A Girl with a Dream

On a beautiful winter’s day, an eight-year-old Risa, along with her mother and father decided to spend her birthday at the circus to watch their latest production of the Nutcracker. This made Risa so happy because for the first time in a long time she is spending her birthday with her parents since they always had busy schedules, so they wanted to make sure this birthday is even more special than last year’s

“Mommy! Daddy! Hurry up the show is about to start!” Risa shouts at her parents to hurry up.

“Darling, don’t worry you are not going to miss a thing,” Risa’s mother replied, trying to catch up.

“I know, but I want you to see everything, before the main show is about to start,” Risa said to her mother as she finally stopped in her tracks.

“Alright, little lady show us the way,” Her father said as he picked her up.

With Risa in his arms, they are walking towards the main boardwalk where they saw clowns wearing mismatched outfits with strange make-up walking on stilts handing out balloons to arriving guests. Risa took one of the balloons from the clowns and could not help star at it since it was in the shape of a huge star. What caught her eye in amazement was the floating balloon animals dancing as they greet their guests. In a magical surprise, acrobats appear performing handstands with their partners on them and leaped high above to land on the clowns with the stilts holding up signs letting everyone know the show is about to start.

Risa could not stop clapping with excitement, as it was something she has never seen before, and she wanted more. With this new magical feeling she felt, she wanted to keep enjoying this feeling causing her to go into a daydreaming state. She manages to get out of this magical feeling when she sees the lights begin blinking twice signaling the show is about to start. Risa did not want to miss a thing, so she grabs her parent’s arms and starts pulling them inside to get to their seats.

“Come on, come on!” Risa shouts as she continues to pull her parents arms.

“We are coming dear,” her mother, answers trying not to lose her balance.

“Yes, please stay close dear,” her father, said trying to catch up with his daughter.

Once the guests settle inside, they head to their seats waiting for the show to begin. As a tradition in the circus, a pre-show performance is a small skit performed for the audience to get them warmed up before the real show begins. During the performance, snow is falling from the ceiling while the trapeze artists were performing stunts while performing some incredible magic tricks no one has seen before.

Risa could not take her eyes off the performance, as it was magical through a little girl’s eyes at it was seeing a dream coming true. Seeing the trapeze artists performing their stunts flawlessly made her wanted to do the same. She was so into the performance of the flower petals falling from the sky and did not realize the show ended.

Once the pre-show entertainment ended, Risa could not stay in her seat. She was jumping around in front of her parents showing them how happy she was being here with them. Then the lights blinked again, to get people to return to their seats and the real show is about to begin. Risa returns to her seat and focuses her attention to the stage.

The stage had a single spotlight on the main star of the show, Charlotte, who is dressed in Clara’s traditional pink nightgown, appearing on stage. Then the lights expand to show the whole stage where performers are dancing around the stage as her godfather Drossel Meyer appears to present gifts to the children. Clara quickly comes over and is gifted a beautiful handmade Nutcracker she cherishes so much. Then night comes and it was time to sleep.

She disappears from the stage for a brief moment as the nutcracker solider appears battling the Mouse King. Clara reappears flying down from the trapeze to protect the Nutcracker from an attack to give him a chance to set a counterattack. The Mouse King retreats back to his realm by performing a fast spin backwards and he was gone.

Clara and the Nutcracker perform a duet together by dancing on the trapeze. At the end of their routine, they pose by embracing each other in a loving fashion.

Soon after, the set changes where they enter the realm of the Nutcracker’s home and into the forest where their journey begins in search of the Sugar Plum Fairy. As they are walking on the trapeze, snowflakes appear dancing around Clara and the Nutcracker guiding them out of the forest. It was a beautiful sight to witness. Once the snowflake dancers disappear, the stage changes for Clara and the Nutcracker perform a short waltz on the tight rope before disappearing for the next part of the show to begin.

