Dancers perform a scene from "Swan Lake" at the Westside School of Ballet adult showcase at New Roads School in Santa Monica in August. (Zoe Cranfill / Los Angeles Times) For the record: 11:40 a.m.
Everything about the ballet studio felt strange but unmistakably familiar—the last-minute hair fixes, the floor marked by scruffs and fraying tape, and the chorus of vaguely Slavic accents, all ...