Ballet Shoes: A Story of Three Children on the Stage by Noel Streatfeild (illust. by Ruth Gervis).
Title: Ballet Shoes: A Story of Three Children on the Stage.
Author: Noel Streatfeild (illustrated by Ruth Gervis).
Genre: Literature, fiction, children's lit, YA, acting (theater), dancing.
Country: England.
Language: English.
Publication Date: 1936.
Summary: Pauline, Petrova and Posy are orphans determined to help out their family by attending the Children's Academy of Dancing and Stage Training. But when they vow to make a name for themselves, they have no idea it's going to be such hard work! They launch themselves into the world of show business, complete with working papers, the glare of the spotlight, and practice, practice, practice! Pauline is destined for the movies. Posy is a born dancer. But practical Petrova finds she'd rather pilot a plane than perform a pirouette. Each girl must find the courage to follow her dream.
My rating: 8/10
My review:
♥
♥ "I have traveled a lot on land, my dear," he said to Sylvia, "but very little by sea. Now I shall really see the world. And maybe I’ll be finding something interesting to bring back."
"There’s no need to do that, sir," Nana broke in firmly. "The house is full enough as it is. We don’t want a lot of carved elephants and that about the place."
"Carved elephants!" Gum gave Nana a scornful look. "The world is full of entrancements, woman, any of which I might bring home, and you talk to me of carved elephants!"
But Nana held her ground.
"All right, sir; I’m sure I’m pleased you should see these entrancements, as you call them, but you let them bide. We want nothing more in this house."
The entrancement that Gum actually brought home was Pauline.
The ship on which he was traveling struck an iceberg, and all the passengers had to take to the boats. In the night one of the boats filled with water and the passengers were thrown into the sea. Gum’s boat went to the rescue, but by the time it got there everybody was drowned except a baby who was lying on a lifebelt, cooing happily. Gum collected the baby and wrapped her in his coat, and when they were at last rescued by a liner and taken to England, tried to find someone to own her. That was the trouble. Nobody knew for sure whose baby she was; there had been other babies on board, and three were missing. She must go to an orphanage for female orphans, said everybody; but Gum stuck in his toes. Things he found went to the Cromwell Road. He had meant to bring Sylvia back a present. Now, what could be better than this?
♥ Nana stopped working, her needle held up as though it were a magic wand which could command silence.
"Hark. Isn't that the Professor's voice?"
Sylvia harked, and in a moment was down the stairs with Nana panting behind.
♥ There he had made friends with a Russian, a shabby, depressed fellow who yet somehow conveyed the impression that he hadn't always been shabby and depressed, but had once worn gay uniforms and had swung laughing through the snow in his jingling sleigh amidst rows of bowing peasants. This man had left Russia during the revolution, and he and his wife had tried to train themselves to earn a living. They had not been a success as wage-earners..
♥ "So the thing is," Sylvia went on, "I can’t send Posy to school. As a matter of fact, I’ve got to take the others away, and even then..."
Nana never could remember that though she had been Sylvia’s nurse, her child was now a grown-up woman, and the sound of the sort of crack in the voice that people get when they are miserable brought all her nurse instincts to the top.
♥ "I don't think the Professor would like them."
"What the eye doesn't see the heart doesn't grieve after."
♥
♥ "Yours are more all one size. We have things next to each other like Peter Rabbit and Just So Stories, and they don’t match very well."
"No, but very good reading."
Pauline came to the fire. It was a lovely fire; she stood looking at the logs on it.
"Do you think Peter Rabbit good reading? I would have thought a person who taught literature was too grand for it."
"Not a bit - very old friend of mine."
♥ After tea Pauline told Petrova and Posy what Dr. Jakes had said. Petrova was most impressed.
"Do you think she meant we could make it a name in history books?"
Pauline was not sure.
"She didn’t exactly say history books, but I think that’s what she meant. She said making your name worthwhile means you must have given distinguished service to your country.”
Petrova’s eyes shone.
“How lovely if we could! Fancy people learning about us as lessons! Let’s make a vow to make Fossil a name like that.” Pauline looked serious.
"A real vow, do you mean, like at christenings?"
"Yes." Petrova hopped she was so excited. "Like 'promise and vow three things...'"
..Pauline put both her feet together and folded her hands.
"We three Fossils," she said in a church voice, "vow to try and put our name in history books because it’s our very own and nobody can say it’s because of our grandfathers."
She made a face at Petrova, who hurriedly held up her right arm, and grabbed Posy’s and held it up too.
"We vow." She said this so low down in her inside that it sounded terribly impressive, then she whispered to Posy, "Go on, say 'We vow.'"
