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From section 2, Childhood, of Saltian
Miss K’s arabesque
By Alice Shapiro
I go a lot to see young people downtown
in little theatres. It’s great. If you start
somebody’s career, it’s so exciting.
–Mikhail Baryshnikov
Pink leotards, net tutus
and little girls pirouette
raise up on satin pointe shoes at the barre
arch feet and backs
stretch arms as gracefully as instructed
so poise can be constructed
into their body’s consciousness.
Then onto ballet slippers
soft black leatherette with rubber band straps
to plié, chassé, jeté
to twirl and leap and spin at season’s end recital
where fairy dancers promenade, bob and weave
in not so regimented order as perceived
and choreographed by Miss K’s virtuoso desire.
Back to class, to shiny, slick parquet
a childhood filled with ballerina,
tap, toe, acrobatic antics
and all the scenes, all these years remembered.
Yet I wonder why
not once did I envision life
on stage as a dancer.
Critique
By Grace Burns
I had the honor to review Miss K’s arabesque. This poem was an absolute pleasure for me to read having been one of those little dance students in “pink leotards, net tutus” back in the seventies. Miss K’s arabesque is multi-sensory. It conjurs up the image of gaggles of girls sporting pigtails and toddler bellies in identical leotards following Miss K’s instruction with round-eyed attention. Each little student believing herself every bit as graceful as Miss K. In addition, the poem’s rhythm enunciates the synchronizing beat Miss K taps out while her pupils rehearse for the big recital. This is especially prevalent in the lines “arch feet and backs/stretch arms as gracefully as instructed/so poise can be constructed/into their body’s consciousness.”
“Yet I wonder why/not once did I envision life/on stage as a dancer.” These closing lines are seemingly straightforward at first read. The author never considers becoming a professional dancer while she attended dance class as a girl. Upon reading the poem a few more times, I wonder if Ms. Shapiro is beginning to consider that life itself is a stage for her and the rest of us to dance upon. Whichever the interpretation, I have fallen in love with these lines and all the lines before it.
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Grace lives in New Jersey with her husband and two children. She is an engineer, a wedding DJ, and an aspiring creative writer. Her poems have appeared at the vox poetica and Spark websites and have also been included in a number of vox poetica’s published anthologies.
