Image Credit: Sophia Luna

Zane’s Ballet Saves the Day

Little Zane loved to dance, he would prance and plié, 

Pirouette in his PJs, and say, “Enchanté.”

With his hair in a bun, he had fun and worked hard,

Painting leopard print pears in his pink leotard.

But by the third grade, all the fun started fading. 

On his first day of school, there were ALIENS invading!

“We have come to run tests,” they harrumphed with a snort,

“And to measure your smarts for our Earthling report.”

Then they ate up the crayons and beamed up the pencils. 

With laser beam eyeballs, they sliced up the stencils.

They locked up the teachers and chortled with wrath, 

“We’re replacing all art time with worksheets and math.”

Now math could be fun, and Zane LOVED to learn science.

But take away art? He would dance in defiance.

With a twirling KER-SLAM! he assumed a bold pose,

And declared, “Pooh pooh on your worksheets and rows.”

Zane glared at the creatures. The creatures glared back,

As they launched a detention slip counter-attack!

They fired off slips with a gurgle and glurk,

“We have cancelled your recess. Now get back to work.”

With his eyebrow aloft and his hands on his hips,

Zane gracefully leapt and he swept up the slips.

He arrived at the trash in a stretched arabesque,

Then he ripped up the slips and danced back to his desk.

Zane winked at his classmates, “Detentions? How gross!”

But the creatures weren’t done, no they weren’t even close.

They booted up bots as they gleefully gleeped.

“Return to your seats,” the robots all bleeped.

Zane tried to fight back with a feisty jeté,

But their long robot arms overwhelmed his ballet.

“Don’t give up!” he exclaimed as his classmates all gulped.

“We should fight for our right to make music and sculpt!”

And just when it seemed that the creatures would win

When it seemed all was gray and was gruesome and grim.

At the back of the class, a fog machine pumped,

As the laser lights flashed and a bass guitar thumped. 

“We’re here with you Zane, and we’re ready to ROCK!”

Said Lalita on drums and a bassist named Brock.

There was Greg on guitar and Kassandra on keys

And Ms. Cohen on cowbell in rainbow capris.

[Art note: We see Greg short-circuiting robots with a guitar solo and Lalita playing drums on the heads of various robots. Kassandra “on keys” picks the lock that had held the teachers, and Ms. Cohen and other teachers join the students as they fight back against the robots with rulers, pencils, and erasers.]

The aliens glorked. “We need backup!” they gleeked.

And over the schoolyard their silver ships streaked.

But the students rose up, “We will fight for our rights!” 

As they all put on tutus and sparkly pink tights.

And as they stood proud, who appeared from the rubble?

It was Zane all bedazzled and ready for trouble!

“Who’s ready to dance?!” he sang out with sass.

 “Count us in!” came the cry from the rest of the class.

To the beat of the music, they danced and they fought.

With a THWACK! from their toe shoes, they cracked through each bot.

They brought down the ships with their well-aimed barrettes

And they cleared out the classroom with swift pirouettes.

The aliens bolted. They beamed back to space.

Their reports were all scorched and their tests were erased,

As the students and teachers declared in one voice,

“We choose school that is FUN over multiple choice!”

For the rest of the year, they learned science through art.

They found math in their music, dripped paint on their charts.

As Zane with a smile and his hair in a bun

Taught his teachers to dance and his friends to have fun.