La Magnifique Grande Scène / Characters

Character sheet for La Magnifique Grande Scène. Names are written in Western order.

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Main Characters

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Clockwise, from top left: Kanade, Sakura, Ema, Shouko

Character Development: Following up their early Four-Temperament Ensemble description below in the second arc. Kanade becomes calmer and more thoughtful while maintaining her signature optimism. Sakura can now (sometimes) admit she's not perfect, doesn't have to be perfect, and there are plenty of dancers her age she can learn from, instead of treating them like opponents or stepping stones. Shouko sheds her Shrinking Violet exterior while managing her Hot-Blooded tendencies better, becoming more comfortable around strangers and more confident without constant support. Ema rediscovers her passion for ballet, drive and will to succeed, caring more about her professional performances and pushing more in boring, repetitive lessons.
Fire-Forged Friends: Most of their current friendships is build in the arena of competition. Kanade and Sakura in the national championship, then Ema and Shouko in the YAGP Japan preliminaries (all with mixed results). Kanade and Shouko have been learning from each other and competing informally within their studios—ditto Sakura and Ema.
Four-Temperament Ensemble: The four main casts.
- Sanguine: Kanade, full stop. She's constantly optimistic, ever-cheerful, with near-limitless energy to smile through anything. While most strangers usually take this awkwardly at best, it's often noted to be one of her greatest strength among professional ballet's gruelling life.
- Choleric. Sakura. She's haughty and arrogant most times, then rather cold and indifferent when she's not sarcastically mocking anyone. Since little, she's been a subject of great expectations from her mother and peers, thus she exacts the same standard to others. She mellows out considerably as a teenager, however.
- Melancholic: Shouko, the resident Yamato Nadeshiko. She schedules everything in her life down to the last second, a near-OCD trait she seemingly learned from her father (who's a former athlete), and her dancing style is incredibly deliberate and technical. However, she's also the most emotional, with her up-and-downs often breaking through the calm facade she puts on most times.
- Phlegmatic: Ema. After her injury, she half-heartedly returned to dancing, relying solely on natural talent and her Photographic Memory to coast by without applying the necessary discipline and gusto the other three girls did. In fact, this trait nearly bit her in her behind when she nearly gave up on her career during YAGP, though Sakura's mother snapped her out of it quickly.
Red Oni, Blue Oni:
- Kanade and Sakura, the two main rivals. One's a bright-eyed, naive newcomer from a middle-class family, while the other is an experienced, somewhat jaded semi-professional from a well-to-do environment. Their dancing styles, learning method, and motivations are almost exact opposites, though they're currently good friends (not that Sakura's going to admit it anytime soon.)
- Shouko and Ema. One's a super-rich The Ojou, the other comes from a regular Working-Class Hero family. The former is hyper-serious and throws everything of herself at anything, even trivial things, while the latter is lackadaisical, laid-back, and reluctant to put in any more effort than necessary, particularly in regrads to repetitions. Shouko, underneath her Yamato Nadeshiko demeanour, is actually very Hot-Blooded, while Ema, despite her rough and blunt way of speaking, is much stabler and calmer in most situations.

Kanade Ariya

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Kanade in Volume 25

^{Kanade in casual clothes}

"Dance is so fun!"

Kanade, forgetting she's mid-competition.

The main character. Initially just a normal girl whose neighbour, Risa, happened to be an aspiring ballet student, she was hooked into the art when she saw the latter performing on stage. Completely entranced by Risa, who seems to have transformed into a real fairy in front of the young girl's eyes, Kanade begs her parents to sign her up for ballet lessons. Armed with a cheerful attitude, a desire to learn everything she can and the simultaneous support and competition provided by both friends and rivals Kanade slowly works to achieve her dream of becoming a professional ballerina.

She's the reigning YAGP pan-division champion, dancing Diana. Currently, she's a 10th-grade foreign student in Royal Ballet School's White Lodge, England.

