(Enlarge) Leiland Charles as the Wolf and Emma Balcom as Little Red Riding Hood bring a beloved fairy tale to life for the Howard County Ballet this Saturday, May 30 in the auditorium at Reservoir High School.

Often, it's the little things you remember about attending a spring dance recital. The way a tiny ballerina took her first bow; her older brother's pride at pulling off a perfect pirouette; the hustle and bustle backstage just before the curtain rises.

Many of our 28 local dance schools are presenting their big spring concerts this month. Two of the remaining half-dozen or so will be danced this weekend and next. We focus on them knowing that they and all the others will leave many a sweet memory in their wake.

It takes more than two hands to mount a ballet. Many hands are needed to sew costumes, build sets, hang lights, wire speakers, print tickets and to calm tender, furrowed brows.

When it comes to staging beloved fairy tales for young performers, though, a special touch, indeed, is required. In that sense, the most important hands behind this Saturday's presentations of "Little Red Riding Hood" and "Sleeping Beauty" by the Howard County Ballet belong to Kathi Ferguson.

The gentle, soft-spoken Ferguson first staged her adaptation of "Little Red Riding Hood" in 1995. She blazed her own trail through the Brothers Grimm tale about an innocent girl in a red cloak confronting mortal peril in a dark woods. In her version, the big bad wolf is not such a nasty figure as in the original tale. In point of fact, he turns out to be more frustrated than malevolent.

Perhaps it takes a keen dance eye to discern just how misunderstood an old fairy-tale character can be.

For her return visit to the piece, Ferguson has picked up some terrific performers to play her not-so-menacing wolf and a full cast of dancing flowers and other forest critters.

Oakland Mills High School's Leiland Charles, a rising star in theatrical dance, will play the wolf, with the role of Little Red Riding Hood being shared by Emma Balcom and Emilee Hooper. Jill May will be another dancing star in her "Sleeping Beauty" role of Aurora.

Marina Freydin and Leigh Alexander, both recent winners in the Howard County Young Choreographers Showcase, will add their talent to this production, which also features guest artist John Stapleton, fresh from the Northern Ballet Theatre.

Howard County Ballet performs "Little Red Riding Hood" with excerpts from "Sleeping Beauty" at Reservoir High School in Fulton Saturday, May 30 at 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $15 general, $10 for senior citizens and children. Call 410-465-9414 or go to www.howardcountyballet.org.

Authentic Russian ballet

Last winter, some three-dozen ballet dancers from L'Etoile -- The Russian Ballet Academy of Maryland were featured in the delightful ballet "Masquerade." It was so well rehearsed and so lovely in its presentation that it made my list of 2008's top-10 local dance concerts.

Last weekend, while Howard County teens flocked to beaches for the Memorial Day weekend, Svetlana Kravtsova's dance students were cloistered at the L'Etoile Ballet studios on Corporate Drive, just off Route 40 in Ellicott City, rehearsing mazurkas and czardas and gorgeous Russian ballet variations for their May 30 recital at Slayton House.

"Dancer's don't take vacations," explains Kravtsova, a former dancer in Russia and one of the most sought-after classical ballet teachers in our area. Together with her dancing husband, Vadim Pijicov, the couple opened L'Etoile Ballet in 2007.

For her second presentation in Columbia, Kravtsova has invited her former student, guest artist Alexandru Glusacov, to partner teenage ballerina Siobhan Rith in the Grand Pas De Deux from "Flower Festival in Ginzano."

Local dance star Maggie Kudirka (once one of those tiny ballerinas who wowed us and now a soon-to-be student at Towson University) will dance two classical variations from the haunting ballet "La Bayadere."

Other advanced dancers include Vivian Steyert, Isabel van Zijl and Abigail Slavinsky. Word has it that Pijicov will perform in the showcase too, perhaps whipping off the sort of high-flying variation made famous by another celebrated Russian named Nureyev.

L'Etoile -- The Russian Ballet Academy of Maryland presents "A Tribute to Classical Ballet, Edition II" at the Slayton House Theatre, 10400 Cross Fox Lane, in Wilde Lake Village this Saturday, May 30, at 5 p.m. Act I is a demonstration class, followed by the ballet excerpts. Tickets are $15 general, $12 for senior citizens, $10 for children and free for kids under 5. Call 443-393-1197. Or go to www.etoileballet.com.

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