Sheila

I’m Sheila Bryant. Really Sara Rosemary Bryant, which I really hate. I was born August 8, 1946 in Colorado Springs, Colorado. And I’m going to be thirty real soon. And I’m real glad. What do you want to know about me first? Well ... I wanted to be a prima ballerina. (Grimacing at the spotlight) That light ... what color is that? Do you have anything softer? Well ... like I said, I wanted to be a ballerina. Because my mother was a ballerina – until my father made her give it up.   My parents? My mother ... My mother was raised like a little nun. She couldn’t go out – she couldn’t even babysit. But she wanted to be a dancer and she had all these scholarships and all that. And when she got married my father made her give it up.

Isn’t this exciting? And then she had this daughter – me – and she made her what she wanted to be. And she was fabulous the way she did it ... Do you want to know how she did it? Oh, how she did it ... Well, first, she took me to see all the ballets. And then, she gave me her old toe shoes – which I used to run down the sidewalk in – on my toes – at five. And then I saw The Red Shoes –– and I wanted to be that lady, that redhead. And then, when she saw I really had to dance, she said: “You can’t do it until you’re eight.” Well by then, I was only six and I said “BUT I’VE GOT TO DANCE.” (To the Well ... Let’s face it ... My family scene was – ah ... not good!