Much like most little girls, when I was little I really wanted to be a ballerina. I loved the costumes, the pirouettes, the grace, the glamour, the ballet shoes; I would have loved to have joined the ranks of fluffy tutus and ribbons around my ankles to learn how to move my body with such precision and elegance. But I grew up poor – though I never knew it – and my parents couldn’t afford to put me in dance. So I read my ballet books, put on my fluffiest skirts, and just pretended. When the year came in our church’s Christmas play that they asked myself and another girl…