by Megan Burbank

In a low-ceilinged studio at Pacific Northwest Ballet’s Phelps Center in downtown Seattle, two rows of kids from South Seattle’s Maple Elementary stand at a ballet barre on a floor of middle-gray marley. Clad in purple cap-sleeve leotards or white T-shirts and black tights, they move in unison to music played by a pianist in the corner, as former PNB dancer Eric Hipolito Jr. leads them through the first step of every ballet class ever taken: pliés, knee bends that form the basis of numerous steps still to come. As the students move through the static postures that, taken together, form the foundation of classical ballet, Hipolito interjects here and there with jokes, praise, nuggets of guidance: “Make sure there’s space between your fingertips,” he says at one point. At another: “Check if you’re early and check if you’re late.”