Hermione on Her Toes in Noel Streatfield Adaptation

Seventeen year-old Harry Potter star Emma Watson will play the orphan Pauline Fossil in a BBC Adaptation of Ballet Shoes (still from the set at left). Lucky girl.

In the very early years of elementary school I briefly took ballet, tap, and jazz for a year and, like many girls my age, I adored anything having to do with ballet (in fact, I may scan in a photo of me in a tutu as proof), including Ballet Shoes and young adult novels about anorexic ballet dancers falling in love for the first time. Even up into high school, I was obsessed with classical ballet and its superstars including my beloved Misha (Mikhail Baryshnikov). I poured over the monthly ballet magazine that our high school library subscribed to and even read Gelsey Kirkland's memoir. (Totally understanding how Mary Tyler Moore's fictional daughter in the three hankie movie Six Weeks could choose the opportunity to dance in The Nutcracker as her dying wish.) My junior year I took Modern Dance instead of the dreaded P.E. and very seriously practiced the steps my teacher had worked out to go along with--get ready for it--"The Streets Have No Name" (this was 19971987) for hours in my bedroom. (I was also obsessed with U2 at the time as well, so you can well imagine how ecstatic I was.) Anyway, I'm sure this will make a darling movie and inspire a new generation of little girls and boys to dream of starring in Swan Lake or The Nutcracker... --Kim