Risa is memorizing by this performance as she wishes she was performing with the Nutcracker as his stunts were really out of the box and thrilling.

After their lovely dance of feelings, the stage moves on to the Dance of the Sweets. The first to arrive on stage are the Spanish Dancers performing in outfits of chocolate cakes, chocolate lollipops, and chocolate candy. Their routine consists of the trapeze and tightrope performing a unique dance representing their country. They twist and twirl performing many steps to their dance to the point where the dance ends with them twirling in the air as chocolate flakes begin to fall in the air to the ground.

In the meantime, the stage changes to a desert scene with music representing their country as the Arabian Dancers dressed as teapots and teacups. The first pair begin with dancing with their legs extending right in front of their face perfectly in sync. The male partner twirls the girl as the begin dancing on the trampoline. It seems the next pair enter the stage by dancing on the tight rope and jumping high above to catch the other performers. Then slowly spinning their partner, they pour tea in their partner’s teacup. The final pairs enter on the trapeze as they perform cartwheels in the air as they spread brown confetti on the stage ending their routine.

Risa could not help herself to sit on the edge of her seat simply enjoying watching the amazing performers and performing the difficult stunts she never seen before.

China is next which they are representing Tea with the stage designed with dragons, flowers, lanterns, and magical fans flying in the air. The dancers appear in red Chinese formal wear along with matching fans and umbrellas. The ten performers litter around the stage floor and trapeze performing acrobatically stunts with extra dancer's spin plates on sticks on their hands. As the music begins, the dancers begin by stretching their legs as the spin with their umbrellas and fans. With great skill the acrobats jump over each other as they gracefully land side by side with the spinning the umbrellas. The dancers on the stage floor were spinning and dancing around forming something like a dragon forming. The performance soon ends as all the performers came to the center of the stage and toss their umbrellas and fans in the air and a few short seconds; flower petals magically appear covering the entire stage.

Risa continues to be amazed with this edge of your seat moments as she continues to enjoy the show. Even her parents turning to her in a brief moment looking towards her could only smile seeing their daughter enjoying herself.

Their focus turns back to the stage once Russia made an appearance. The performers dressed in traditional costumes as the stage has spinning candy canes and lollipops. Leaping high in the air as if they can touch the sky while performing some skits of traditional Russian dances along with many flying men doing the splits. Ending their show, with many spins as candy canes magically appear.

Next, the Danish and French dancers dancing with sheep and musical instruments. For this routine, the best performers will be performing the routine on the trapeze while the others will be dancing on the ground. It was a sight truly would not want to be missed since the performers were performing with magical instruments with the items around them were coming alive. As the performers were busy performing their stunts, others are continuing to play music as musical notes begin appearing as the performers and guests catching them in their hands. Ending the scene, the musical notes explode into beautiful rose petals.

As Risa enjoys watching the show, she begins to think to herself is how these flower petals and lights come to the stage each time someone ends the performance. Then she thought in a brief moment that she sees something flying around creating a magical setting.

The next scene is with the gingerbread men and women dancing and spinning around on the trapezes throwing gumdrops on the floor. The gumdrops quickly expand on the floor where the other performers were able to perform backflips and dancing was simply amazing. As they continue to dance, scents of the gingerbread cover the area like a sweet aroma of a bakery. The routine ends where the gingerbread men and women threw boxes of cookies towards the guests as gifts of a reminder of the show.

The final act is the flora dance of the daises, roses, carnations, tulips, and irises performing in a beautiful garden stage. The queen of the flowers performs in center stage as the rest of the flowers dance around her. They first spin as fast as they can as they jump to catch the next trapeze while the queen simply jumps on the flower trampoline waiting for her moment to catch her trapeze. It is a very tricky routine as the trapeze is spinning while the other performers dance around her. A second later, she jumps as high as she can with the help of her partner, she quickly catches the trapeze above them and quickly spins herself completing a combo of splits and spins while ending by striking a beautiful pose.

