Super-Special 15 - Baby-sitters European Vacation - Snark of Jessi's plot

[miri_me]

Is a one-theme-within-a-book snark an acceptable snark? I've just read Super-Special 15 - Baby-sitters European Vacation, and while a lot of it was worthy of snarking (Kristy "acting a character" and snuggling up to a boy (and deciding that, if you can't work out how to say "I kinda like you", kissing him is a pretty good way of cluing him in - and

Comments

[anabellabobella]

One of Jessi's most WTF moments, that shows that no one involved in this series knows the first thing about ballet, is when she borrows pointe shoes (she didn't take any to Europe, and borrowed some--that piece is on pointe). I'm trying to decide if I should type up a lesson here on that, or if I should make it its own post since it looks like I'm going to be doing a lot of Jessi-/ballet snarks. What do you think?

[miri_me]

What? She doesn't! You can't do that!!! Wearing normal shoes which have been moulded to other people's feet is a bad idea - and you're not balancing your entire weight on a couple of toes in those..! They don't need to support your feet *just* so

[anabellabobella]

When a company prefers one kind of pointe shoes, it's actually one brand, and it's for a good reason. Professionals often have their pointe shoes custom-made. The shoe-makers are all in other countries. So you either fly your dancers around the world for fittings, or you bring the maker to you for fittings. This means limiting it to one brand so you have fewer individual makers to fly in

[miri_me]

OK, I'm convinced..! Horrified, but convinced!

By the sounds of it, not all of the corps are in all of the dances, and the girl with food poisoning isn't actually scheduled to appear at all, unless somebody injures themselves:

“Clarissa sprained her ankle warming up,” he said. “She won’t be able to go on tonight.”
“Where’s Yolanda?” someone asked.
“In her hotel room,” Mr. Brailsford heaved a sigh. “Food poisoning.”
I gave Tanisha a curious glance.
“The understudy,” she whispered.
I could see the wheels turning in Mr. Brailsford’s head. “Okay, we’ll be able to handle Brasilica with some minor changes,” he said. “And Clarissa’s not in Striver’s Row . . .”
He ran through the schedule, number by number, making revisions. Toward the end he paused. He thought for a moment, then shook his head. “The problem is Gotham Rhythm. Without Clarissa, the symmetry is shot. We’ll have to cancel that one, I guess.”
Gotham Rhythm?
Mr. Brailsford looked up. He squinted in my direction. “Unless . . .”
No. He wouldn’t. Now he was smiling. “

[anabellabobella]

Dance companies NEVER sign 11-year-olds. When someone is signed to a company, even at an apprentice level, they are considered to be working for the company. Working isn't the issue. What is is that you get paid and you get a stipend for your shoes (easily $60 a pop on the low end, and company dancers can go through 100 pairs of shoes in a year), and no company will fund the dance education of a girl who has not yet hit puberty. That's a big financial risk to a company considering how close ballet companies already come each year to being in the red. It's not uncommon to be in the hole at the end of the year, and to have to do some quick, panicked fundraising to get back into the black. If you ever want to complain about the cost of tickets to the ballet, just remember that the typical dancer, even principal dancers (leads), have second jobs just to pay their bills. On top of this, most employees aren't highly-paid either, and a lot of labor is volunteer. Usually the only person who is well-paid is the artistic director, and

[miri_me]

Btw, thanks for the informed opinion - it struck me as batshit insane, as somebody who had one or two reasonably relaxed lessons a week from the ages of four through to twelve, when I broke a leg (got hit by a car; ballet was not to blame!), and who has read a load of ballet books (including ones where the teachers kept the pointe shoes under lock and key to make bloody sure that kids about Jessi's age - in a full-time ballet school - didn't practice for more than a few minutes at a time, under strict supervision). My sister began pointe work before developing CFS; I'm not sure if she even got the chance to wear out her first pair of shoes before she was too ill to dance. Before that, when I persuaded her that professional dancer was unlikely to be a great fit for her (at 21, she's 5' and a quarter of an inch tall. Our family also tends more to "stocky"/"curvy" than "slender". I also explained what ballet can do to feet to her...) she wanted to be a dance instructor. If things had been different, chances are, I'd know a lot more about

[anabellabobella]

The ballet in this book is catering to the wish-fulfillment of kids, maybe even Ann herself. Students from ballet schools (though Jessi keeps referring to the company) do NOT do foreign tours. It's a super massive huge deal with an entire company travels. If students were traveling to perform overseas...yeah, let's just say it's not happening. We're supposed to believe that's a professional company, and Jessi was invited.

Your teacher displayed professionalism. Unless a tendon snaps or a bone breaks, dancers finish, and they know it. Shows do not stop for mere sprains. This is part of why dance careers are pretty short.

