ON STAGE, PLEASE

Having seen a performance of Cinderella just before moving from London to Canada, nine-year-old Jennifer is determined to be a dancer. As luck would have it the family's new next-door neighbor has a 17-year-old daughter, Danielle, who's off at the Professional School of Ballet in Toronto; and soon Jennifer too has been accepted there. The rest of the story is just a fictionalized run through the routines of ballet class and live-in ballet school life, beginning with Jennifer's arrival in September and ending that Christmas when she and one other lucky little girl perform with the professional company in--rapture!--Cinderella. Tennant, a National Ballet of Canada dancer herself, provides ballet dreamers with information and authentic detail on the training program. For others, there's not much of a story.