The flower dancers continue their routine continue to dance while the knights of the Sugar Plum Fairy make an appearance on the stage. Both sets of dancers continue to dance as flower petals begin once again litter the stage. Joining in on the dance is Clara and the Nutcracker performing a Pas de Deux in the form of a ballet dance. On her high toes, she begins dancing towards the Nutcracker as he brings her close and begin dancing together. Then joining of hands, they take center stage as they dance on top of the trampoline and quickly jumps high above as they pose on the tightrope. Then he gently spins Clara around the tightrope as he goes into a back kick spilt as he continues spinning her. Clara, afterwards, spins into him as he lifts up her up above his head posing in the air. Quickly, she jumps over him posing while doing the splits and the Nutcracker joins her. Together, they jump on the tightrope to catch the trapeze opposite of each other and quickly change position holding themselves up with their legs. They swing towards each other, as Clara quickly releases herself as he catches her and spins her around in the air as she flies to the tightrope once again. The Nutcracker soon joins her in their dance ending it with an embrace and share a romantic kiss. With their kiss, a bright light appears around Clara and changes her dress into a more elegant pink dress with red ruffles around it. It seems their journey in search for the Sugar Plum Fairy ends as Clara is truly the Sugar Plum Fairy. Even the Nutcracker is no longer in his cursed form as it seems he is the prince of the land and the curse finally broken.

Clara and the Nutcracker, now the prince, come back on stage with all the dancers begin dancing one last time. They perform a simple waltz as the flowers did the same. The dance is beautiful as they continue the pervious dance, as it seems they were truly in love. As the music ended, the show was over as the cast said one last good-bye to the guests and disappeared into the darkness.

Risa could not help to jump off her chair, cheer, and clap hysterically for the stars of the show. She simply loves the show and wants more. With all of this happening, she did not notice a flower placed in center stage begins to bloom out bouquets of flowers and Risa manages to catch one. She smells the flowers having such an amazing smell and wants to keep them forever. Holding the bouquet, she walks over to give them to her mother as a thank you gift for bringing her here.

Before leaving the venue, Risa and her parents walked over to the gift shop and bought her a nutcracker figure to remember the show. She holds on to it very tightly not wanting to lose it or forget about this amazing birthday. When they were outside, Risa could not stop talking about the show. “Wow, the way Charlotte performed her stunts was simply amazing. Even the dances in the Land of Sweets were simply amazing.” “I love how Clara and the prince truly seem to be in love.”

“Calm down sweet pea. You are going to exhaust yourself,” her father said to her.

“I am sorry daddy, but this is the best birthday present, thank you,” Risa said hugging her parents very close. “And thank you for my nutcracker.”

“Of course, sweetheart. We are glad you are happy,” her mother said.

“You are most welcome, young lady, so what do you want to do next?” her father asked.

“Um…how about ice cream,” Risa said excitedly not thinking about it.

“Alright…ice cream it is,” the father said with a smile.

Risa and her parents head to the ice cream shop enjoying this family time after a long time. Risa got a snowflake ice cream with sprinkles in a cup because she never like cones. Her mother and father shared a cholate vanilla swirl trying to be romantic which creeped Risa out. To stop this moment, Risa thought of speaking to them.

“Mommy! Daddy! I have something to tell you,” Risa begins to say with a serious tone.

“What is it, dear?” Risa’s mother asked.

“I have decided that I want to be a circus performer,” Risa announced, with pure excitement.

“That is wonderful Risa. You will be the most beautiful performer, and I cannot wait to take the stage,” her mother replied agreeing with Risa. “I believe you will be better than me during my performing days.”

“Mommy, I wish I could have seen you perform on stage,” Risa commented.

“Oh, darling that was a long time ago and it is behind me now. Maybe one day we can perform together,” her mother promised.

“I promise you mommy, I will be good enough to perform with you,” Risa said, getting excited.

