The Ladybug and the Ballerina
This poem is for every child who has stood at the edge of something they desperately wanted to do, held back by the gap between their dream and their ability. The speaker wants to fly across the stage — but often feels like she has two left feet. She looks to the ladybug, that “whimsy of nature,” and finds in her small figure something the stage has never given her: effortless grace.
Lora Hollings gives us one of the series’ most emotionally honest poems — one that holds both longing and struggle without resolving them cheaply. The transformation is not earned through practice but through imagination, belief, and the magic of a child’s favourite hiding place. The ladybug is not a teacher. She is a dream.
The Poem
The Ladybug and the Ballerina
I wish I could fly across the stage
like a bird with wings…
But often times when I try to leap,
I feel as if I have two left feet.
Balancing on the tips of my toes,
I wish I could be
like a leaf in a gentle breeze,
effortlessly twirling around and around…
falling silently to the ground.
I must be like the ladybug
who flits from stem to flower
and leaf to leaf —
this little whimsy of nature
who fires every child’s imagination
with her fanciful form…
a lovely fairy queen
melting into the shadows of dreams.
Yet in stark daylight,
dancing among the roses,
her singular figure stands out —
a prima ballerina dancing
in nature’s elegant costume,
leaving a trail of magic in my mind
to a child’s favourite hiding place…
Where all my dreams come true
and there I shall find her,
the little ladybug queen,
whose magic will transform me
into the great dancer
that I always wanted to be.
Before You Read — Ask This
🌟 Wondering Questions
- Is there something you’ve always wanted to do but found really hard? What is it?
- Have you ever watched a dancer, athlete, or musician and thought: “I wish I could do that”? What did they make you feel?
- What does it mean to have “two left feet”? Have you ever felt that way?
- Do you have a “favourite hiding place” where you go when you want to dream? What is it like?
Word Treasure Box
An idiom meaning clumsy or ungraceful — especially in dancing. If you have “two left feet,” your feet seem to go the wrong way at the wrong time.
A small, playful, charming thing in the natural world. “Whimsy” means a playful, fanciful quality. The ladybug is one of nature’s whimsical gifts.
Imaginative, fantastical, full of fancy. The ladybug’s fanciful form sparks imagination — she looks like she belongs in a fairy tale.
The lead dancer in a ballet company — the most skilled, the one who gets the starring roles. In the poem, the ladybug dancing among roses becomes this.
Unique, one of a kind, standing apart. The ladybug’s singular figure stands out among the roses — there is nothing else quite like her.
To change into something new. The ladybug queen’s magic will transform the speaker — not just improve her, but change her into the great dancer she always wanted to be.
Flashcard Study Set
Nine cards from the poem — vocabulary, themes, and the magic of dreaming through struggle. Click any card to flip it.
After You Read — Talk About It
The speaker feels clumsy and disconnected from her body. Have you ever felt like your body wasn’t cooperating with what you wanted it to do? What helped you keep going?
She dreams of moving “effortlessly.” But does effortlessness come from practice, magic, or both? What is something that looks effortless but actually takes enormous work?
The poem ends at a child’s “favourite hiding place” where dreams come true. Do you have a place like this — real or imagined? What happens there?
The transformation in this poem happens through magic, not rehearsal. Do you think imagination can do what practice can? Can it do things practice can’t?
The speaker finds her inspiration in a tiny creature. What is something in nature, art, or life that has inspired you to try something hard?
The poem ends with the speaker imagining she becomes the great dancer she always wanted to be. Is that a happy ending? Is imagining something the same as achieving it?
Real Wonders — The Science
🍃 Did You Know?
- Ladybugs really do move like dancers. Their six legs move in alternating tripods — three legs lift while three push — giving them a smooth, rhythmic gait. When they climb flower stems, their movement genuinely resembles choreography.
- Ballet and nature share the same principles. Ballerinas train to move with the efficiency and grace that animals have naturally. Many ballet movements were inspired by watching birds, leaves, and flowing water.
- Imagination activates the same brain regions as doing. Neuroscience shows that vividly imagining a movement activates the same motor cortex as performing it. The poem’s magic has a real neurological basis.
- Ladybugs balance on surprisingly tiny surfaces. Their adhesive pads and claws allow them to grip surfaces as small as a single rose petal. Balancing on flower tops is a genuine ladybug skill.
Create & Explore
✨ Activities to Try
- Find Your Hiding Place: Write a description of your favourite hiding place — real or imagined. What does it look like, sound like, smell like? What happens there that doesn’t happen anywhere else?
- Dance Like a Ladybug: Put on music and try to move the way a ladybug moves — light, quick, from flower to flower. Don’t worry about grace. Just let your body find its own way.
- My Dream Performance: Draw yourself performing the thing you most love or most want to do — perfectly, magically, the way the ladybug moves. What are you wearing? Who is watching? How do you feel?
- Write Your Own Stanza: Add a stanza to the poem. What does the speaker find when she reaches her hiding place? What does the ladybug queen look like? What does her magic feel like?
Reading Guide
| Element | What to Notice |
|---|---|
| Emotional arc | The poem moves from frustration → longing → admiration → imagination → hope. Each stanza shifts the emotional register. Track these shifts as you read aloud. |
| Contrast | The speaker’s clumsiness is set against the ladybug’s effortless grace. This contrast is the engine of the poem — the gap the speaker is trying to close through imagination. |
| Two worlds | “Stark daylight” vs. “shadows of dreams” — “a child’s favourite hiding place.” The poem lives between the real and the imagined, and never quite chooses between them. |
| Central Message | The gap between who we are and who we want to be is not a failure — it is the birthplace of imagination. The dream is its own form of becoming. |
- Map the stanzas: Each stanza has a different emotional location. Label each stanza with one word for what the speaker is feeling. How does the journey progress?
- The two comparisons: The speaker compares herself to a bird (stanza 1) and a leaf (stanza 2). What is similar about these two images? What does each add that the other doesn’t?
- The hiding place: “A child’s favourite hiding place” is never described. Why does Lora Hollings leave it undefined? What do you gain from filling it in yourself?
- Does the transformation happen? The poem ends in the future tense: “whose magic will transform me.” Not “has transformed.” Does the transformation happen in the poem? What does this suggest?