My mother first took me to the Ballet in 1948 when I was seven years old. We saw the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo performing “Les Sylphides”, “Gaiete Parisienne” and “Aurora’s Wedding” (“Sleeping Beauty” Act 2). I was smitten to the bone, completely enraptured. My great love at the time had been horses, and the dancers looked like horses to me, stepping around up on their pointes (that looked like hooves), long necks and powerful backs, perfect grace. I wanted to be one of them. My mother had read that nine years old was the best time for a child to begin ballet lessons, so I had to wait for two impatient years for my first lesson.

I began my studies with Lisa Gardiner and Mary Day at the Washington School of Ballet in Washington DC. Classes were conducted strictly according to the Cecchetti Method of training in Classical Ballet.…