PORTLAND — Fifi Foresta, 11, of West Paris says, “If I had to pick one thing to do for the rest of my life, I would pick ballet.”

All autumn she has lived that dream, practicing and rehearsing at Maine State Ballet’s Lopez Theatre in Falmouth for her part as a confection page in the production of The Nutcracker Suite, a beloved holiday favorite.

Foresta danced in every performance at Merrill Auditorium in Portland this season.

Her part came in the Second Act during the music of Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy. Wearing a poufy green teal outfit with pants that have a gold bands at her ankles, she was made-up in neutral toned face make-up and red, red lipstick.

Toward the end of their dance in Tchaikovsky’s classical ballet, the Nutcracker takes Clara away. Foresta and another ballerina gracefully push the elegant sleigh off stage.

Years of dancing

Foresta, a softball player and soccer player, who rides and drives horses, says she’d like to take her two horses and her dog to college with her some day.

She has been dancing since she was two. She laughs, recalling her first performance in “a bikini,” as a yellow buttercup.

Her mother, Holly scrolls through photos on her cellphone. One is taken after a performance with all three Foresta children: Fifi, Bella, 9, and Will, 14. “Is that girl in the green skirt me?,” asks Fifi.

In a different photo, taken during COVID, Fifi is dancing in their cleared-out dining room over Zoom.

From age seven on, she has studied at the Ballroom in Harrison with Juliette Lauzier, who danced in the Nutcracker as a little girl. Fifi’s Ballroom performances were held at Lake Region High School in Naples every Spring.  The Nutcracker is her first winter performance.

Teachers and students at Fifi’s elementary school, the Agnes Gray, were in the audience along with grandparents, aunts and uncles who drove up from Walpole, Massachusetts.

Back in September, when she auditioned at the Maine State Ballet’s Falmouth location, Foresta remembers being a little nervous, “but then I started dancing and I just chilled,” she said.

Holly, said she was talking recently with Lauzier, about Fifi dancing in the Nutcracker.

“It brings tears to my eyes,” said Holly.

“Mine, too” said Lauzier.

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