"We vow."
♥ It was quite obvious that children with no certain future ought to be brought up with the kind of education that meant they could earn their own living later on. The kind of education that she was able to give them could not, as far as she could see, fit them for anything.
♥
♥ "Well, didn't we vow to make Fossil a name in history books? Whoever heard of people on the stage in history books?"
"We needn't be actresses always, though," Petrova said comfortingly. "I asked Mr Simpson, and he said because you were a thing from the time you were twelve till you grew up it didn't mean you had to be it always."
"It's difficult to see how to be in a history book, anyway," Pauline said, in a worried sort of voice. "It's mostly kings and queens who are. People like Princess Alexandra will be; but not us whatever we did - at least, it will be difficult."
♥
For these they wore the Academy overalls. They were of black sateen made from a Russian design, with high collars, and double-breasted buttoning with large black buttons down the left side; round the waist they had wide black leather belts. With these they wore their white sandals.
♥
"There is a lovely feeling about Christmas Eve," Pauline said. "My inside almost hurts being excited; I can't sit still for wishing it was tomorrow."
♥ They went to church - even Posy - and sang Hark! the Herald Angels, O Come, all Ye Faithful, and The First Noël. They had been afraid that perhaps they would only get one that they knew and the rest some dull tune that was supposed to belong to Christmas and did not really.
♥ "It's not showing off, it's because I thought of something and wanted to see if my feet would do it,"Posy explained.
"You could wait till you get home, couldn't you?" Petrova grumbled, for she hated people looking at them.
"I might have forgotten," Posy argued. Then she danced again.
"Make her stop, Nana," Petrova implored.
"That's enough, Posy," Nana said sharply. "Dancing on a railways station, indeed; we shall have people asking us where the organ is, for we seem to have got a monkey."
Posy stopped, not because she cared what Nana or the others thought, but because her feet had done what she wanted them to do. Both Pauline and Petrova then, and lots of times, had a feeling that Posy was not proud of her dancing, but looked on it as something that mattered more than anything else. She thought that doing an exercise beautifully mattered so much, that in spite of feeling that it was silly to let somebody of six think what she did mattered, they had an odd feeling that she was right.
♥
♥ On the day of the meeting Mr Simpson drove them to the Academy. Sylvia went in at the middle door marked 'emy of Dancing, an,' the children and Nana in at the students' entrance under 'Children's Acad,' and Theo in at the staff entrance in the third house marked 'd Stage Training.'
♥ Of course they had to speak the exact script. No little word, even 'an' or a 'the,' could be wrong. Both Madame and Miss Jay said that an author wrote down what he or she wanted said, and no actor, amateur or professional, had a right to alter the words in any way whatsoever.
♥
Even Posy had to concentrate so hard that she usually slept all the way home. Sometimes Petrova and Pauline did too, but they were rather ashamed when they did. There was some excuse, they thought, for Posy, who would not be eight until September, but none at all for themselves.
♥
Breakfast in bed only happened when they were ill, and sausages only on Sundays, so one way and another their insides felt a lot steadier, even before Nana brought in the trays. Just as they were going to eat, Posy came in with nothing on but the bathmat and gave an imitation of the ex-student who was being 'Water' at the matinée. 'Water' was a very good dancer, but she had rather a big behind, and in Posy's imitation it did not look any smaller; and they all laughed so much that Nana made Posy stop because she thought they would upset their tea unto their beds. No inside could feel a bit queer after laughing like that.
♥
♥ "I was a good pupil; I had great promise, just as you have great promise. I grew, as many young girls grow, to think I had more than promise."
♥ "Your face said it, and Miss Kay could see. You were angry. Why should you watch these girls? What had they to teach you? You, who played Tyltyl so well. You were in the mood I was in when I watched L'Aiglon. Why should I watch? What could an old woman teach me?"
"But you were watching a great actress."
"It never matters whom you watch, you can always learn. Always, always, always."
♥
"Don't you need money at home?"
Pauline thought of Gum, and Sylvia's grey hairs, and the boarders.
"Of course."
Winifred pulled up her socks.
"There's needing money, and needing money," she said wisely. "If I could get this job, Mother'd put half away for me, but even what's left would mean the extra stuff Dad needs to get well. He's had an operation, and doesn't seem to get right after it. Then there's clothes wanted for all of us especially shoes. Oh, it would be wonderful if I could get it!"
She looked so anxious that Pauline almost hoped she would. Of courser she needed the money too, but somehow, although there was not any for new clothes, and the food was getting plainer and plainer, nobody had ever said what a help it would be when she could earn some, and certainly she had never worried about it as poor Winifred seemed to do.
