The Ugly Duckling takes flight
The students of Palmerston North’s Rose Academy of Dance and Performing Arts glided and leapt across the Globe Theatre’s stage in their version of the children’s classic The Ugly Duckling.
Founded last February, the Rose Academy is one of the city’s newest dance schools, and the weekend’s show was its second annual school performance where students get to show off what they’ve learned.
The littlest dancers played cats, sheep and farmyard animals. They mostly kept in time, flashing grins or sneaking the occasional wave to the audience.
The older children, who had learned more complex moves, played the other ducklings or geese.
The most experienced students showed off their hard-earned poise and skill as the swans. The most skilled dancer from each group danced as the ugly duckling at three different stages as it grew into a swan.
The school founder Rose Brownlie admitted an all dance and ballet version of The Ugly Duckling might seem an unusual choice.
But Brownlie loved the story’s hopeful message growing up, and thought it was a good metaphor for learning to dance. Beginners might be awkward at first, but with time and practice they’ll become graceful, like the duckling did as it grew into a swan.
The academy mainly teaches under-18s, but Brownlie did have a few adult students, who played farmers and farmhands in the show.
And the oldest dancer on stage was still spry in his mid-60s, Brownlie said.