Alesya's Ballet Lessons

Alesya's Ballet Lessons is the first episode of the first series of Alesya and is the first episode overall, while also being the pilot episode of the series. The episode takes place in early-mid 2019.

## Plot

As Alesya's father Ken is watching a weather forecast on TV, he notices that a blizzard is headed towards the dacha. Eniko, Derek, Alesya and even Molly heard it. Eniko is depicted as a famous prima ballerina who is Ken's wife, and Alesya's mother. This leads to Derek informing his siblings and the rest of his family to go to Birmingham in the UK. They then get to the airport in the evening before heading to the UK where the squirrels will be spending the rest of their lives. As they land at Birmingham Airport, they are then escorted to a luxury high-rise apartment. Because Alesya knew about her mother as well as her sisters Miranda and Juliet doing ballet, she took a picture of both the Hippodrome Theatre and the Elmhurst Ballet School. Her family's apartment, of course, is right next door to the Elmhurst Ballet School. As they were just settling into the apartment, Alesya told her mother that she really wants to do ballet like her, Miranda and Juliet. Eniko then winks at Alesya and says that she can start at the Elmhurst Ballet School the next day. When that day came, Alesya could barely contain her excitement. As Alesya entered the Elmhurst Ballet School, she saw many ballerinas, including Susan Renarde and Kiki Ivanova (known as Kiki Ferguson at the time) among several others. Alesya arrives with her parents as well as Miranda and Juliet and they are greeted by a French poodle called Fifi. Fifi curtsies at Alesya, who then curtsies back. By this point, Alesya had developed a posh English accent. When she is entered into the building, Alesya changes into her practice leotard, tights and ballet flats. Kiki and Susan then introduce themselves to Alesya. Susan is shy at first, but soon gains confidence. Kiki however, is excited to see Alesya. After a warm welcome, Kiki then motivates Alesya by saying the following: "There are so many people out there who will tell you that you can't, but what you've got to do is turn around and say 'watch me'. After all, ballet may have originated in the renaissance period over in Italy, but it soon became an international dance style." After that motivation, Alesya then does the exact same ballet stretches as the other students in order to gain a lot of flexibility. Somehow, Alesya loves to feel the stretch as long as she isn't overstretched, making her quite a fast learner. Then, Tatyana (a tan sable in a scarlet tutu) and Delta (a grey sable in a pink leotard) introduce themselves to Alesya. They too are ballerinas and then they help Alesya how do dance. They start by doing the five basic positions, all of which Alesya copies with ease. Surprised to see that Alesya is such a fast learner, Tatyana and Delta then show their plie which Alesya copies with ease, followed by more advanced ballet positions from arabesques to jetés among others, all of which Alesya copying flawlessly. Then, Poppy (a skunk) and Rachael (a raccoon) introduce themselves to Alesya, informing their squirrel friend that they too are ballerinas in training, albeit slightly older than Alesya. All three become best friends and Alesya improves her ballet skills even more, and soon notices that Poppy and Rachael are wearing tutus. A few days pass by and Alesya starts training her pointe techniques with assistance from her auntie Tamara. They both do very advanced ballet skills such as tiptoeing, twirling, pirouetting, leaping into the air and so forth. Somehow, Alesya's toes were a bit more flexible when she looked at them and curled them tightly, spreaded them out and even wiggled them the day before. She thought to herself: "It appears that my toes are certainly more flexible than the last time I looked at them... I might need to move on to pointe techniques..." Alesya even did ballet training at home on Sundays from her mother with assistance from Miranda and Juliet. Alesya became really graceful, but something was still missing from the picture. Two days before her birthday, Alesya went to her grandma's house to have a tutu made for her. She requested a blue tutu with a white skirt, to which Marie agreed and got sewing right away. Alesya then met a little white cat called Adam, and they became close friends. They have a lovely best-of-three game of chess, with Alesya