mother's old dresses, and fixed it up to the latest fashion.


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She finished her chores, and put on her dress. When she walked downstairs, her stepsisters became jealous of her beauty, and tore her dress apart. They left for the ball in evil chuckles, while Cinderella was left in the dust.



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Because she was crying so hard, Cinderella did not see the swarm of magic around her. Her fairy godmother had arrived, and had turned her rags into the most beautiful ballgown in the kingdom. She turned a pumpkin into a gleaming white carriage, and common mice into brave horses. Cinderella rode in the carriage all the way to the ball, where she met the prince.


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She danced with the prince until midnight, when the spell on the pumpkin, dress, and mice broke. She fled from the ball, but since the prince was in love with her, he followed, and found that she had lost her glass slipper on the way. He ordered for every maiden in the kingdom to try on the shoe; but only one fit. When Cinderella's slender foot slipped into the glass slipper, the prince knew he had found his wife, and they lived happily ever after.