Canada: ONTARIO: Sugar Plum

The second act of Tchaikovsky’s ballet The Nutcracker has a part for a little girl, an amateur who need not dance, but who has only to enjoy the company of the Nutcracker and the chance to watch the Sugar Plum Fairy’s festival of dancing. In Toronto last week the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo picked the perfect moppet for the part. She was blonde, front-toothless Sandra Drew, 6-year-old daughter of Ontario’s Premier George Drew, granddaughter of Metropolitan Opera Manager Edward Johnson.

For Sandra, who has studied ballet for two years, life has held few greater moments than the opportunity to be on stage with two such ballerinas as Nathalie Krassovska and Alexandra Danilova. But her debut had its disappointment. Her father was out making a speech; her mother was ill. Sandra’s most gleeful comment (at 9 p.m.): “Edward [her 9-year-old brother] is asleep by now, and I’m still up!”