This role was getting expensive.

    Sometimes I wondered if it was worthwhile - if I should just give up playing Princess Aurora. But then I would spend two hours working with Mme Noelle on a segment of the ballet, and I would realize that there was no way I could give up that kind of experience.

    My favorite part of the ballet was the dance I had to do when I first came on stage - the Rose Adagio. Some dancers have said that it's this dance that makes the role of Princess Aurora such a challenge, because you have to do it "cold" - without warming up on some easier dancing first.

    But I loved that dance. It was full of slow, graceful movements. According to the fairy tale, this dance shows the princess being presented to the court on her sixteenth birthday. She is meeting four princes. They all want to marry her, even though she's so young.

    Each prince gives her a beautiful rose, and she dances with them. But after dancing, she gives the flowers to her mother. She's having too much fun to think about serious things like marriage.

    The dance that she does (or rather, that I did) with the princes is very difficult. Mme Noelle worked with us for a long time before we could do it well. The way it went was this: As I finished dancing with each prince, he helped me to balance on the point of one toe - and then he took away his hand and left me balancing there until the next prince came to dance with me.

    "Do not wobble, Mademoiselle Romsey!" cried Mme Noelle as I did my best to balance on one toe. "Smile!" I tried to smile.

    "Remember, you are a joyous young princess. You must show us zee excitement and hoppiness of youth!" I tried to act "hoppy." It wasn't easy, especially with Hilary Morgan glaring at me from the sidelines. Sometimes I felt bad about how much time Mme Noelle was spending with me, but the fact was that my role was very demanding. Still, I could tell that the other girls were jealous, and I really couldn't blame them. I would have been jealous, too.