Ballerina 🩰 2016

Felice's story (from the heroine's point of view)

“Do you know what it’s like to have a dream that seems completely impossible? I grew up in a drab orphanage in Brittany. All around me were dreary walls and stern teachers, but inside me, music always played. I only had to close my eyes and I was already spinning. Everyone said that a girl without a penny and no connections would never become a ballerina. But I had Victor—my best friend, an eccentric inventor, and the most loyal man in the world. For the sake of my dream, we decided on a desperate step: we escaped the orphanage and took the night train to Paris. Paris at the end of the 19th century greeted us with lights, noise, and the majestic Grand Opera. To get there, I had to resort to a grand deception—I stole an invitation from the arrogant Camille Le Haut and gave her name. That’s how I ended up in the class of the cruel but brilliant maestro Mérante. Every day he expelled the worst student, and I had no foundation—I knew no positions or steps, just jumped around chaotically. I would have been expelled on the very first day if not for Odette. She worked as a cleaner at the opera, limped, and seemed very withdrawn. But it turned out that Odette was a former great prima ballerina whose career was destroyed by a terrible fire. She became my mentor. Odette taught me ballet not through dry drills, but through life itself. We trained at dawn: I maintained my balance on a swinging barrel, learned to catch drops of water, and jump as if there was no gravity beneath my feet. She showed me that ballet is not just technique, it is a passion that comes from the heart. Having experienced competition, deception, hard falls, and even a momentary loss of self-confidence, I still proved what I was capable of. I got the role of Clara in The Nutcracker and danced on the great stage! Now I know for sure: if you have a fire in you, no one can extinguish it."

Am I fucking crazy?