All-Loving Hero: Never has anything negative to say about anyone else, ever. No matter if they're antagonistic to her or an obstacle she must surpass, Kanade maintains her lovable attitude always.
All Your Powers Combined: How she danced her winning Diana in YAGP. Instead of solely focusing on the final choreography Abby "perfected", Kanade instead drew more inspiration from past lessons: the guest teachers she had during YAGP, the mentors she had from Takimoto Ballet Studio (Nobuko, Akutsu, Risa, Saki), the other three main characters, Andrea, Eugene, then finally Abby's verbal description of Diana's character. This was a more literal example because of her Power Copying ability.
Bifauxnen: Kanade's naturally taller and stronger than her peers (even those older than her). This, combined with her slender physique, made it easier for her to play androgynous characters. Example◊. Sakura noted she could easily seduce the girls in her neighbourhood whenever she wanted to.
Broken Pedestal: Towards Abby, if only slightly and momentarily, during the YAGP. As Nobuko pointed it out, Abby's ambiguous words and attitude towards Kanade (deliberately or not) manipulated her into thinking she's the only girl Abby promised a Royal Ballet scholarship to. She appears to have mostly gotten over it post-YAGP, though some tensions do remain even as she trains under Abby in London.
Cool Big Sis: As she got older, she assumed this role to the younger dancers around her, most notably Ryou and Zooey.
Crippling Overspecialization: Initially, which what led her to Diana. Nobuko correctly identified Kanade's physical prowess is her unique and strongest talent, since she already had trouble dancing more delicate, intensive pieces before. Hence, choreographies like Diana and Jeanne suit her to a T, but her Aurora, considered a classic test for aspiring ballerina, was inferior to most of her friends. However, give her one dance which suits her perfectly, she completely outshines everyone else. In YAGP, it's implied from conversations among the judges and audience (plus Sakura and Andrea during the semifinals; Ema, Zixuan and Abby in the finals), she wiped the floor with everyone there (even Evelyn, whom Abby personally hand-picked).
Character Tic: Played for Laughs, but she tends to faceplant when she's falling. This is coincidentally the best way to fall for a dancer, since she won't injure herself compared to falling on her leg or posterior.
Defeat Means Friendship: Her speciality, though she's usually on the losing end. Instead of letting frustrations get the better of her, she prefers to honestly admit her admiration towards those she considers better than her at that particular moment, shutting off any condescending thoughts from her opponents and endearing her to them. She set a more straightforward example when she beat Evelyn in YAGP.
Determinator: Once Kanade has set her mind to something, stopping her becomes a near impossibility, bar real potential of injury.
Driven by Envy: A mild, rare positive example. Kanade is described by Nobuko early on as having an avaricious personality when it comes to other dancers, and Kanade is shown frequently being envious of the natural gifts and talents other dancers possess. This is actually a good thing as it means she's far more receptive to teaching methods, and in general it manifests as a strong work ethic, constant drive to improve, and desire to learn as much about ballet as she can.
Dude Magnet: After the YAGP arc, she has quite a few male admirers. Unfortunately for them, she's entirely focused on her career right now.
Expository Hairstyle Change: Mild example. Her hair's always been long, but she styled it in two small buns during her childhood. Currently, she opts for a simple ponytail. The difference is more apparent when she buns up her hair during training, then and now.
- After her first year in Royal Ballet, she stops clipping her bangs to one side and letting it grow longer,◊ giving her a slightly messier, more mature look.
Fatal Flaw: Her Leeroy Jenkins tendencies, especially regarding anything remotely new or interesting to her. As she gained skill and experience, this is curbed somewhat, as she noted she'd get injured sooner or later if she kept this up. This still doesn't stop her from dancing whatever and however she wants, though, to the chagrin of her choreographers.
Fighting Fingerprint: Abby's dancing, naturally, particularly in choreographies Kanade's not entirely suited to. She danced Swanhilda and Aurora this way. She finally broke free of Abby's teachings during Phaethon's first showing, though this opens a whole new can of worms between the two. However, Sakura noted her style (and, by extention, Nobuko's) to be distinctly Russian than British.
- Her earlier skills were observed to suit the modern American style of dancing (which Andrea also did), as evident from the amount of American ballet schools willing to give her longer scholarships.
- Starts forming her own style after her first year in Royal Ballet, as evident with her Aurora. While it draws inspiration from her friends (all of whom are experts at it, even minor characters like Saki) and Abby's performance in her prime, she not only manages to extract and reenact their strengths, but also blend it with her own perspective on Aurora.
Fire-Forged Friends: Following her ability to make friends anywhere and everywhere, this is usually the result of spending enough time together with her. Her relationship with the other three main characters is obvious, but she's also this with her new roommates in Royal Ballet.
Fish out of Water: Her default state when she's abroad. It's most notable in Marseille, which was her first time abroad, though her first days in New York and London weren't easy either.
Foil: Though she has many comparisons, she is this to Keira.
- Kanade is unbelievably talkative and energetic, while Keira can be near-catatonic when talking to strangers. Kanade makes friends easily, though she can just as easily let them go to live their lives if that's what's good for them. Keira struggles to befriend strangers, but then holds on to friendships almost to an unhealthy degree, falling into depression when her previous 2 friends dropped out of school, despite other students saying those two were happier and more successful elsewhere. She nearly relives the experience when Kanade almost drops out herself at the end of their first school year.
- Kanade dances almost instinctively, without proper regard to what the "true" choreography is supposed to be like, interweaving her own personality and interpretation willy-nilly. Keira, more of a choreographer, insisted on performances as close to what she envisioned as possible, causing some friction when her dancers wanted more freedom.
- Both have great dynamic vision, but the way they used it is completely different. Kanade's single-target focus is much better, enabling her to study and copy even minute tendencies and acting almost identically, though this took longer. Keira's vision is much wider, able to encompass an entire room full of dancers in an instant, but she uses the data she receives into her choreography for others, instead of her own dancing. Kanade relies on this ability to complement what she feels she herself is lacking, while Keira uses hers to maximize the strengths of others and mask their weaknesses.
Funny Background Event: In Royal Ballet, whenever she's relaxing outdoors, there's always a stag or doe following her around, fitting her Animal Motif during YAGP.
Genki Girl: Kanade's defining trait. She's upbeat, optimistic, extroverted and just plain has fun when she dances, something that other characters find infectious.
Gratuitous English: Kanade currently speaks English just fine, but her younger self clearly spoke in Engrish. In the latest arc, she almost exclusively talks and thinks in English.
The Heart: To both the other three main characters, as well as her current roommates in White Lodge.
- Without her intense, yet idealistic and childish spirit of competition, along with her kindness, it's very likely Shouko, Sakura, and Ema would've become incredibly bitter enemies, with how their personalities heavily clash with each other away from her presence. In fact, they often hold back purely out of respect to her.
- She's the most well-balanced among her White Lodge roommates. Perhaps this is due to her coming from a completely different cultural background than the rest, who've grown up under Western values and customs.
Heroic BSoD: Went through a mild one during YAGP, combined with Broken Pedestal, when she met all of Abby's prospective students. While she quickly admitted it was naive of her to think a world-renowned dancer like Abby would put all her hopes and attention on her alone, the shock remained well into her qualifying performance, though fortunately she refocused just in time to make it to the finals.
Heroic Self-Deprecation: Despite her usual cheerful, confident persona, Kanade's unbelievably self-critical and suffers from chronic self-doubt post-performances, always assuming she's lost before the results are actually announced. Usually, she's spot-on, but in YAGP, it's implied from conversations among the judges and audience she wiped the floor with everyone there (even Evelyn, whom Abby personally hand-picked). It simply felt more dramatic since the manga was told from her point of view.
- All her friends practically agreed she's surpassed them (even Sakura) post-YAGP, but she's still as humble as ever and thought of herself as the chaser, when they're all chasing her in return.
- Similarly, her Phaethon was incredibly well-received (her first time as a main billing), even taking some praise away from Abby, who's making her producing debut post-retirement. Kanade still finds fault in her performance (Abby's callous treatment didn't help, either).
Hidden Depths: Kanade's actually a decent singer (at least much better than Evelyn), and does well in the Royal Ballet's choir.
Huge Schoolgirl: What she ends up growing into in the latest chapters. She's the tallest among her Japanese peers, and is as tall as her Western friends and teachers (including Abigail). She's now taller than her own mother, in fact.
Lightning Bruiser: Kanade's height, powerful build, and explosive atheleticism is noted to be one of her greatest strength, comparable (or even surpassing) Andrea. This is very rare for a Japanese girl, as it's often noted Asians usually have to rely on technique since they couldn't compete physically with Caucasians.
Oblivious to Love: When her school friends ask about it and mention a boy who has a crush on her, Kanade is rather surprised, but states that she doesn't really have time to think about it anyway. She also fails to pick up on her partner Yuuki's interest in her.
Omniglot: Subverted. Her French is terrible, though she picked up a few things here and there during her training, and some more just to communicate with Andrea. Her English is pretty good, however.
One of the Kids: Kanade's quite childish even now, though she can completely shed this demeanour on-stage and in competitions. This does help her Friend to All Children attitude, though, while her peers typically are distant towards the pre-junior members of their studios/schools (even Shouko).
One Sided Rivalry: Funnily enough, she's usually both the intigator and victim, typically during the same bet. Her impulsive nature makes her launch challenges left and right, but soon, she usually drowns in her love of ballet and pure competition, and forgets about the whole schtick in the first place. It's equally as exasperating for her rivals as it's entertaining to read, most notably against Sakura and Evelyn—the first she took more seriously, while with the latter, she's so preoccupied with her Broken Pedestal she practically ignored Evelyn. She didn't even seem to remember they went against each other in YAGP, with Kanade handily beating Evelyn, though the latter took home more prizes in more demanding categories.
Power Copying: Kanade's notable trait, though she acknowledges this is a bad habit to constantly rely on when she sees originality and self-expression are more prized in professional ballet. It's not as instantaneous or instinctive as Ema's Photographic Memory, but she could quickly copy Abby's Aurora after watching it once, though Swanhilda was harder for her to imitate back when she's still inexperienced, requiring almost a full day of intense studying (for Kanade, that's already extremely long). She can flawlessly follow Ema's complex enchainments after seeing it once, too. Hers differs from Ema (and Keira, to a certain extent) in how much detail she can grasp, down to the minute acting skills (which even Sakura cannot do).
Signature Move: Her insanely high jumps, both horizontal and vertical.
Stock Shōnen Hero: Sometimes Played for Laughs, sometimes seriously. Kanade often acts like she's a Dragon Ball character instead of an elegant ballet dancer, on- and off-stage. A more serious example,◊ and a comedic one.◊
Trademark Favorite Food: Avocado. She picks this up as the best option among all the healthy foods a ballerina should constantly eat. When she's allowed to indulge, she's a Sweet Tooth (partially because of the glucose requirement of the language part of her brain, when she's forced to communicate and study abroad).
Unskilled, but Strong: For the first part. Kanade's blessed with incredible physical abilties, but her techniques leave a lot to be desired (Sakura can't even watch her for more than a few minutes without bursting into laughter). She's improved considerably in the next phase of her life, slowly becoming The Ace.

