What has changed over the course of yourtenure at the ballet?
The company is so much more professional. Thedifferent artistic directors have upgraded the quality of the dancers’technique, so we have a top-notch group. They come from all over the world. Theschool is one of the largest in the country and one of the few accredited.
What do you love about the work?
I love being with these wonderful dancers. I supposein many respects I’m a mother to themor a grandmother! I love ballet. At onetime I had a ballet school in Hales Corners, the Mary Belle Potter School ofBallet. My mother wanted to dance, but when she was young in the late-1800sshelived to be 100she had to learn piano instead. So I was trotted off to dancingschool. But Milwaukeedidn’t have the professional training it has now. It takes good training. Womenneed to start by 10. Men can start a little later, but it’s very difficult.These dancers have bodies like rubber bands.
What does your work entail?
I take care of the costumes. We have about 3,000 instock. I have them organized. I know where they are. You have to have a mindlike an elephant! Tutus have to be washed by hand. If we send them to the drycleaner they come back like dishrags. A tutu costs $2,000they have to behand-made. It takes time to sew every layer and decorate it with sequins andthings.
I’m the shoe manager. Dancers go through one or twopairs a weekin a difficult role, one per show. There’s flour in the toes. Itturns to paste when they perspire. I have to dye the shoes to match thecostume. Sometimes, I’ll mix four different colors. Then I’ll see it under thelights, and it’s still not right. Doesanyone notice? I do.
And I’m the head dresser backstage. I’ve rarelymissed a performance. The first time, I felt like Cinderella. It’s such adifferent world. I wish everybody could share it. We’re there to help thedancers. I hire the other dressers, essentially volunteers. I tell them, “Don’ttalk to the dancers about their private life; that’s not what they’re thinkingabout!”
Disasters?
A zipper on a boot broke during a performanceno wayto fix it. The dancer said, “Spray my leg brown.” By a miracle, I had brownspray with me. If a costume breaks during a performance and we can’t doanything else, we sew the dancers in.