ballerina• It seemed a physical impossibility, her massive body bounding with the grace of a ballerina.• We were topped by ballerinasdressed as bumblebees.• Partner Cyril Pierre lifted his ballerina with sublimeease.• Janet Collins became the leading ballerina of the Metropolitan Opera in the early 1950s.• Once the best you could hope for was a 50-year-old prima ballerina who sometimes starred at the local opera house.• Apparently the ballerinaPavlova came here to learn to dance like a swan for the ballet Swan Lake.• These were not the dainty and chastetwirls and curtseys of the ballerinas at Lincoln Center.• The ballerina has to behave as graciously and confidently as her partner.
Originballerina
(1800-1900)Italianballare“to dance”, from Late Latin; → BALL1