♥ Pauline felt awful standing by herself being stared at by all the people on the stage, and all those she could not see in the stalls. She would have liked to have wriggled, and stood on one leg, but the Academy training had taught her not to stand just how she felt, so she stood as she did before a class, with her toes turned out, her heels together, and her hands clasped behind her back.
♥
♥ All the children at the Academy believed that holding your thumbs brought luck. The Fossils did not really, because everybody at Cromwell Road, except Cook and Clara, thought it silly; but they had to hold them if anybody asked them to, so Pauline gripped hers. But Winifred did not seem to need any help; she recited You are old, Father William, and then sang Come unto these yellow sands, and then did a most difficult dance. Pauline released her thumbs, and looked at Nana, who shook her head. Neither of them said anything, but they both felt sure that Winifred would get Alice. Winifred herself did not seem a bit sure when she sat down; she said that being able to do things well did not mean you got on best, and that looks and personality were more important. Miss Jay came back through the iron door, and told them they had finished, and she was taking them home. She said nothing as they went up the stairs to the stage door; but when they were in a taxi she said gently to Winifred that she thought she would be engaged as understudy; they were going to try the other children, but she thought it would be all right. Then she smiled at Pauline.
"They are engaging you as Alice, Pauline. It's a wonderful chance."
Pauline was so surprised that she could only gasp, but Nana said:
"But Winifred did the better."
Miss Jay nodded.
"Winifred is the best all-round student the Academy has ever had, but Pauline looks right for Alice."
Suddenly Winifred put her head in her hands and burst into tears.
"She looks right for everything, she always will. Oh, I did so want to get Alice! We do need money so dreadfully!"
Everybody tried to comfort her, but they could not, because there was the fact that Pauline was engaged for the part, and she was not. Pauline stopped being pleased and felt miserable; she thought of Winifred's father, and her five brother and sisters, and even being able to buy back the necklaces stopped being important.
♥
♥ Sylvia was very worried at the effect the theatre was having on Pauline, but Dr Jakes comforted her. She said that the more puffed up Pauline became, the greater would be the flatness after the matinées were over, and that then she would learn that most important lesson for an actress - that today's success is easily nobody at all tomorrow.
"Let her learn," she said, "she'll find out."
♥ Mr French had a large office, where Pauline had never been before. He was sitting writing at a desk. He told Pauline to sit. Instead she came over to the desk and said politely that she was sorry she had been rude and disobedient yesterday, and that she would not be again. He said that was quite all right; she had done very nicely as Alice, and that doing nicely in a part always went to an actress's head to begin with. It was a good thing to get that sort of thing over at twelve, instead of waiting till she was grown up. He then said that Winifred had done very nicely as Alice too, and that she might take note of it, because it was an object lesson she might remember always. That nobody was irreplaceable. Pauline looked puzzled, as she did not know the word, so he explained that it meant that you could always get somebody else to act any part - that the play was the thing. Alice as just as much Alice, whether Winifred was acting her or Pauline; Lewis Carroll's words were what mattered.
♥ That night Pauline told Petrova and Posy about Mr French. Petrova said she thought it was true, and that though she did not think Winifred would be half as good as Pauline was as Alice, people who had not seen the play before probably thought her perfect. Posy said that she did not think it was a bit true.
"When I dance," she said, "nobody else will do instead of me; they'll come to see me, and if I'm not there, they'll just go home."
Pauline and Petrova snubbed her, of course, for though it was only a very Posyish way of talking, she could not be allowed to say things like that.
Pauline went to sleep feeling terribly glad the day was over and she would be Alice again tomorrow, and, down inside, rather surprised to find how right Mr French was. It really would not matter terribly if she was ill, and Winifred played for the rest of the run. She pushed the thought back, but she knew it was true.
Petrova went to sleep puzzling over what Posy had just said. She did not believe it was conceitedness when Posy said things like that, but it certainly was when Pauline said them. Why?
♥ In bed that night, Pauline said:
"Do you think adding the bit about making money to our vow had anything to do with the letter Garnie got?"
"I don't see how it could have," Petrova pointed out. "It came by the afternoon post, and was written before we vowed."
Posy sat up and hugged her knees.
"It might have all the same; you never can tell what's magic."
♥
♥
Petrova, with her skirt hung over the back of her chair so that it should not crease, was gazing at the roof, and flying an imaginary aeroplane on a new route to China. Suddenly, just as she was crossing Chinese Turkestan, she heard her name called.
♥ Pauline and Petrova were, of course, principals, and as such separated from the ballet and walkers-on, as if they lived in different worlds. They were so grand compared to the hundred fairies that they might have got proud, if Pauline had not been cured of getting proud, and if Petrova had cared about being a principal; as a matter of fact, except for the money, she would have far preferred the ballet if she had to be in the play at all, as it was less conspicuous.