Shouko Itou

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Shouko in Volume 8

^{Shouko in casual clothes}

"I'll just dance as usual."

Shouko, pumping herself up.

Kanade's childhood friend, whom she first met during a try-out class in Takimoto Ballet Studio. Since then, they've been inseparable.

Like Ema and Sakura, she danced Aurora for YAGP, though failed to win any prize or scholarships after making it to the finals. Currently, she's an 11th-grade foreign student in Princess Grace Academy, Monaco.

Asian Airhead: A mild example. Despite her meticulous nature, she sometimes misses such obvious details it's plainly funny to see. For one, she doesn't even know how to high-five. A more serious example was her forgetting which school admission form she filled in YAGP, causing her to panic she wouldn't even get to continue studying ballet abroad, so immersed she was under the nerves of competition.
Berserk Button: Ema, full stop. Anything she says instantly triggers Shouko with frigtening ease.
Boring, but Practical: Her dancing style. Shouko's dillegence is often noted as the best attribute shining through in her dancing, using her incredible minute muscle control to guide her body to the best mistake-free performance possible. Notably, when she's dancing outside of her usual metronomic style, she suffered one of her worst losses in-manga against Ema and Kanade.
Character Development: She's far more aggressive and pushy as a kid, often yelling at Kanade. You wouldn't get that sense when seeing her now, though some of her Hot-Blooded tendencies shine through sometimes.
Daddy's Girl: Not at first. Her father, who had terrible failures during his professional tenure as a weightlifter, was vehemently against her pursuing a similar professional career. Considering what we've seen from various ballerinas in-manga, he's not wrong. But after they worked it out, he became her most dedicated supporter (even beyond Kanade), spoiling her with a bevy of his own tricks, such as a home gym, personalized diet menu, and general physical coaching beyond what's required for ballet, making them very close.
Engrish: Her English is somewhat worse than Kanade, though this is mostly due to her Shrinking Violet tendencies among foreigners, meaning she doesn't get as much real-life practice as her peers who are more open and friendlier. Granted, Kanade's always surrounded by native English speakers (Abby, Evelyn, Rebecca, Oliver, etc.), while Shouko's now studying in a French-speaking country, so perhaps this slowed down her learning.
Luminescent Blush: She gets embarrassed easily when things don't go according to her usual routine, along with her friends' teasing.
Nervous Wreck: She's prone to nervous breakdowns prior to performances (which Sakura correctly predicted all those years ago), even non-competitive ones. She's usually fine when she gets on stage, though.
Not So Stoic: She tries to portray a composed, calm, elegant persona, but it doesn't take much to crack this mask open.
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder: A mild example. She's not this in her daily life, but in regards to ballet, since she couldn't rely on pure physical talent like Kanade or Ema, she chose to control as much detail influencing her performance as possible (much to Kanade's shock). Her "training notes" are basically a Wall of Text.
The Ojou: The most classic example in the manga. Shouko's rich, frequents operas and high-end restaurants, and goes to a prestigious school with excellent grades. Her daily mannerism is also the most lady-like, and while there's nothing suggesting this isn't her real personality, there's far more to her than the demure, polite lady we see.
One Sided Rivalry: She doesn't like Ema. At all. As someone who throws everything she has into ballet, Ema's flippant attitude (even post-YAGP) always pisses her off. Ema doesn't seem to think much of Shouko's antagonistic attitude towards her, though—ditto Sakura, when Shouko challenged her once. Despite Shouko beating her, Sakura's far more focused on her rivalry with Kanade, though unlike with Ema, both girls grew out of it shortly after, as Shouko acknowledged Sakura's suffered through enough for her to criticize.
Prone to Tears: Despite being The Ojou, when times are tough, she's this.
Rich Kids: While Shouko doesn't flaunt this, she comes from a very wealthy family. This is notably different compared to Sakura, who is similarly well-to-do, since only one of Shouko's parents works (her father), while both of Sakura's parents do. Post-YAGP, she's also the only one among the main cast to not even require a scholarship (though a misunderstanding drove her to tears), and went to a famous ballet school in Monte Carlo, where the living cost is far higher than her other friends. Kanade often internally expresses mild jealousy how easy Shouko has it in life, but Shouko's excellent work ethic usually drowns out any complaint from anyone else.
- The home gym her father built turns out to be a Chekhov's Gun when the COVID-19 pandemic hits, meaning she and Kanade can freely train there when the studios are closed.
Shrinking Violet: Shouko often clams up due to shyness, though she's not the most extreme example in this story (that would be Keira). However, she's considerably more awkward in social interactions than the other main characters, making her easy to tease.
Strong Family Resemblance: Shouko and her mother are very similar in appearance.
Older Than They Look: Her average height (for a Japanese) and delicate features mean she looks younger than Kanade (who's a year younger), Sakura and Miriam (who're around the same age). She often acts like a younger girl, too.

Sakura Kurisu

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Sakura in Volume 23

^{Sakura in casual clothes}

"Don't waste my time."

Sakura, saying it smugly.

A young Japanese prodigy who's taking the world by storm. Having been undefeated in many competitions since she's young, Sakura first met the main characters in her mother's dance studio under various, though constantly antagonistic, circumstances. She then became The Rival for all of them, though their relationships quickly grew to be more complex, under the scrutiny of professional ballet dancing.

Like Shouko and Ema, she danced Aurora for the previous YAGP, and like Shouko, she made it into the finals but failed to take home any prizes or scholarships, though she's already awarded the latter from her performance in the Japan preliminaries. Currently, she's an 11th-grade foreign student in Munich International Ballet School, Germany.

