By Gretchen Keiser

When she was little girl, Caroline Cavallo never walked down the street, her mother recalls. She always danced.

Watching the antics of her first child, Jackie Cavallo -- who had taken some dancing lessons herself as a child - signed her four year old daughter up for dancing classes at a park district near their Chicago home. But even as she did it, she says “I just knew that after a few lessons all my money would go down the drain for shoes and leotards and tights,” when little Caroline got bored and tired of dancing.

“That never happened,” Mrs. Cavallo said last week, laughingly. Her daughter, Caroline, who just turned 15 in December, is still dancing and, in storybook fashion which must touch many little girls’ hearts, was chosen to dance the role of the Sugar Plum Fairy in some performances of “The Nutcracker” ballet this Christmas, in Atlanta and Little Rock, Arkansas.

The Cavallos who are parishioners of Holy Family parish in Marietta and connected by family ties to several other parishes of the archdiocese, admitted that they are just beginning to acknowledge how exceptional Caroline’s gift may be. She is unusually young to be offered the principal role of the Sugar Plum Fairy, whose dance is, in many ways, the highlight of the Nutcracker ballet.

In Little Rock, where she performed as a guest soloist from the Atlanta Ballet Youth Ensemble, she danced the role partnered by Ronald Jones, a 34 year old member of the Atlanta Baller’s touring ensemble. A review in the Arkansas Democrat said she was “simply beautiful as the Sugar Plum Fairy, a part usually given to older dancers. Her interpretation of the role and technical skill are exceptional, especially for such a young dancer.” The Arkansas Gazette said she was “lithe, delicate and flawless.”

Her parents, Rick and Jackie Cavallo, went to Little Rock for opening night and later returned for other performances because they do not permit Caroline to travel unchaperoned.

“Of course, we were popping buttons,” said Mrs. Cavallo, after seeing their daughter perform in such a celebrated role as principal dancer. But, she said, they did not expect her accomplishments to begin at such a young age. It is only now, she said, that they are “starting to believe that some of the things the teachers were saying are right.”

Caroline herself, who has a big warm smile and merry eyes when she is relaxing, must have had visions of sugar plums dancing in her head for many years. Admittedly unusually disciplined, she practices six days a week from three to four hours a night. A full-time student at Wheeler High School, she has been keeping up an A average, even though she has had to make up tests and examinations she missed while performing.

During the Nutcracker season in December, she danced other roles when she was not performing as the Sugar Plum Fairy, taking part in over 20 Nutcracker performances. When she took part in evening performances, she would attend school all day, then dance at night and do her homework.

Her real yearning to dance the Sugar Plum Fairy began several years ago, Caroline said, when she was given the role of “Mary” in the Nutcracker -- the littler girl whose Christmas dream turns into a ballet with a handsome prince in the magical kingdom where he reigns. As Mary, Caroline sat on a throne alongside the prince, entertained by the dances of the older soloists, especially the sugar plum fairy. But she wasn’t just watching; she was memorizing her steps.

Last Friday night, Caroline was rehearsing at the Atlanta School of Ballet in Buckhead for the lead role in the ballet Coppelia, where she dances the role of a doll who comes to life and falls in love with the doll maker. Her partner will be Bobby Ball, a young apprentice with the Atlanta Ballet who also partnered her in her one Atlanta performance of the Sugar Plum Fairy.

Caroline said Coppelia would be fun, because it gives her the chance to act and mime as well as dance. The Sugar Plum Fairy is very “pulled together, and sugary and queeney,” Caroline said, gesturing with her graceful arms and drawing herself up elegantly on the couch outside the rehearsal room. The doll Coppelia is “cutesy -- a spoiled brat,” she grinned. She and her partner were obviously having fun as they practiced the sequence of dances for their performance in Tupelo, Miss. this week.

While she is progressing exceptionally fast, Caroline is a part of a structure established by the Atlanta Ballet to display and train talented young dancers. The Atlanta School of Ballet is a training academy for prospective dancers. Many audition to join the Atlanta Ballet Youth Ensemble, which is like a mini-company below the Atlanta Ballet for the young. The Youth Ensemble gives its own performances and also takes part in some of the tours of the Atlanta Ballet. Once out of high school, young dancers can audition to join the Atlanta Ballet as apprentices, moving in to the adult company.

Caroline has already decided that she wants to audition as an apprentice when she is old enough. And, although she is keeping up with all her high school work, she says her close friends, who share her secrets and her dreams, are the other young dancers in the Youth Ensemble and the apprentice program.

Her father, Rick, who works for Paulist Communications, said that he is very proud of her and happy for her accomplishments, especially because he knows how hard she has worked. In addition to her parents, she is proudly supported by her great-grandmother, Carrie Elfner, who has been the parish secretary at Holy Family for many years; her grandmother, Ruth Cavallo, who is parish secretary at St. Joseph’s in Marietta, and her uncle Father Joe Cavallo of the archdiocese.

She also has two younger brothers, Danny, 10, and Steven, four, who bring out the ordinary sister in her. “She argues with her brothers” just like any other typical girl, Mrs. Cavallo said.

And, she added with a slight sigh of relief about the other siblings in the Cavallo family: “Neither one of them wants to dance.”