In any case, both of them had too much sense not to know that it did not natter much who played the fairies; they had so little to do that any child in the ballet who had a decent accent could have taken their places in a minute.
♥ Oberon was a brilliant actor but a clumsy mover, and did not look a bit like a fairy king when in the air, but more like a sack of potatoes being lifted on a crane. Titania used her arms stiffly and awkwardly. Puck wanted to do strange Puck-like movements in the air, which were good ideas when they were in his head, but looked rather silly on the end of a wire.
♥
♥ "Are you liking the work in the theater, Petrova? I know Pauline loves it, and you couldn't stop Posy from dancing; but sometimes I've thought you would rather do something else. We may be poor, but I hope you know that we're not so poor that I would let you do work you weren't happy in."
"What other work could a person of twelve do?" Petrova asked as causally as she could.
"None, but you could give it up and train for something else when you are older."
Petrova's heart, which had bounded, sank again. For one glorious moment she had thought there was a career for girls of twelve that she had not heard of anything would do as long as it did not mean speaking on a stage. But there was none, and the money she earned was needed. She got up.
"Silly Garnie." She took a bite of biscuit. "You know I love it. Why should I want to do something else?"
♥ Pauline was really happy as the young King Edward. Dr Jakes, who was fonder of Richard the Third than any other of Shakespeare's plays, had great discussions with her about her park.
"You can't look of royal blood, Pauline," she said, "by simply coming on with your head up. Dignity is trained into royal children before they can toddle, graciousness, consideration for others, an unshakable belief in the greatness of their position. You have got to think of yourself day and night like that until you have the reading of your part fixed. You are not Pauline Fossil; you are a boy who has known that one day he must rule, though he had not expected to so soon, but who has accepted his position, and is kingly in every movement."
The rehearsals slipped by Pauline like a dream; for the first time she was not acting - she was feeling a part.
♥
♥ "That'll put an end to our vowing - at least, we can't do it all together."
Posy stopped in the middle of a pirouette.
"We couldn't vow any more, anyhow."
Pauline nodded.
"No."
Petrova looked puzzled.
"Why not?"
Posy came to her and leant her hands on her knees.
"Did you ever read of a dancer in a history book?"
"Or a film star?" asked Pauline.
"No, I suppose not," Petrova agreed. "But..."
Pauline looked at Posy and nodded.
"That's an idea."
"What is?" said Petrova.
"You." Posy turned a cartwheel. "You'll go into history books. That'll put Fossil there all right. It doesn't matter about Pauline and me."
Petrova looked puzzled.
"How will I?"
"Flying, of course." Posy, who was still very excited after her interview with Manoff, turned anther cartwheel.
"Would that?" said Petrova.
"Of course." Pauline spoke eagerly. "Don't you see? It's sort of exploring, like Frobisher, or Drake. Amy Mollison and Jean Batten will be there, but not as important as you. The books will say: 'The greatest explorer in the middle of the twentieth century was Petrova Fossil, who found routes by which goods could be carried at greater speed and less cost, and so she revolutionized trade.' Come here, Posy, and stop showing off." Posy came to her. "This is the vow you and I must make on our birthdays - Petrova can make the old one - 'I vow to help in any way I can to put Petrova into history books, because her name is Fossil, and it's our very own, and nobody can say it's because of our grandfathers.' I'll write it out for you, or you'll forget it."
"No, I won't. I'll learn it with my feet, and then I'll know it always." Posy got up, and walked out a routine of steps, then she walked them again, then did them faster.
"Fancy," Petrova said, "me. You'd think I'd be the one to do nothing at all."
Pauline shook her head.'
"I wouldn't. I've always thought you were the one that might. Film stars and dancers are nice things to be, but they aren't important."
♥
♥ "I'm going with Garnie to Hollywood to be a film star," Pauline explained.
Posy thumbed his good knee.
"And I'm going with Nana to Czechoslovakia to train under Manoff."
Gum swung round and looked at Petrova.
"That seems to leave you and me. What would you like to do?"
"Flying and motor-cars," Posy put in, before Petrova could answer.
"That suits me." Gum looked pleased. "I'd like to fly - get about quickly. There are lots of things you can pick up if you get about quickly. ..Might hire a car tomorrow, Petrova, and find a house near an aerodrome where you could study."
.."What different things we are going to do!" said Pauline.
"In such different places," added Posy.
"I wonder" - Petrova looked up - "if other girls had to be one of us, which of us they'd choose to be?"