Ballet Stories, as told by Madi to Mummy

Swan Lake

There once was a prince called Prince Siegfried and it was his birthday. He went hunting with the present from his mother- a new crossbow. He went to the woods, followed a deep, dark tunnel and there he was at the lake. There were loads of swans. Prince Siegfried went to aim at a swan. Little did he know that something special was about to happen. When he let his arrow go, the swan turned in to a beautiful lady. Prince Siegfried was really, really scared; but then he asked the beautiful lady what her name was. The beautiful young lady also had a beautiful voice and she said “My name is Odette. An evil wizard cast a spell upon me and all the other swans. I am a swan during the day and woman by night. And it is the same for all the other swans. Unless someone says he loves me and promises to marry me I will stay like this forever”.

“I will take you to my ball tomorrow night. There I will need a bride. I shall promise to love you and no one else,” said Prince Siegfried.

The next night began. Prince Siegfried was beginning to get worried as if Odette was not going to come. But then a beautiful lady came in the palace’s doors. When the time came to say who was going to be his bride, he said “Odette!”. Everyone went quiet. As the beautiful young lady stepped to the steps, an old man also known as the evil wizard came to the steps too.

“Do you promise to love she, and nobody else?” the evil wizard said.

“Yes”.

Then, the evil wizard did not have to disguise himself any longer. As he ripped off his disguise, Prince Siegfried could see that the princess that he thought was Odette was only the evil wizard’s daughter.

Prince Siegfried ran from the palace, and ran straight to the lake. And there he saw the real Odette, and begged her for forgiveness. But then the spell could not be broken. Odette went to go and drown herself (as she was still a lady). Prince Siegfried ran to the lake and shouted, “I love you, I don’t love anyone else”. Then, the evil wizard’s spell was broken forever and ever, the wizard was defeated by his own magic. And now they might still live, Prince Siegfried and Odette, living together with children. The end.

The Firebird

Prince Ivan was out in the forest when he saw a beautiful orange bird, and he said “Wow, that must be a firebird!” . The prince grabbed her and the bird cried with pain. Prince Ivan felt sorry for the bird and let it go then she gave him one of her feathers and said, “This will protect you.” Then Prince Ivan walked to a garden full of statues. A group of girls came dancing towards him. But for Prince Ivan, one of the girls in particular stood out the most. She looked like a firebird. The girl was a prisoner of Prince Koschei who only let her out for a very, very, very short time.

Prince Koschei saw Prince Ivan and to turn him in to stone. As he did that, Prince Ivan held out his orange feather and he didn’t turn in to stone. And then in a flash the firebird arrived and used her magic to make Prince Koschei dance until he fell down. “I haven’t got my soul inside me. Only if you find it and destroy it you will kill me,” said Prince Koschei. The firebird helped Prince Ivan find the soul and destroy it. And then the girl that stood out in particular and Prince Ivan married.

The Nutcracker

It was Christmas Eve, and Cara, a little girl, went down to check on the presents. And there was a special one. The morning of Christmas came and she unwrapped the special present first and when she opened it she found it was a toy soldier, but not just any ordinary soldier- a nutcracker. But she did not know that it was special but she did put it in a very special place. When the night of Christmas came, she went to check that the nutcracker was still there, and it was safe and sound in the same place. But then loads of giant toy mice came and the nutcracker came in to action. Cara tried to keep her scream in otherwise she would wake her mum and dad. But she threw a slipper at the Mouse King and he went unconscious. And the nutcracker said, “Thank you, I would never have conquered them if it were not for you”. Cara got minified and then they went to a special place on the nutcracker’s hat. The place that they went to was called the Land of Sweets and the Sugar Plum Fairy was queen. And they played all night long with the fairies, pixies and brownies, until it was time for the nutcracker to go home with Cara. When they got home, Cara got biggified to go back to her normal bed and hoped that she would do the same thing again the next night or whether it had just been a dream.