The Ace: Oh, is she ever. She's perhaps the best dancer among her age group, with no obvious weaknesses and enough strengths to cover any and all situations. Which makes the times she actually fails, hard, quite the shock.
Alpha Bitch: The epitome of this trope in this manga, though she's mellowed out considerably since she's a kid. Still, when this◊ is her default face, it's hard to root for her. She's prone to making this smug face even when she didn't mean to, even.
Ambiguously Absent Parent: Somewhat. Her father's Out of Focus when compared to her mother, though this is most likely due to his work and his lack of interest in professional ballet. He supports her well enough, and the family appears to get along well, in contrast to what this trope usually implies.
Break the Haughty: Her first Character Development is basically this, covering her childhood, from her early interactions with Ema, through her challenge against Kanade and Shouko (which she actually lost), to her Epic Fail in YAGP.
Character Tic: When she's frustrated, she "adjusts" her ballet shoes by furiously slamming them to the ground multiple times.
Childish Bangs: Her signature hairstyle. Even during performances, when a ballerina's hair is usually combed back, there's usually a couple strands flowing down her forehead, as shown in this image◊.
Enforced Method Acting: Her strongest suit. She can fully sublimate and subsume any role demanded of her, even those she utterly despises like Cinderella, perfectly dancing on any stage and under any circumstances, having stripped "herself" from the role. This is the edge none of the other main characters have, as they struggle with roles they either don't understand or just isn't suited for. Her wide pallette of skills and incredible adaptability is the foundation of this ability. She can even rationally think in parallel when she's dancing, which most characters struggle with.
Epic Fail: Her YAGP finals performance. Touted as the most promising dancer, and being the youngest finalist by a fair margin, she was baited by Andrea's passionate performance and tried doing things out of her habit and training, falling hard on-stage. It's fortunate she already has a year-long scholarship in hand, or she would've gone home empty-handed. Kanade nearly freaked out when she found out.
Even the Girls Want Her: Even with her terrible personality, condescending attitude, and poisonous tongue, when she dances, she's so beautiful and attractive even her friends blush almost constantly.
Fatal Flaw: Pride. Oh, boy, her pride. She has a massive ego, but a fragile one, as it's merely a veneer she puts on to withstand not only her mother's training, but peer pressure and her own expectation of the result of her training. She's the best, she's trained by the best, she's dancing the best choreography... so she should win everything, right? Everything should go smoothly, right? When this isn't the case, she easily drowns herself in spiralling self-destructive thoughts at the slightest challenges, lacking the inspiring determination her friends have. This has gotten to the point she instinctively rejects every help she's given, though her mother knows her good enough to know how to pull her out of these slumps.
The Friend Nobody Likes: While the girls get along well enough, only Kanade can stand in her presence for more than five minutes without blowing her top. Even the incredibly laid-back Ema almost loses it every time they meet.
Friendly Rivalry: She's initially the antagonistic rival to all the main characters, but due to Kanade's influence, her relationship with those she considers "friends" have evolved into this. Hey, it's progress...
Gratuitous German: She speaks German very well.
Informed Flaw: Nobuko noted her performance lacked the creative individuality she prized in her students, like Kanade and Shouko. However, no one was good enough to take advantage of this (her shocker of a YAGP performance coming from pure self-destruction, instead of a genuine defeat), making this point moot. This stems from her mother's training, which explicitly forbids any individual expression for the sole purpose of preparing her students to be able to take on any role, even those unsuited for them. Sakura's simply the best at this aspect, though Miriam and Ema are quickly catching up.
Jerkass Has a Point: Very perceptive. She correctly and quickly identified Kanade's and Shouko's strengths and weaknesses after just meeting them twice and seeing them dance once. Her gruelling training meant she could instantly catch any mistake or variation from the by-the-book choreography, including from her own, and her wealth of knowledge meant she could immediately pinpoint whichever video Kanade was copying from. It's unfortunate she can't apply this perceptiveness to her own personality, though.
Master of All: She's not as athletically gifted as Kanade or Andrea. She's not as meticulously detailed like Shouko. She doesn't learn as quickly as Ema. However, she does everything else better than them, and not far behind them in their areas of expertise, making her avoid the usual Jack of All Trades trope. She's an expert at most, if not all aspects of professional dancing, born from realizing and taking full advantage of the optimum growing environment for aspiring dancers.
Oblivious to Love: The only thing she shares with Kanade is her single-minded focus on ballet, and becoming the best dancer she can be. Her male classmates in Munich are incredibly sad about this.
Poor Communication Kills: She just cannot say what she's actually thinking, even through text. Other than ingrained habit out of arrogance, she even did this deliberately to lead Kanade down the wrong thought process and tease her.
The Nicknamer: She's the only one who calls Kanade "Kana". Her excuse is it's easier to say than her full name.
Training from Hell: Implied to have gotten through this under her mother. Unlike most Stage Mom examples, though, she both agrees to and actually enjoys training like this.
Tsundere: Oh, so very much. She constantly denies she's Kanade's friend (despite signs pointing to Kanade as her◊ only friend◊)... or whether she cares about Kanade at all... or if Shouko and Ema are actually good dancers and she's willing to give pointers... The examples are more numerous than her own appearance in the manga. At some point, she can't even be honest with herself, which is then portrayed with realistic, negative outcomes.
Strong Family Resemblance: Apart from her mother's Eyes Always Shut and height, they're otherwise near-identical in appearance.◊

Ema Fujita

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Ema in Volume 9

^{Ema in casual clothes}

"...might as well."

Ema, moments before pissing Shouko off.

A seemingly nondescript girl from a humble family background, she's introduced after Kanade's and Sakura's competition, though it's revealed she's shares a background with the main characters for far longer than that. Unbelievably laid-back, easygoing, and seemingly careless, she's an extremely rare genius whose talent makes even Sakura jealous.

Like Shouko and Sakura, she danced Aurora for YAGP, but was eliminated in the semifinals despite taking home 1st prize in Japan's preliminaries. Currently, she's an 10th-grade foreign student in John Cranko Ballet School, Germany, alongside Miriam.