“Then that is it. Darling, we will give you whatever you need to become a performer, but you have to promise us that it will not interfere with your studies at school. You are in the gifted classes after all,” her father agrees to Risa’s request.

“Yes, father, I promise. Thank you so much,” Risa excitedly said, hugging her parents.

From that day forward, the beginning of a new journey is about to begin.

Six months later, with the help of her father’s connections through his hotel empire, he was able to get her the best teachers in every form of dance to make sure his daughter can achieve her dream. The first teacher her father recruited was Mrs. Franklin, who is currently the top ballet teacher of New York, came to teach Risa all points of ballet. Risa has taken ballet before, but this teacher really knew what she was doing. “Good Risa, now remember to extend your leg high in the air while you jump and you will be a beautiful swan.” “Yes, ma’am,” Risa said following her teacher's instructions. Risa performs a few more moves Mrs. Franklin instructed her to do and performed them flawlessly. This made her mother, father, and Mrs. Franklin proud.

Continuing with her ballet lessons, a year later at the age of nine, she begins her circus training at a local circus training school learning acrobatics, ballet, and martial arts. It is a strange school, but they want their performers to learn all kinds of tricks depending on the shows they will be performing later in the future.

Learning as a beginner, it is not easy learning the acrobatics of the trapeze as it takes a completely different set of skills to master this type of performance. Risa has always been used to performing with her feet rather than her hands, so learning this new artistic dance will be a challenge. Risa was not going to give up on this challenge because she made a promise to her mother and she is not going to break this promise. She will spend time after lessons to train as hard as she can and will always be the last one to leave. She will do whatever she can do to be the best and achieve the impossible.

Three months later, Risa’s teacher decides to test her on the trapeze to see if she has what it takes to be a true star. At first, she was scared to be on it, but she realizes she is training for this for a long time, and she is not going to give up. When she is ready, she grabs the trapeze in front of her and quickly in the air; she spins herself as fast as she can, releases herself flying in the air, trying to catch the next one, and without realizing she performed an impossible move of spinning vertically almost looking like a dragon flying high in the air. It seems her classmates and teachers were in shock she pulled a stunt like this making her the newest prodigy of the circus.

From that day forward, most of her classes are now ballet, trapeze, and tightrope focus.

This is to ensure a guaranteed chance for Risa to perform at the Majesties Festival to perform in front of the best of the best and show of her best routines.

The Majesties Festival is a yearly event where the best performers receive invitations to perform in front of the Majesties (rulers of the circus community) in hoping to become the Snow Majesty, the top rank performer of the community and upholding the rules of the circus. The only way performers receive invitations, if the majesties deem the performer worthy to join based on their performances.

The following year at the age of ten, Risa becomes the first ever circus prodigy at a young age. At this age, the circus school begins to allow her to perform outside of school and travel to different circuses to perform. She receives many requests from many different circuses to perform as a guest performer, but she cannot keep up with the demand.

She did decide to accept an invitation from Circus Sweets to perform in their Candyland performance.it is one of the low-ranking circuses, but it is a show.

“Alright everyone takes your positions. We are about to begin. Risa, are you ready?” the ringmaster asked.

“Yes, sir,” Risa answers as she was heading up to the ladder.

Risa is playing the role of a candy dragon trying to defeat the king. She does not appear in the show until the second act all through the third act. It might not be a big role, but she does not mind, as a role is a role. She watches the show from above and could not help herself enjoying the sweets decorating the stage and want to eat all of them.

She finally enters the stage at the middle of the second act performing in the background. In the beginning of act three, the circlet trapezes appear, and it was time for her routine to begin. She jumps high above to the tightrope and jumps making herself into a ball. Luckily, she was able to land on the trapeze striking a beautiful pose. It seems the audience enjoyed the routine. Her dress being in a rainbow color shaped as a cupcake made the routine even more exciting to perform the routine. She begins spinning herself vertically as a dragon would in the air. She twisted herself in a vertical position and launches her herself to reach for the first spinning trapeze to begin her routine.

