- Now, put your leg out behind you.
Now put this one like that.
Yeah, see you're very good at it.
That's perfect.
- Hi.
Come sit with me.
- Okay.
- Hello.
- Hi I'm Jules.
- Hi I'm Elle, so good to meet you.
- Nice to meet you too.
- So, what kind of person are you?
- What kind of person am I?
Can you guess?
- Wait, mom what's it called again?
- Do you know what I am?
- Yes, a ballerina.
- Yeah, what was the giveaway?
- You're dress and your slippers.
- Oh yeah, the slippers.
- A ballerina.
- Yes, I am a ballerina.
Do you see the point shoes?
- Yeah.
- That's kind of the giveaway.
- Mostly your dress.
- Mostly my dress.
Yeah, we call it a tutu.
When it sticks out straight.
- It's beautiful.
- Oh, thank you.
It's suppose to look like feathers.
- Ah, like a peacock kind of?
- It's actually a swan.
- Oh, I see.
- Yeah.
Do I look like a swan when I do the arms?
- Yes.
- Yeah, and you see the feathers all over it.
- I love it.
- You love it?
- Do you jump and do back flips or something?
- I've never done a back flip,
but we do jumps and we turn,
and we put our legs way up in the air.
Then you do it one foot, you know, on your toes.
- One foot?
- Yeah, you do somethings on one foot.
On your toes, spinning.
- You do some crazy stuff.
- We do some crazy stuff.
- What's your favorite ballet move?
- What's my favorite ballet move?
I like to jump.
I like to do, it's called a sodashaw.
You kind of do a split in the air.
- You mean like this.
- Yeah, show me.
Pretty much.
- How old were you when you started?
- My mom was one of my very first ballet teachers,
so she taught me dance from the time I was five
until the time I was about 17.
- Do you ever get nervous on stage?
- Once I'm on stage I don't feel nervous anymore,
but leading up to, like the performance,
there's a ton of kind of jitters and nervous energy.
- I actually did it at school, a performance.
- You did?
- And I was really scared,
because my mom and dad were watching me.
- Yeah, but they love you the most.
You know they're going to be your biggest fans.
- Mm-hmm.
- Yeah.
- I used to do ballet when I was like three.
- Really?
- Mm-hmm.
- How old are you now?
- Six.
Did you do ballet too?
- No.
- No. (laughs)
- Do boys do ballet?
- Oh, yes of course.
- Cool.
- I didn't really know that there was males that do ballet.
- Yeah, no there's plenty of males that do ballet.
They will help turn you,
and they help you stay balanced.
They also lift you above their heads.
- I didn't know ballet was so intense.
- Yeah, ballet is pretty intense.
- Have you ever been dropped?
- Yeah, I've been dropped.
- Did the boy get mad?
- Did he get... I, na, no, I got mad.
Can you imagine if you watched on
the stage and somebody dropped a lady?
- I would be like, stop this show we need to do this again.
- That's what I want to do.
I feel the same way.
- Do you ever get dizzy from doing all the turns?
- Oh yeah, turning can make me very dizzy.
So, you're trying to look at one spot,
and while you're turning you try
to keep your head there the whole time.
And know, switch it.
Nice.
- I can do it without even having to
do that without getting dizzy.
(laughing)
- That's pretty good, that's pretty good.
- Want to see some moves?
- Yeah.
Can I ask if you'd be my partner?
- Yeah, sure.
- Alright, come here.
So this is called a releve.
So we go up.
So that would be...
Yes, that's really good.
Nice.
This ones fifth position.
So you go from first,
and you're going to slide your foot over.
Yeah.
- That's hard.
- Yeah.
There's this one called beret and you might have to...
There's a ballet where she goes from one
edge of the stage to the other edge of the stage.
She's on point, she travels all the way across,
and she'll go back the other way.
- Oh wow.
- And she'll go back the other way.
- I can't even do it like two steps.
- So if I was your partner I would
give you my hand like this.
Then you would go to your releve.
Oh, you should be a dancer.
You have artistry.
That's great.
Oh yes.
That is good.
Your here, bring it to passe.
And switch.
- Swan.
Then you could do it to the back.
Wow.
- Like this.
- Like that, yeah.
Oh man.
Oh, yeah.
- Is it kind of hard to balance
when you do like those twists?
- oh, very hard to balance.
So, in point shoes you kind of got the wood on the top.
So it kind of helps balance.
- I didn't know that.
- Yes.
So this whole part on the top here is made of wood.
So you have a platform here.
Do you want to see a shoe?
There's one for you.
- What do your toes look like?
- Oh there gross.
You do not want to see my toes.
- How many different point shoes have you worn?
- I go through probably two or three pairs a week.
I mean it could be somewhere like
800 pairs of shoes probably.
- Wow, that's a lot.
- Let's see the toes.
There not so pretty.
- There fine.
- You think their fine?
That's really nice.
- How did you get those like red?
- The red?
So you know when you guys have done like the monkey bars?
How you'll scrap your hands up?
Then the next time you'll start to get calluses
so they don't rip open as much.
It's the something for your toes.
- Cool how you can crack them though.
- Yeah.
- Wow.
- Are you gonna be a ballerina forever?
- I wish.
A lot of ballerinas stop dancing around
the time they're 35 or so.
I really only have about, you know,
10 to 15 years left hopefully.
You know when your body starts to hurt
when you wake up in the morning?
I figure there's a time that it'll become...
- That happens to me right now.
- It happens to me right now, yeah.
It happens to me too,
but I just assume that it's going to get harder and harder.
- Do you have a plan for after retirement?
- So I'd love to either become a teacher,
or I don't know a mentor in some
kind of way to young dancers.
And kind of pass it along to the next crop.
- Thank you.
- Oh, thank you for talking to me.
Thank you for showing me your moves.
I think that was my favorite part.
- Thank you Elle.
- Ah, thank you Clara this has been fun.
Want to do a swan circle to say goodbye?
- Yeah.
- Oop. (laughs)
- Good bye.
It was nice to meet you.
Ah, so good to meet you.
- Yeah, bye.
- Hi I'm Elle, thanks for watching Kids Meet a Ballerina.
If you want to learn more about me,
or Pacific Northwest Ballet please check the link below.
Don't forget to check out more Kids Meet videos.
Bye.