[miri_me]

If I could work out how it'd make any sense, I'd wonder if maybe they'd combined an upper school trip (one where you can get the parents to fund it because it's educational) with the company's engagement. But, especially given that Jessi doesn't seem to fully understand the difference between "school connected to a dance company" and "dance company", the "why research a topic you know nothing about when you can indulge in creative wish fulfilment?" theory makes a lot of sense.

This is one of the reasons why I never considered a career as a dancer. (Y'know, along with the lack of talent, discipline, build, height... I was basically a pass/pass plus student: I learnt things at about the same rate as my friends, and progressed with them, but I was never going to wow anybody. I think I pretty much always knew that, and therefore saw my lessons as an enjoyable activity, rather than the gateway to my future.)

[anabellabobella]

Sorry to be hijacking the comments. For those not familiar with Darcey, this is the dancer Jessi is supposed to be as good as with only a couple classes a week:

Get this--to the trained eye, that was NOT a perfect performance!!

On the list or absolutas, you'll see Alicia Alonso. She went blind at the age of 19, yet danced professionally on pointe into her 70's!! Here she is at the age of 34 (remember, BLIND):

See at 2:20 when she does all those pirouettes (actually called fouettés for the whipping motion of her leg for momentum)? Chilling. That was in 1955. 34 years old. This next video shows her dancing the same piece in 1963 (already 42), and repeatedly until 1993, when she was 72.

Watching videos of her dance makes me teary-eyes. She's an inspiration.

If Jessi would have been compared to Alicia, I could have permanently boycotting this series.

[miri_me]

Sorry - in fairness he didn't say she was as good as Darcey - just called her a prima ballerina. Darcey's was just the first name that occurred to me as somebody who most people have heard of, whether they care anything about ballet or not, who falls into that rank.

[anabellabobella]

Ah. Regardless, there's a prima for you, and there's no chance Jessi is as good as that. It's offensive in the dancing world to even suggest that a kid that young who takes just a class or two a week can be as good as a prime because this would mean dancing really isn't that hard.

Realistically, no matter how good a kid dancer is, at 11, the best role you an hope to get is Clara/Marie in The Nutcracker. You're not going to be Aurora or Swanhilda.

[miri_me]

She wouldn't have the strength, stamina or experience for the corps! IIRC, they quite often do get a student to be Clara/Marie, because they want somebody who looks child-sized compared to the company, and a large part of the role is actually sitting still and pointing at things? (It's still a massive honour for the child in question, and good experience, plus they get a great view of a lot of advanced work, but it's not supposed to be a challenging, technically complex role.)

[readiness]

I really enjoyed this snark! Please keep writing!

[miri_me]

:-D Thank you!

[fairest1]

Regarding the trophy -- I'm reminded of this comic; I feel less annoyed at the book thinking of it as a cheap paperweight he picked up to ensure she was distracted enough to never bring up subjects such as payment or the legality of her role.

Other theory: The dance group that Jessi idolizes is mired in scandal and the guy is desperate to recruit any dancer who hasn't heard about it and whose parents haven't gone "Stay away from my kid or I'm calling the cops" on him. Thus, someone who has the slightest potential AND doesn't run screaming when they hear his name gets buttered up as much as Jessi.

[miri_me]

OK, in fairness, a model house with working solar panel-powered lights is way cooler (and likely to show a better understanding of several things) than a seashell display. Yes, they're exotic; yes, some work has presumably gone into identifying them (unless they were purchased pre-identified)... I know research projects are still projects, but it's so one-dimensional compared to the house project. (Though campaigning to get the results overthrown does seem a bit l sour grapes-y

[fairest1]

*nodnod* No question there; my best guess is that the school went "Well, the winner gets their photo in the paper . . . let's choose a really photogenic project" and the shells were prettier than a model house that probably focused on function over form.

If it wasn't even engraved, no question it was just a paperweight Jessi got.

I'm not saying this was deliberate -- I'm just positing it as a theory that makes the book make more sense (see a snark I have planned that expands on my theory that Mr Pike is actually a drug dealer).

[miri_me]

Especially as the kid had made the house all on his own *agrees*

In fairness, there are places you can buy trophies from... (I took part in a chess tournament when I was about 8. I'd not been playing all that long, and wasn't particularly good, but I'd tried and had a good time, and my dad offered to get me a little trophy. I chose one of a horse (not a knight - a horse). It's still on my parents' mantelpiece... I have great parents!) I think it might have a little plaque bit with my name and the date.

No, I know, but it's really disturbing that these theories make so much more sense than taking the books at face value would! I look forward to reading that snark!