During her audition the judges' faces tell me that they consider her adorable and aw, isn't it all so cute? But she isn't considered a serious contender as she is so young. None of that is said, but it is understood. Margaret O'Brien wins the audition and her pointe work is still pretty terrible - but you have to consider the time and also after seeing the little four year old it looks positively stellar.

My heart breaks for this beautiful little girl. She has obviously worked hard, done well, and is putting her little heart into her work.

How sad it is that she is just a tool for others who should (and do)know better. Twenty years from now, will the adults who sold tickets yesterday be there to push her wheelchair?

This is totally unnecessary. There are lots of wonderful things an 8 year old dancer could be doing in ballet flats while her bones finish growing. Why is this allowed?

Keep On Dancing*

d4j wrote:

Margaret O'Brien wins the audition and her pointe work is still pretty terrible - but you have to consider the time and also after seeing the little four year old it looks positively stellar.

You have to love how dance is changing and improving all the time! Imagine being able to see the original pointe work of the 1800's...

amazing dancer, but should not be on pointe, she is going to hurt herself, she can't even get over her boxes....

hullohullo, I was going to say the same thing.

I really really can't see any talent at all, on her pointe work. No doubt that she has amazing muscles and good flexibility!

If I bought a ticket for this swan lake I would have been really disappointed. I want to enjoy lines from the top to the feet and I don't want to grit my teeth on how horrible her feet look.

Okay, this sounds pretty harsh...but lets imagine, she has another three, four years until she gets her first pair of pointe shoes, how amazing could her feet look.
My teacher would let a student with feet like this wear pointe shoes at all, but encourage them to take greater effort on flat work, to built up enough strenght!

And yet, she still looks better on pointe than I do.

Actually, Cynthia Gregory started pointe at an extremely young age! She was 6 when she started pointe. She was featured on the cover of Dance Magazine at age 7 as the black swan herself!

Ms. Gregory danced until 1992, which would have made her 46 when she retired. She still moves beautifully.

So, the wheelchair predictions for this young dancer may not be quite accurate.

melissaga wrote:

Actually, Cynthia Gregory started pointe at an extremely young age! She was 6 when she started pointe. She was featured on the cover of Dance Magazine at age 7 as the black swan herself!

Ms. Gregory danced until 1992, which would have made her 46 when she retired. She still moves beautifully.

So, the wheelchair predictions for this young dancer may not be quite accurate.

^Yes, and my mum has been smoking since she was 15 and doesn't have lung cancer. Doesn't mean there's not a correlation between the two.