All Periods Are PMS: She observed her body's not moving like it used to be after her first menstruation, thoguh this isn't mentioned in future storylines.
Brilliant, but Lazy: Ema's talent is monstrous enough both Mrs. Kurisu and Sakura immediately noticed it. However, following her near-Career-Ending Injury below, she lost most of her motivation towards professional dancing, taking things by stride and making future long-term decisions on the spot. It drives Shouko crazy.
Career-Ending Injury: Almost. She got perhaps the most gruesome injury portrayed in the series (a serious fracture of her right shin), though she got over it... physically, at least. The shock from this, added with the sense of failure and betrayal when Sakura robbed her role, completely erased her passion for dancing for years. She only started seriously training post-YAGP, and even that at the behest of Mrs. Kurisu. This injury shortens her right leg ever so slightly—perhaps a minor issue for most, but for a ballerina who depends heavily on perfect balance and control, it's quite a problem.
Country Mouse: Implied. She doesn't have much of an accent, plus her family has enough money to pay for her ballet tuition for years (which the manga repeatedly points out is not cheap), but her grandfather has a huge farm and she often spends her holidays there. Her mannerism also contrasts Shouko greatly, usually dressing as casually or boyishly as possible with as little care for aesthetics outside of her ballet costume.
Foil: An extreme one for Shouko.
- One is The Ojou, the other comes from a relatively poor family. Uniquely, unlike what this comparison usually entails, Shouko's incredibly hard-working and relies on hundreds, if not thousands of training hours to perform, while Ema simply coasts by on her talent alone.
- Shouko is serious in everything she does, almost unhealthily so. Ema, on the other hand, despises putting more effort than necessary in everything. Fortunately, both are getting better at this and starting to meet in the middle.
- Shouko excels at highlighting subtle, minute movements born through countless repetitions, while Ema excels at performing larger movements and conveying her aura by improvisation.
Instant Expert: Ema's real talent, which is perfectly supported by her Photographic Memory. She can perform complex variations not just with one look, but just by hearing the instructions, forming a whole dance routine in seconds. It's noted this is also her downfall, since everything comes so easy to her on the surface she wasted years not bothering to train the details, costing her an appearance in the YAGP finals.
- This also applies to her language skills. She goes to class on-and-off, yet her English is already better than Shouko (her classmate in English school), enough to fluently converse with Miriam. Note even Sakura, who practically grows up alongside the latter, can't speak English to that extent.
Laborious Laziness: Her main character trait. If she can pull off a winning performance by training for 2 hours a day, then she'll train for 2 hours a day... and not one minute more. Ironically, despite her traumatic injury mentioned above, she's ridiculously confident in her own performance every time, barely getting any stage fright, unlike the other girls.
Omniglot: Her Instant Expert ability extends to her language learning. Shouko, despite having gone to expensive English lessons for some time, isn't as fluent as Ema who goes there reluctantly and randomly. She's mastered German very quickly, too, attaining the same level of casual mastery as Sakura within a few days of living there, when the latter had to build her confidence for about 6 months before she could converse at the same level. Her personality differs greatly from them, though, so perhaps it helps tremendously.
One Sided Rivalry: With Shouko, due to the Foil above, and their tendency to dance the same variations. Ema doesn't seem to think much about it (or at all, much as she does with most things), but Shouko instantly gets fired up whenever Ema's in the same building, not to mention face-to-face on-stage.
Signature Move: Her dancing is most commonly described as "light" and "effortless", which suits her ethereal personality well.
Strong Family Resemblance: She and her older brother, Eito, look very much alike.◊ The pair act the same way around each other, even.
Unkempt Beauty: A subtle example. She's not untidy, but she typically dresses in boy's clothes and didn't bother with makeup outside of ballet, with unruly hair and pockmarked face. She Cleans Up Nicely goes full effect when she's on stage, however.
Vitriolic Best Buds: With Sakura. They grew up and trained together often (more so after Ema's more serious return to dancing), but they never pass up any chance to snipe at each other.
Working-Class Hero: Her family's situation is comparatively worse than the other main characters, though enough to get by, pay her language and ballet tuitions (though given the studio she's going isn't admittedly high-end, and Mrs. Kurisu likely gives her a generous discount when she goes there, she's probably paying cheap, too), send her brother to college. Besides that, she has little-to-no luxury (even Kanade has a top-of-the-line smartphone), and she has to survive on her prize money and scholarships to keep going.
Youthful Freckles: Ema has notable pockmarks across her nose—a trait she shares with her brother.

Takimoto Ballet Studio

Founded around a decade before the main story starts, Takimoto Ballet Studio was established by its namesake Nobuko Takimoto, a former soloist from Ballet du Capitole de Toulouse. It has moved into its current studio and its smaller associated locations a few years later. Mainly teaching classical ballet for pre-junior, junior, and senior groups, as well as complimentary contemporary classes.

For Kanade's and Shouko's tropes, see their own entries above.

Baby Of The Bunch: Ryou, as the most prominent pre-junior member. He interacts mostly with Akito, Kanade, and Julia.
Badass Family: Begins to act like one post-YAGP, with (sadly) the remaining junior members of the latest generation. They see and interact with each other more than their own personal cliques, support each other regardless of achievements or abilities, and gets along tremendously well.
Big Sister Mentor: Both Risa and Saki still hang around whenever they're free, advising and consulting if needed.
Five-Man Band:
- The Leader: Kanade, obviously. It's quite unique she's actually the youngest among the group, yet also the most steadfast. Doubles as The Heart, too.
- The Lancer: Shouko, as the second-most accomplished dancer, as well as Kanade's closest friend. Unlike most examples of this role, she usually follows along and rarely seriously challenges Kanade's decision.
- The Heart: Julia, providing most of the normality between the two aforementioned ballet nerds, whose minds sometimes cannot fathom there's a life outside ballet.
- The Smart Guy: Akito, though it's borderline with Shouko. He's very technically-minded with his ballet techniques, and outwardly very stoic. Just as obsesssed with training as Kanade, however.
- The Big Guy: Mitosho, who's literally this. More muscular and the tallest among the group, he's also the most grounded, yet hard-working at the same time. Generally acts as the support for the boys.
- Sixth Ranger: Yuuki, who only really joined the group post-YAGP, even though he participated in team classes before. Not as serious into professional ballet as his other friends, and was actually called up for the group recital just to fill in a vacancy, but he's very, very serious with Kanade.
Large and in Charge: The studio's resident choreographer, Akutsu, is physically the largest member of the company.
Team Mom: Nobuko is this to the juniors, while Miwa is this to the pre-juniors.
Technician Versus Performer: Firmly in the "performer" camp against Kurisu Ballet Studio, though their relationship is more amicable than most (mostly due to Kanade and Sakura). Nobuko opened her own studio just so children who love to dance could have a space to do so without competitive pressure in the first place, in contrast to the intense environment she grew up in. Instead of ushering her kids into competitions at the earliest age possible, she prefers to take her time, knowing too many dancers who destroyed their careers due to impatience. Akutsu himself isn't an overly-detailed choreographer, using vague literary phrases compared to his more professional peers, who use much shorter, clipped orders to make it easier for children not speaking the same language to understand.
Sidekick: Both Miwa and Akutsu serve as this to Nobuko. Miwa handles the day-to-day classes and general operations, while Akutsu focuses on teaching and honing any student entering competitions.

Nobuko Takimoto

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The Teacher

^{(SPOILER) As Liudmilla decades ago, in various roles}

Nobuko Takimoto is the founder and main teacher in Takimoto Ballet Studio, as well as Kanade's and Shouko's mentor. A foreigner with Japanese descent and Mysterious Past who suddenly showed up several years ago and established a ballet school near the main characters' house. She serves as the mother figure among her staff and students. Her given name is Liudmilla.

