The daughter of a friend of mine saw a performance of "The Nutcracker" (an annual Christmas production of Pacific Northwest Ballet) when she was about four years old. She said she wanted to be a ballet dancer. Long after seeing the ballet, Anna was still spending inordinate amounts of time for a four-year-old bounding around the house trying to imitate what she had seen on stage. Her parents picked up on this and took her to a ballet class for rug-rats, with the idea that if she didn't like it, she didn't have to continue. She loved it! She stuck with it. People used to say "How cute!" when they saw her dance, but that neither puffed her up nor deterred her. She's fourteen now, and is growing tall and slender, like a ballerina. In most respects she's a normal teen-aged girl with all the usual frivolities, but underlying all that, she's more serious than most. She has a purpose and a goal. She has gone to regular ballet classes for several years now, she has performed a lot (not professionally yet), and she's getting good—very good. It wouldn't surprise me to see her on the professional stage in the not-too-far-distant future. Nor would it surprise me to see her dance the role of Clara (or any of a number of good roles) in a future Pacific Northwest Ballet production of "The Nutcracker," where it all started.

Right from the start, her parents were sensitive to her interests, and they gave her a chance to try something she wanted to try. They never pushed her, but when she wanted to continue, they supported her. I think they're very wise.

Music, art, dance, whatever. Expose the young'un to a wide range of stuff, see where they might want to take it, then give them support. My parents did that for my sisters and me, and we're eternally grateful.

Don Firth