The Royal Ballet

When she was 9, Erika was asked to play an “extra” role in a visiting company’s ballet about endangered animals. “You’ll have to be okay with the fact that she’ll look like she’s naked on stage.” “WILL she be naked?” “No, she’ll be in a full body suit, but she’ll look like she’s naked…”

The visiting ballet company was England’s world renown Royal Ballet. The ballet was “Still Life at the Penguin Cafe” and each vignette focused on another species of animal endangered and close to extinction. Erika played a “native” child, a role that shared the stage with her “native” parents (Royal Ballet soloists) and placed humans on the stage with the other endangered species.  The part required numerous lifts and partnering and eventually running from the storms as they approached….

This was one of the first experiences that urged her how powerful it is to tell stories through art and dance, that dance isn’t just pretty movements but a medium for communication. After all the species board an ark to relative safety, the remaining image on the stage is the poor penguin that had served them selflessly earlier in the program, left all alone, flapping its flightless wings in a sad little dance.

If she could create something that made someone feel even a fraction of what this ballet made her feel, she’d succeed.

It hasn’t happened yet, so… there’s obviously still more to do.