Art Evolution: Compared to her earlier appearances◊ in the manga, Nobuko's wrinkles have increased, along with gaining additional width to her body. Given there's a Time Skip right after the first arc, this may be just age-related (or stress reigning Kanade's antics in).
But Not Too Foreign: Nobuko's born in France, has a Russian father (Lev Ilichev), but also has distant Japanese blood. Her features are a blend of Western and Asian. "Nobuko" is actually her middle name.
Career-Ending Injury: She mentioned a chronic one to her leg, though she doesn't get into specifics. Then again, her tone implied this was just an excuse she always used when one asked about her retirement from professional dancing.
Cool Teacher: Kanade's and Shouko's beloved mentor, and respected by many other students. She provides just enough support without overdoing it, while always lending an ear to her student's problems.
Dark and Troubled Past: Her reaction to a recording of her old performance was quite extreme—perhaps the only moment in the manga when she completely lost her composure—and her vehement insistence in destroying any and all records of her professional days certainly point to this.
Do Not Call Me "Paul": Constantly calls out Eugene and Abby for using her first name, "Liuda", instead of her middle one and current alias, "Nobuko". After trying for a few years, she seemingly has given up.
Expository Hairstyle Change: Nobuko kept her hair in a short bob during the first arc, but has grown it to shoulder-length after that, similar to her pre-retirement days.
Famed In-Story: She's very well-known and -regarded among the international professional ballerinas, especially those from her generation. The sheer number of strings she can pull for her students is staggering, since it's like she knows at least one judge in every single competition personally.
Fatal Flaw: Believe it or not, her compassion and empathy were this. Her "official" reason to retire and open a ballet school in Japan was so dancers who did so out of fun, not sheer career ambition and brutal competition, have a place to express themselves. However, it resulted in an all-too-casual teaching standards, which she admits to struggling with when preparing Kanade, Shouko, Julia, and Akito for a stage as difficult and demanding as YAGP, as well as Risa's underpreparedness a few years ago. She didn't want to push her students to the breaking point even when it's necessary, or use methods she considered underhanded (but perfectly legal) to get ahead.
Foil: Most prominently to Mrs. Kurisu, though the two don't really know each other well or regard each other's studios as rivals. Instead, they interacted mostly through their students.
- Nobuko prioritized fun, personal growth, and passion when dancing, often hesitating to enter her students into competitions because she'd been burnt out by it in the past, not wanting to put them through the same pain and suffering. While Mrs. Kurisu also had terrible experience abroad as a professional, she used competitions and auditions as a brutal training tool, demanding her students to meet this standard or get kicked out, regardless of their emotions. To her, if one can't stand her Training from Hell, then they're not worth teaching in the first place.
- Nobuko blends training methods of Russia and France, mostly classical ballet. Mrs. Kurisu teaches a wide breadth of dancing styles, including contemporary, though Sakura, Miriam, and Ema seems to favour the Vaganova style.
- Nobuko struggles with producing students able to compete under global standards, taking much more time with Kanade and Shouko to train them to that level, while failing 3 times with Akito (and a similar amount with Julia). In contrast, the Kurisu Ballet Studio is more like a pro-churning machine, producing great dancers (those who survived her training, anyway), knowing precisely what it takes to succeed on the world level. For comparison, Ema barely trained at all to beat Shouko at the national YAGP qualifiers (though she was under a different coach at the time), while Miriam attained a Royal Ballet scholarship Kanade wanted when training just as long. Sakura... well, her achievements are too long to be listed here.
I Was Quite a Looker: Decades ago, when she's still actively dancing as Liudmilla. It's a milder example than most, since her beauty wasn't noted as remarkable, merely "imposing".
My Greatest Failure: Not her retirement, but Risa's final competitive performance. She bluntly admitted if she had as much experience and teaching skills as she did now with Kanade, Shouko, and Akito, she would've been able to prepare, train, and support Risa to much greater success. It still gnawed upon her, even years later.
Mysterious Past: A formerly world class dancer who wants to completely forget her career for as-yet-unexplained reasons. This was enough for her to utterly reject her professional dancer's identity, getting angry enough her peers automatically corrected themselves whenever they inadvertently called her by her birth name, Liuda. There's several hints to the real reason, but nothing concrete: She mentioned she has a chronic old injury, and reminisces of her dissatisfaction and regrets regarding the treatment of Asian dancers abroad.
Nom de Mom: Her middle and last name (surname) is "Nobuko Takimoto". Because her father was a Russian by the name of "Lev Ilichev", her middle name should be "Levovna" or some other derivation, according to Slavic name convention. Clearly, this isn't the case.
Only Known By Her Nickname: Twofold. Most people currently calls her "Takimoto-sensei" (and nobody calls her Nobuko), but even her birthname, Liudmilla, isn't used, as Eugene and Abby call her by its shorthand, Liuda.
Precision F-Strike: Delivers a "bullshit" to Abby regarding her handling of her "chosens" during YAGP. That's as close as outright swearing in this manga.

Risa

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The Aspiring Costume Designer

^{Risa's younger self, performing in Volume 1}

Takimoto Studio's most promising student years ago, and Kanade's neighbour. Her performance as La Sylphide inspired Kanade to start dancing. However, in a national competition, her preparation was far from the best, leading to an injury on-stage. She retired from dancing soon after, as her family pressured her to at least continue high school first before returning to the industry.

Currently, she's working as a a professional costume designer for ballet dancers, though given she never charges anything, the "professional" part is never seen.

Career-Ending Injury: Subverted. Despite it being quite serious (ligament damage to her knee), Risa admitted to Kanade it's just the final straw to what's already a dwindling interest in professional dancing. It's just a convenient excuse she used to stop, since she couldn't honestly said so to Nobuko at the time.
Ms. Exposition: She provided most of the historical ballet commentary to Kanade during YAGP.
My Greatest Failure: Subverted. She's happily retired from dancing now, and enjoys more in her current supporting role as well as an educated audience member, instead of longing to return to the stage.
Onee-sama: Fills this role for Kanade. Even long after she's retired from dancing, Kanade still looks up to her greatly.
Surpassed the Teacher: Not her, but Kanade. Despite being the one who inspired Kanade to start dancing, and the one Kanade modelled her early dancing after, the latter has easily surpassed her at the same age (or slightly younger, even).
Tareme Eyes: In contrast to Saki's sharper features.

Saki

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Saki

^{Saki's younger self, dancing Kitri}

An older student in the Takimoto Studio, just like Risa, making her Kanade's and Shouko's direct senior. Currently, she's enrolling in a ballet instructor college in England, hoping to teach ballet as a living.

Badass Normal: Kanade and Shouko admit, even after their numerous Took a Level in Badass, Saki's still a better dancer than them. Doesn't have the prizes to show for it, though.
Big Sister Mentor: Actually is a straighter example compared to Risa. Justified, since she was (slightly) closer in age to Kanade, and pursued professional dancing to much greater heights than the older girl. Her attention to detail and up-to-date techniques are considerably better, compared to Risa who's constantly mesmerized at Kanade's growth to give her any proper feedback regarding dancing.
Commuting on a Bus: Saki moves to England fairly early in the story and only comes back to Japan during breaks. Once Kanade moves to London, she unsurprisingly begins appearing a bit more often.
Self-Made Woman: One year on from Kanade's enrollment in Royal Ballet, Saki can now afford a house and car in England. They're quite basic and somewhat beaten-up, but it's still quite impressive for a newbie ballet teacher.
Stern Teacher: Fills this role for Kanade whenever she's available.
Tsurime Eyes: To differentiate her from Risa even further.

Miwa

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The pre-junior (kids) teacher in Takimoto Ballet Studio.

Babysitter Friendship: Rather than teaching actual ballet, this is typically her daily role, as proven with the "Dance for Fun!" class in Kurisu Ballet Studio. She helps Nobuko filter in oncoming kids, which one is serious enough to invest more teaching onto, and takes care of the children in the absence of their parents when they're competing out of town or overseas. She's Kanade's first proper teacher, in fact, and subs in sometimes when Nobuko or Akutsu are unavailable.

Julia Fukuda

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Julia training Kitri

^{At a recital}

Kanade's and Shouko's peer. She danced Kitri for YAGP.

Badasses Wear Bandanas: Her signature look, though it's more for practical reasons than personal fashion choice. It's not as rare in this manga, as plenty of characters rely on them to wick up sweat.
Gossipy Hens: Loves a romantic scandal, and is usually the first to jump to conclusions and ship people left and right. Likes talking about it, too (Kanade observes she's similar to Evelyn in this regard).
Last of His Kind: The only remaining classmate (junior women) of Shouko and Kanade since they started, to highlight how demanding professional dancing is and how many just quit in the middle.
Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: She's a pretty skilled dancer in her own right, but compared to the main characters, she's still some way short.
Precocious Crush: Has a mild one on Akito, but nothing serious ever comes out of it.
Shipper on Deck: Despite her crush on him, she's very supportive of (what she assumes to be) Akito and Kanade's budding romance. Unfortunately, she's way off the mark.