She spins around vertically as the trapeze begins changing color and she quickly moves on to the next trapeze repeating the same routine again. It surprises the audience about the idea she can do this difficult routine without getting dizzy. Spinning gracefully on the trapezes, the color of her dress changes along with her outfit. She sheds her dress, into a suit dressed as a dragon ready to fight the Candy King. She soars high above ready to defeat the Candy King. She performs a series of tricks on the trapeze outsmarting the king and manages to win.

When her guest performance has ended, she returns home with great excitement. The idea of performing in front of the biggest crowd she has ever seen. It was a thrill, and she hopes to continue to perform.

A week later, Risa’s wish finally came true. She finally receives an invitation to perform in the Majesties Festival. The festival community asks her to perform her Rainbow Dragon Routine. She is so excited to be part of the festival, but she thought of coming up with a new routine to add to the performance piece. From the day of receiving the invitation, Risa has been working day and night coming up with this new routine hopefully it will be ready for the show.

On the day of the Majesties Festival, Risa is excited and well prepared for her performance. It is a shame her mother and father are not able to come due to their schedules, but they will always cheer her on. As she enters the competition venue, Risa does recognize many of the elite circuses she once performed with a year ago here to get their chance to win.

As the performers take the stage, Risa sees many great routines and can tell they have been working hard to perfect their routines. It seems not all performers are able to escape mistakes costing them the grand prize, as many circuses fell off the running.

Before Risa takes the stage, the duet from Circus Dream took the stage. She went to watch their performance and the way they perform is simply magical. It seems they were performing a love story, where the girl’s partner catches her at the right time and at the end of the routine, they share a special moment. Risa might have been young, but she notices something off with them as if they were not into it and are not really in love. With their routine coming to an end, it is now time for Risa to take the stage.

Risa takes her position and begins their routine with their music playing. She begins performing her Rainbow Dragon Routine, but with a few changes. She quickly jumps into the first hoop and begins twisting herself to take the dragon form. With each passing trapeze, as always, they glow with the colors of the rainbow as they appear on her dress. Making her way to the last trapeze, she positions herself on her back to perform her dragon roar.

There was a huge applause in the crowd cheering for her.

However, she was not done yet.

She reaches for the trapeze close to her and begin swinging herself. Then twists herself to the other side as she begins to spin very fast and let go. She begins flying in the sky like a star for a while and performs a series of stunts that no one has ever performed before. With this stunt, she knows for sure that she has won the competition.

At the end, the judges and the current Snow Majesty take the stage to announce the winner. The Snow Majesty takes the stage to speak to the audience. “Thank you to all the performers and guests who came to celebrate this special event. There were many wonderful performances, but we can only reward one performance as the Snow Majesty. Therefore, without further ado, the new Snow Majesty is none other than, our youngest competitor, Miss Risa Amané!”

Hearing her name, she runs up to the stage and receives her reward. She stands in front of the now pervious Snow Majesty, as she places the crown on Risa’s head crowning the new queen of the circus. “Thank you everyone. I am honored to be your queen.”

From behind the scenes, she did not realize the boss of Circus Dream was watching her performances along with his representatives impressed with her skills. He says, “Send her an invite to join us before the others do.” He walks away impressed with this girl. “Yes, sir.”

Since that day, her life has not been the same. She has been receiving invitations to join the different circuses from around the world. She turns them all down, hoping to get an invite from Circus Dream. Usually, the Snow Majesty cannot to join any circuses since they are upholders of circus law, but at times, there is an acceptation. Little did she know, her life is about to change with one simple letter.

One day Risa comes home from school and checks the mail. Browsing through it, there is a beautifully elegant written letter with the letters in green and gold with a strange symbol in the front. She quickly opens the letter and begins reading it not once, but four times making sure this is real. It is real after all and as she is finally invited to join Circus Dream.

