Alice Twinkle Toes

Alice Twinkle Toes appeared on February 16, 2009, in Season 1. It is the 24th episode of the season.

Summary
Alice is a talented athlete, but grace is not her middle name. After she sees a performance of the ballet, she secretly wishes she could take ballet lessons. But how can she ever admit she's interested when she knows her brother Ronald will tease her mercilessly?

Recap
It begins at school. Mrs Clusky is leading the students into the hall to watch ballet, telling them to be on their best behaviour. Helen is excited as she has never seen a live ballet performance before. T.D. has seen C.D. dancing ballet, but he's not sure that counts. He then demonstrates C.D.'s ballet moves. Alice says that he looks more like a counting horse. He wishes he had a counting horse, and then daydreams that he has a pet horse who helps him do sums, but who he leaves on when Mrs Clusky tells him no horses allowed. Back in real life, Alice wishes she had a horse to get her out of the ballet because she thinks it will be boring. Mrs Clusky, however, thinks Alice will love the ballet as it's a very hard sport. Alice asks how dancing is a sport, and Mrs Clusky says it's very athletic and takes a lot of coordination. T.D. doesn't know what coordination is, so Mrs Clusky explains that it means the ability to move different parts of the body at once in a smooth way. Alice asks if ballet has field holds, to which Mrs Clusky says no. Alice replies, "I rest my case". The show then starts. Once it starts, Alice actually enjoys it (and so does Carolina behind her) and watches it intently. Ronald, however, is mainly disinterested but finds it mildly satisfying.

In the foyer, Alice, T.D., and Helen are putting their books into their lockers. T.D., despite having enjoyed the ballet, thinks it's far from a sport. Helen says that she saw a TV show where they proved a ballet dancer and a lion tamer had the same amount of strength. T.D. doesn't believe this, but Helen says it's true, and that many sports players take ballet classes to improve their balance. Alice then imagines herself dancing with a bunch of clumsy sports players, jumping up and down while doing it. Helen spots Alice jumping up and down and asks if she's okay. Alice absently says "Yeah, sure, why?". Helen explains that Alice is jumping up and down, and Alice lies that she's trying to reach the swim goggles on the top shelf of her locker. T.D. hands her the goggles, asking her what she needs them for. Alice says she has sensitive eyes, swapping her glasses for the goggles and leaving, falling down in the process due to a combination of her natural clumsiness and her sight being hindered by the goggles. She then wonders in a grumbly way, why she's such a klutz.

That evening, the Boxwoods are having dinner at the table. Mrs Boxwood asks her children if they liked the ballet. Alice, who is a bit sulky, says it was okay and notes the grace of the dancers. Ronald laughs and says that Alice went gaga for it. Alice gets defensive and denies she went gaga. Ronald says she did, but Alice angrily insists she didn't. Ronald says that that's good because dancers have to be coordinated and then, he demonstrates what Alice would be like if she danced with a fork, accidentally ending up with mashed potato in his face. Alice says she can be coordinated when she wants to be and tries to do ballet. She is good at moving, but accidentally falls over. Ronald thinks it's funny and teases her with the line "here come the dancers". Alice says that just because she likes ballet doesn't mean she wants to do it while getting up, but falling over again.

At bedtime, Alice goes to bed while looking at a slightly scribbly drawing of herself in a tutu. Nelson jumps up onto her bed. Alice talks to Nelson about the beauty of the dancers, wishing she could be as graceful as them. She then falls asleep and dreams that her drawing comes to life and dances across the room, falling off the bed.

When she wakes up, the alarm clock goes. She then looks at her drawing and says that she's a klutz even in her dreams. She then puts the drawing into her drawer, declaring she will never be a dancer.

At the ice rink, Carolina says she is preoccupied with the ballet. Helen says she is, too, announces she danced her way through her chores the previous evening. She then skates onto the ice, singing, but stumbles. T.D, Carolina and Alice skate onto the ice, too. Everyone but Alice is having a hard time keeping balance as it is their first time, while Alice has had practice. Helen bumps into Danny then notes on Alice's good balance. Alice says she doesn't have balance. T.D. says that Alice, despite being a klutz on her feet, has good balance on skates. Helen says that Alice is graceful on the ice, with Martha agreeing. Alice then skates around but falls down. Ronald, who is sitting on the bench with Skits, laughs and mocks her with the same line he used at dinner time. Alice blushes.

When Martha, Alice, T.D, Helen, and Carolina walk home from ice skating, T.D. says that he was a bit klutzy on the ice and wonders if ballet would help him improve his balance like on TV. Alice is looking through the window of a ballet school. Helen then wonders if they should all take ballet class. They then see Alice watching the ballet class and watch too. Martha copies what the teacher says and T.D. and Carolina imitate the dancers' moves but fall on their behinds. Helen asks Alice to try dancing, but Alice says she can't as she has a Charlie horse in her leg. Martha thinks that means a horse named Charlie and asks how he got in there. Helen explains that Alice doesn't really have a horse in her leg, and it's just an expression meaning a muscle cramp. Alice then leaves.

At the Boxwood residence, Alice does her homework, trying to do math but drawing the eight in the answer to sixty-four divided by eight as a ballet dancer. She then erases it, wishing she could just put ballet out of her mind. She then turns on the TV and flips through several channels, before landing on a ballet programme and copying the moves. Ronald asks if she's watching ballet and she says no and keeps doing her homework. Ronald says that she was so watching ballet as he recognised the music on the television that he heard as ballet. Alice asks if he's memorised all the ballet music in the world while trying to keep doing her homework. Ronald rudely says he has not, he just knows what "boring" sounds like and pretends to dance.

Alice leaves the house with sunglasses and a cap on.

She passes the grocery store, gasping and inspecting an apple when Carolina walks past, then enters a shoe store, taking her cap and sunglasses off. She admires a pair of ballet shoes. She hears someone say that someone is quite the dancer in a baby-talk voice and thinks the person is talking about her, but really it was a lady talking to a little girl who was also doing ballet while trying on shoes.

Alice then imagines herself trying on shoes with her mother and brother in the shoe store and suddenly being able to do ballet very well.

A worker sees Alice looking at the shoes and asks her if she needs help. She then tries on the shoes and the worker asks if she can try them out. Ronald watches from behind a rack of shoes. He says "Whaddaya know?" and leaves.

In Alice's bedroom, she closes her curtains and shows Nelson the dancing shoes, while putting them on. She finds a rainbow skirt and a textbook on ballet then puts on the skirt and tries to copy the moves mentioned in the textbook. She manages to do the first four positions but falls over while talking about how the fifth position feels awkward, asking Nelson if it looks awkward. She then thinks that Nelson probably doesn't know what "awkward" means and defines it for him, putting it as something that looks goofy and feels even worse. She then continues to dance, while Nelson falls asleep. She then shows Nelson her dancing, but Helen enters, which startles Alice, causing her to fall over, which startles Nelson so he runs away meowing. Alice describes her situation as awkward.

In the Lorraine family garden, Helen throws a frisbee for Martha and Skits, then asks Alice why she has to be sneaky about liking ballet and that her mother would let her take classes. Alice says that

Characters

 * Alice


 * Martha


 * Helen


 * Nelson


 * Ronald


 * Mr. Boxwood


 * Mrs. Boxwood


 * T.D.
 * Mrs. Clusky
 * Triplets
 * Carolina
 * C.D. (mentioned)
 * Daniel Lorraine
 * Skits

Vocabulary
awkward, balance, clumsy, graceful, coordination, athlete, dancer, klutz, stumble, beautiful