War Bride

Going Home

I was the quintessential little girl in London; of course I had to take ballet. Don’t all little girls want to be a ballerina at some point? My mother enrolled me in a ballet school and I absolutely loved it: the costumes, the twirling, the dancing. Towards the end of the year we had a very special visitor to the school, and we were told that we were all going to audition for the Royal School of ballet. If we were accepted, we would live at the school and our regular classes would be incorporated; an all included, fully paid boarding school with a focus on ballet. Our visitor was the Queen of England herself, and we would be auditioning for her specifically. Our ballet teacher gave us less than 30 minutes notice that we were to meet the Queen. She probably didn’t want us freaking out in advance - and I am sure there were security protocols involved; little girls cannot keep a secret - but I didn’t think of that at the time. I just knew that I had to dance for the Queen; even as an American that was overwhelming. It was incredibly fun though, especially when we all got to dance the polka and skip around the room.