Akutsu

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The resident choreographer of Takimoto Ballet Studio, and the men's teacher.

Large and in Charge: The most well-built and tallest member of the crew. He's the only one who can do pas de deux lifts with Kanade without issue despite her height.
Nice Guy: Very much so, mixed with Cool Teacher vibes.
Talks Like a Simile: Why Kanade struggled under his instructions, even though this is par for the course for most teachers at his level. It's more apparent when he's compared to foreign teachers who're more straightforward in their word selection.
Training from Hell: Despite his easy-going nature, he loves pushing students to the brink just as much as the next guy, if not more. The only difference is he's doing this with a smile.

Akito Kobayakawa

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A male student from Takimoto Ballet Studio. He, Kanade, and Shouko competed in the YAGP, where he danced Phillipe from Flames of Paris (Zixuan's male accompaniment). He used to dance in Kurisu Ballet Studio, where he met and knew Ryou.

Like the main characters, he's also a foreign student, currently studying at Joffrey Ballet School, United States.

Comical Angry Face: Well, not just anger, but any emotions apart from his daily poker face. Just◊ look.◊
Determinator: His face may not show it, but he's faced considerable teasing in his private life due to his career choice, as well as having failed to crack the YAGP finals 3 times before this latest attempt. Compared to countless unnamed or minor characters who gave up after a few small setbacks, he's certainly this.
Emotionless Boy: Extremely so. It's not even a conscious choice from him, either—he's just instinctively like this. Most of his Character Development arc during YAGP was aimed at fixing this, at least on-stage. Even Abby, who's skilled at bringing out emotions from her students, couldn't make his face crack.
Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Kanade. He's quite a handsome boy and she's a pretty girl, and they make a really good dance pairing, but they're strictly good friends with each other. Those who tried teasing them usually fell flat since neither of them was interested in romance and simply let the tease fly over their heads.
One Degree of Separation: Was actually Sakura's and Miriam's classmate during his pre-junior years. The fact Sakura even remembered him spoke volumes of his ability, given she never bothers to do so to most characters.
The Stoic: Akito, so much so that other characters express legitimate surprise when they see him smile. As a performer this is his biggest weakness as it means his acting ability is quite poor.
When He Smiles: Played seriously instead of romantically, since it's a very, very rare event. Kanade even got her smartphone camera out, since she knew Akito wouldn't be able to repeat it at will later. She even assumed his subsequent smiles as him practicing for the competition, and not genuine expression of glee.

Ryou Takai

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A pre-junior dancer who's recently joined Takimoto Ballet Studio.

Bratty Half-Pint: Only in front of Kanade, whom he respects the most as a dancer.
Forgotten First Meeting: As usual for Kanade, she didn't even remember the kid whom she helped a few years ago at Kurisu Ballet Studio. Even after he called her "idiot" twice. In the same sentence.
Like Brother and Sister: With Kanade. Though as he grows older, it's implied he wants to take things even further.
Manly Tears: Despite his age, this trope is played straight when he failed to get past the YAGP national qualifier. He's rude, annoying, and loud, but his passion for ballet is real.
Tsundere: Almost to the same level as Sakura, though he's much ruder in his choice of words.
Ryou (to Kanade): It's not like I transferred here because of you or something!

Mito Takumi

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Akito's classmate in the junior men's ballet class. A guy who doesn't enjoy entering competitions. He's usually paired with Julia in team choreographies.

He's spent the first semester of the main characters' time abroad in John Cranko Ballet Academy, Germany, alongside Ema and Miriam, though just short-term.

Boring, but Practical: His choice to advance his career trajectory. Instead of sacrificing school time by going to time-intensive and expensive competitions, he chose to diligently visit workshops and auditon classes all around the country—which are free—at his own pace and time. It's noted to be quite an effective way to go about it for those who flamed out or couldn't stand the tension of competitions.
Muscles Are Meaningful: Because of his taller body, he could afford to build more muscles on his frame wihtout sacrificing much flexibility, in contrast to the leaner Akito. His training scenes are mostly him bodybuilding with small weights.
Only Known by Their Nickname: Akito tells everyone to call him "Mitosho" when he tried to pull the seniority card on Kanade.
Two First Names

Yuuki

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Another member of the junior men's ballet class. Post-YAGP, before the girls went overseas, the Takimoto Ballet Studio held its usual recital, where he's paired up with Kanade for the pas de six for Napoli. Little did he know it's a very good chance for him... or maybe not.

He Cleans Up Nicely: With his hair slicked back and minor makeup, he's quite handsome.◊
Kanade, Shouko, Julia: WHO IS THAT?!!
Precocious Crush: Has a heavy one on Kanade. It's unknown whether this has been going on for some time or he just properly looked at her recently, since his character's often Out of Focus in the other arcs. At the very least, they've been attending pas de deux classes together, but she's rarely seen interacting with him (or any other boys other than Akito, to be fair).
- Even after a full year apart, with Kanade in London, he still hasn't gotten over her. If anything, his crush has gotten even worse.
Shrinking Violet: This guy can't complete a single proper sentence in front of Kanade. Or look into her eyes, for that matter.
We Hardly Knew Ye: Apart from his crush on Kanade, serving as the sidestory to the post-YAGP mini-arc, his storyline is otherwise unremarkable.

Kurisu Ballet Studio

Founded at roughly the same time as Takimoto Ballet Studio by Mrs. Kurisu, a former talented ballet dancer. Renowned for its success in producing global-level dancers... and its incredibly brutal, militaristic training regime. Prospective students are screened right at the door, with those considered having bad foundations immediately rejected (such as Kanade).

For Sakura's and Ema's tropes, see their own entries above.

Big Fancy Castle: The studio itself is huge, located inside a high-end building with automatic doors. It's never exaggerated, but the constrast it makes to the humbler Takimoto Ballet Studio is obvious.
- Because of this, the whole crew, particularly Mrs. Kurisu who considered the studio her second home, is dealt a heavy blow when they're forced to close during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dysfunctional Family: Under the veneer of extreme professionalism, it's this on occasion. While Sakura's relationship with her mother isn't bad, the tensions between them sometimes leak out into the whole class's atmosphere, making an already-hellish environment even worse. Instead of acting like a Team Mom to their students, instructors are expected to act like drill sergeants, to truly single out the outsanding talents from an already-stacked talent pool. So long as people perform as expected, then everything's dandy. If not, well...
- Still, the members (who survived the Training from Hell) are shown to care a great deal for each other. While the pre-junior girls were mean to Ema, Sakura never was (her poisonous tongue notwithstanding), and the students all were concerned whenever the two girls have any apparent problem.
Freudian Trio: Mrs. Kurisu's three best students among the current juniors generation.
- Id: Sakura, full stop. Incredibly arrogant with a hobby of belittling others, she can also snap at the drop of her head with terrible temper tantrums.
- Superego: Miriam, the calmest and coldest of the three. It's very rare seeing her expression change (except when acting on-stage), though it's mostly from her reservedness rather than an actual lack of emotional capacity.
- Ego: Ema. Much more laid-back than Sakura, but friendlier and more outgoing than Miriam. Her lackadaisical nature means she often speaks without thinking, however.
Technician Versus Performer: Firmly in the "technician" camp. Instead of providing an environment where dancers can discover their own individuality and pursue their personal creativity like Takimoto Ballet Studio, Mrs. Kurisu will simply give her students one choreography to perform. They have to do it again and again to her exact minute arrangements until she's satisfied, plus the basic foundational studies beaten into their bodies until they collapse. Only those she deems worthy will she craft a specific dance routine for, and even then, she strips any sense of individuality from the dancer so they will, and only will dance according to her instructions. It's actually very effective.
Sidekick: Tamaki to Mrs. Kurisu, since she's the only other named member of the staff. She teaches contemporary, and is implied to coach Sakura and Miriam in this category, though since she admits she's not on YAGP-level, this theory is sketchy at best.
Training from Hell: Their calling card. If there are any parents wishing to teach their children discipline, hard work, determination, and a perfect launching platform for professional success, they enroll their children here.

