The red devil ballerina

Little Miss Christmas Cracker on the stage in Chocolate Land – I don’t have a picture of a red devil [smile]

When I was a little girl, I wanted to be a ballerina just like hundreds of other little girls all over the world. My mother, being a kind and understanding woman, indulged me in this desire and I attended ballet classes from when I was five years old.

When I was seven, I was a good enough ballerina to participate in the annual ballet concert hosted by my ballet school. My class of small girls were to perform the dance of the ladybird. I am sure you know the nursery rhyme which goes:

“Ladybird, ladybird,

Fly away home,

Your house is on fire

And your children all gone;

All except one

And that’s little Ann,

And she has crept under

The warming pan.”

When the great day arrived, my mother dressed me in my costume, which comprised of yellow tights, a yellow leotard, black ballet shoes, a red and black spotted “wings” cape and a headband with antennae attached to it, and did my hair in a ballet bun. When we arrived at the hall, I was very excited and I remember practicing outside on the grass with the other girls in my group in advance of our stage performance. It all went well and we left the stage in triumph with no-one having forgotten their steps or tripped over their shoe ribbons.

We were then allowed to watch the rest of the performances. One of the last dances was a solo dance by a girl in one of the highest grades. She did the dance of the red devil and she was amazing. I was totally overwhelmed by how well she danced and by her spectacular [in my eyes] costume. She wore red tights, a red leotard, a long red devil tail and had a pair of red horns on her head. I begged my mother to get me a red devil costume and she said she would try. Not long after that we moved away from Johannesburg and I never got my red devil outfit, but I have always remembered the solo dance of the red devil.

Maybe one day I will have a granddaughter and I will buy her a red devil outfit and we will learn the dance of the red devil together.