Sena’s new dress and ballet bag helped her look the part as she waited backstage for her private dance lesson.
Four-year-old Sena’s face was full of joy as she leaped out of her seat to applaud the beautiful dancers of San Francisco Ballet. But there was more to her joy than just the performance – Sena also knew she’d soon be pirouetting alongside these dancers. Her wish to be a ballerina was about to come true.
Sena, who was diagnosed with retinoblastoma, a form of cancer affecting the eyes, is happiest when she is twirling across a room on her tiptoes. Her room is decorated with ballerinas, and she already has a busy schedule of dance classes. When wish granters from the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Iowa learned her heartfelt wish, they choreographed a wish that would have Sena walking on air.
If you want to be a ballerina, you need to learn from the pros, so wish-granting volunteers arranged for Sena to travel to San Francisco – on her first airplane flight – to attend one of San Francisco Ballet’s most celebrated performances: “The Nutcracker.” Sena looked dazzling in a new velvet and chiffon party dress and arrived at the show in a limousine.
The dancers welcomed their newest little fan backstage before the show, giving Sena a sneak peak at their glamorous costumes. The ballet company reserved VIP seats for Sena and her family during the show and even treated them with milk and cookies during intermission.
Sena’s wish took her dancing with a star: San Francisco Ballet’s principal ballerina from a performance of “The Nutcracker.”
The fun only continued after the curtain fell on the performance. From under her seat, Sena grabbed her own ballet bag with a new pair of ballet slippers and a pink, ruffled dance outfit tucked inside. After Sena changed into her dance gear, the show’s principal ballerina delighted her with a private dance lesson in the theater’s ballet studio. The two beautiful ballerinas stood hand-in-hand as the teacher showed her student how to stand tall and raise her arms gracefully above her head. The pair twirled around the room, laughing all the way.
During her fairytale trip to San Francisco, Sena and her family got a taste of some of the other sights and sounds the city has to offer. They visited the San Francisco Zoo and ate at the Hard Rock Café. But Sena’s fondest wish memory will always be what it felt like to twirl in a real dance studio, wearing ballet slippers and being a real ballerina.
This page can be found at http://www.wish.org/stories/fantasy/imagination/sena_ballerina
©2006 Make-A-Wish Foundation®