She had to tell her parents right away, so she runs inside her home searching for them.

“Mother! Father! I did it; I got an invitation to-,” Risa excitedly says before seeing her mother on the floor.

“Risa, what are you doing here?” her father asked in shock.

“I came to see mother. What is going on?” she said in a bit of shock

“This is not a good time. Risa, go to your room,” her father ordered.

“No, I want to be with mommy!” Risa shouted trying to escape Lisa’s grasp.

“Leave Risa, it is fine,” her mother ordered before fainting.

“Mother,” Risa said crying.

“Lisa, please take our daughter to her room!” her father shouts.

Lisa, the head-maid of the house, appears to take Risa away crying not able to see her mother. Her father stays be his beloved wife’s side trying to stay strong for her and his only daughter. Risa in her room continues to cry while holding her letter from Dream hoping to see her mother soon and she will get better. Thirty minutes later, the ambulance came to take her mother to the hospital to see if there is a chance to save her. Risa came a little bit later with her driver to the hospital to join her father as the doctor spoke to him.

“Good evening, my name is Dr. James; you must be Mrs. Amane’s family.”

“Enough with the small talk. What is the status of my wife?” her father shouts.

“I wish I am bringing you good news.”

“TELL ME NOW!” her father shouted now.

“It seems her illness we cured once before, has returned and we have tried everything to help her,” Dr. James explains.

“I do not care about your excuses. Save me wife or I will have you fired,” her father threatened.

“I am sorry sir, but there is nothing we can do,” Dr. James said in a calming matter.

“There must be something,” Her father said a bit calmer.

“I am sorry, but there is nothing we can do. I suggest you go and say your good-byes,” Dr. James said.

“Very well, we will do what you say, but I will make sure, you do not work here any longer,” her father threatened. “Risa come along,” Mr. Amané said grabbing Risa’s hand and walking into her private room.

Risa could not hold herself back and begin crying in front of her mother.

“Mother, please do not leave us. We need you,” Risa said in between tears.

“My sweet little girl. I am sorry you have to be going through this in your age. I am sorry I won’t be able to see you as a Dream Star one.”

“Mommy, I wanted to tell you, I was invited to join Dream.”

“That is wonderful Risa, I am so proud of you. You are the Snow Majesty and now this wonderful news.”

“I will not join. It won’t be the same without you here.”

“Risa, my darling, do not give up your dream. Promise me you will be a star for me,” her mother said kindly. “Remember, I will always be in your heart.”

“I promise mommy,” Risa said continuing to cry. “I love you mommy.”

“I love you too Risa. My dear husband, I will always love you, please watch over our beloved daughter and always take care of each other,” her mother said as her final words as she closes her eyes.

As the snow falls, Risa’s mother passes away. The two both cry with both of their hearts broken losing the person they truly love. Risa could not stop crying in her room for the next week, not leaving her room and never seeing anyone. As her father, he does not even speak to no one, as he too is heartbroken about losing the love of his life.

When it came time for the funeral, Risa and her father kept their distance from each other, as they do not know how to heal their broken hearts. The funeral service beautifully decorated with all her mother’s favorite flowers and everyone that knew her mother attended the funeral.

Once the funeral was over and saying good-bye, Risa and her father drifted apart.

They do not even speak to each other or even care what they do with their lives.

The only thing her father did before leaving the city was creating Rika Academy in honor of his late wife and for Risa to have the best education.

Risa quits performing all together making her lose her Snow Majesty title and forgotten to the circus world. She only continues her training to stay in shape and never forgetting her love of the circus. Even though she quits performing, she still gets invitations from Circus Dream and other circuses hoping she will come back, but she ignores them year after year.

As for her father, he travels around the world managing his hotel chain trying to forget his broken heart and at times checking in on his daughter for never performing again.

This has been going on for the past three years.