winning two out of the three rounds. Adam, surprised to see Alesya so good at chess, asked Alesya how the squirrel got checkmate in two of the three rounds. Alesya then said that she was really experienced at chess due to having played it with Miranda before. The cat and the squirrel then bid farewell as Marie (Alesya's grandma) has Alesya's completed tutu ready for her granddaughter to try on. Alesya then tries her tutu on and does a cute little ballet dance in it, to which Marie is oh so amazed. After the little ballet dance, Alesya watches some VHS tapes of Marie's ballet performances, seeing her grandma doing multiple grand jetés and glissadés in rapid succession. Alesya then thought to herself that she could do what her grandma did best. The next day, Alesya improved her ballet skills even more than ever before. Rachael and Poppy did the same too. They even offered to have a Pas-de-Trois that day, but Alesya postponed it to her birthday as she was already working on a solo role herself, which was set to Swan Lake's second act Pas de Deux. Alesya choreographed her moves shortly before her first ballet performance and about an hour later, Alesya was ready to perform. Fifi, astonished to see Alesya, drove her to the Hippodrome Theatre in her Rolls-Royce Phantom. In the dressing rooms, Alesya is seen putting her ballet costume on when Kiki arrives. Alesya then remembered the phrase Kiki said. Kiki then hugs Alesya and twirls her around. Then, Alesya went onto the stage. A crowd consisting of her family and a few other individuals came to see Alesya. Alesya then says "watch me" and the lights dim, before the spotlight comes on a few seconds later. It is likely that Alesya's ballet routine is inspired by Pierina Leglani's choreography to Swan Lake's second act Pas de Deux. Alesya starts up, tiptoeing gracefully before doing a pas-de-chat and showing her plie. Alesya then does a battement while twirling as the crowd largens, even (quite literally) filling all the seats later on in Alesya's ballet performance. Alesya then pirouettes gracefully before doing 32 consecutive fouettés en tournant followed by a grand jeté and a glissadé, and so on and so forth. Alesya then does 10 grand jetés and glissadés in a row towards the end of her performance, ending in an arabesque penché while twirling followed by a battement and a pirouette before curtsying delicately at the audience. The audience cheers their loudest to congratulate Alesya for her astonishing feat as she heads backstage to see her mother. As the lovely ballerina squirrel meets her mother, Eniko asks if Alesya had a lovely performance, and Alesya remarks that it was the best one ever. Eniko, surprised to hear this, throws her arms up and yells "WOOHOO!!!" as she twirls around before nearly crying tears of joy. The next day was Alesya's birthday (14th May) and as her parents saw her, they all said "happy birthday" to her. Alesya had also received a lot of presents, including a box set of Angelina Ballerina, various Seeburg 1000 and Audio Artists Background Music records, LP records, 45 RPM records, 78 RPM records, compact cassettes, reel to reel audio tapes, CDs and even a Nintendo 3DS. Alesya then gives her mother a lot of kisses on her cheek. Then, Alesya would go on to become one of the most graceful little ballerinas in the world, if not all time.

## Trivia

Going by both production and chronological order, this is the first episode of Alesya.

The early version of this episode was released on the same day of the death of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, henceforth why a card saying "Rest in peace, Prince Philip (1921-2021)" shows up after the Titmouse Distribution logo at the end.

In an early version of the episode, a synthesized version of the second act Pas de Deux from Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake ballet suite that also featured in Nu Pogodi episode 15 featured during Alesya's ballet performance. It is likely that an orchestrated version of the song will appear in the consumer version.

## Featured music

Tony Osborne - A Little Bit Independent

Reg Tilsley - Sizzle

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (credited as Peter Tchaikovsky) - Dance of the Cygnets and Pas de Deux (Swan Lake, Act II)

Harry Bluestone and Emil Cadkin - Song and Dance Man

Carolyn Calcote - Heavenly

Seeburg Music Library - Lida Rose and I Believe in You

Various unidentified tunes also appear throughout the episode.