And rough times, financially and artistically, ensued. Yet over the past few years, it started to look and feel like the old days at ABB again. Ballet mistresses Just follow the worn marble staircase to one of the company's rehearsal sessions. There, putting the dancers through their paces are former ABB dancers Michelle Duffin and Nancy Ropelewski Pierce . Now acting as the ballet's rehearsal mistresses, they unravel the intricacies of the ballet's grande pas de deux for Geren and Cooley.
Pierce nods in concurrence.
And like the dancers they are teaching, they are devoted to ABB, too, responsible for maintaining many of the 95 ballets in the repertory. I hope to grow from what I did last year. I feel more confident. You have to feel confident, especially as the Sugar Plum Fairy. You can't fake it.