Mrs. Kurisu/Sakura's Mother

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Sakura's mother, and founder of one of the most successful ballet studios in Japan. She's also Ema's and Miriam's teacher, though the former enrolled in her studio on-and-off. A former professional dancer of high potential, yet her career quickly flamed out due to (what she perceived) as discrimination and plain injustice. Hence, she's very hard on her students, particularly her daughter.

Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: She and her husband are fond of teasing Sakura, especially when her Tsundere tendencies pop up. Sakura doesn't like it. At all.
Defrosting Ice Queen: As Sakura's trainer and coach, she is ruthless, always emotionlessly telling her what to do or lambasting her mistakes. One year on, though, after Sakura's studying abroad, she started to smile more, seemingly realizing her mistakes and being relieved of parental pressure. One time, she even offered Ema to dance together with her, a treatment which not even her own daughter has received. She also started giving much-needed mental and emotional support to Sakura, laughing and teasing her more. In essence, she can now become a mom, instead of being not only Sakura's adult representative to the ballet industry, but also the owner and head coach of Kurisu Ballet Studio.
Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Only known as "Sakura's mother" or "Kurisu-sensei".
Eyes Always Shut: As shown in the image above.
Foil: Most prominently to Nobuko, though the two don't really know each other well or regard each other's studios as rivals. Instead, they interacted mostly through their students.
- Nobuko prioritized fun, personal growth, and passion when dancing, often hesitating to enter her students into competitions because she'd been burnt out by it in the past, not wanting to put them through the same pain and suffering. While Mrs. Kurisu also had terrible experience abroad as a professional, she used competitions and auditions as a brutal training tool, demanding her students to meet this standard or get kicked out, regardless of their emotions. To her, if one can't stand her Training from Hell, then they're not worth teaching in the first place.
- Nobuko blends training methods of Russia and France, mostly classical ballet. Mrs. Kurisu teaches a wide breadth of dancing styles, including contemporary, though Sakura, Miriam, and Ema seems to favour the Vaganova style.
- Nobuko struggles with producing students able to compete under global standards, taking much more time with Kanade and Shouko to train them to that level, while failing 4 times with Akito (and a similar amount with Julia). In contrast, the Kurisu Ballet Studio is more like a pro-churning machine, producing great dancers (those who survived her training, anyway), knowing precisely what it takes to succeed on the world level. For comparison, Ema barely trained at all to beat Shouko at the national YAGP qualifiers (though she was under a different coach at the time), while Miriam attained a Royal Ballet scholarship Kanade wanted when training just as long. Sakura... well, her achievements are too long to be listed here.
Foreign Culture Fetish: Of the Vaganova method, and the German schools which teach it. All her best students (including Sakura) dances this way, and went to various German schools.
Funny Background Event: When she's not teaching or coaching, she's usually seen profusely apologizing to the parents, teachers, or friends of some kid Sakura has just insulted a few seconds ago. Given her daughter's personality, this is likely a near-daily occurrence.
My Greatest Failure: Two things: Her inability to overcome the racism and prejudice she faced as a professional, and Ema's injury and subsequent hiatus. The latter drove her to recruit Ema once again when she saw the flawed performance Ema did and and the bad habits she has built away from her.
Stage Mom: She's outwardly this to Sakura. From choreographing the exact minute details Sakura should dance to, to micromanaging her every needs, to deciding which school she should go to, she does it all. However, Mrs. Kurisu's treatment towards Sakura only makes sense when one considers she's the latter's coach, and she didn't mince words when Sakura (at times) unexplainably stray from the years of training they've gone through together. She simply has a far more rigid division between what she should say as a mother (which Sakura needs at times, but she rarely gives) and an ambitious, professional trainer, making her more caustic towards Sakura. There were indications she's projecting her career regrets and personal skills onto Sakura, but it's implied their dancing styles aren't that similar, and the Uncanny Valley choreography she equips her dancers with (especially Sakura) is a result of in-depth analysis of her students' strengths and abilities. Still, when times call for it (mostly off-stage), she's a normal, loving mother to her daughter.
Stern Teacher: Very much so, but she mellowed out somewhat after Sakura went overseas. She's still very strict, though. Ema is positively terrified of her, even after all these years, not because of the brutal training regime she's going to be put through, but the disappointment Mrs. Kurisu will inevitably display.
Strong Family Resemblance: Apart from her smaller eyes and preferring to bun up her hair, she and Sakura are practically identical.◊ Even their Catchphrase is similar.
Mrs. Kurisu: You're wasting time.
Training from Hell: What a class in her studio boils down to, especially when she's the one teaching.
Uncanny Valley: The signature choreography she crafted for most of her students (excluding Ema, though she tried pretty hard to get the girl to dance this way a few years back). It's commented multiple times to be uncomfortable to watch by those in the know.
When She Smiles: Sakura's goal. Unfortunately, Mrs. Kurisu's fully invested in making Sakura as best a dancer as she can be, and thus took more of a professional coaching attitude. Ema is more fortunate, as she gets a mellower woman instead of the overly-strict one she remembered as a child. This smile◊ actually terrifies her, though.

Tamaki

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A professional dancer working at Kurisu Ballet Studio, taking charge of the "Let's Dance for Fun" children and some contemporary classes.

Cool Teacher: Much more laid-back than her employer, Mrs. Kurisu.
Eccentric Mentor: Subverted. Yes, her teaching methods run counter to all the classical ballet training and complementary lessons in the manga, but she's just as insightful and skilled as anyone else.
Foil: Her dancing style is completely opposite to anyone else in this manga. It's basically modern-day movie choreographies such as the ones seen in Step Up.
Overworked Sleep: One one occasion, she slept on the floor of her locker room, causing Kanade to think she died or something.
True Art Is Incomprehensible: After seeing Tamaki's contemporary piece, Kanade is left both amazed and completely bewildered by it. Tamaki can only laugh and say that it's up to viewer to interpret it in their own way.

Miriam Webber

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Miriam dancing Paquita

^{Miriam in casual clothes}

Sakura's peer, and one of Kurisu Ballet Studio's most promising dancer after Sakura. Miriam's an foreign UK student who's been living in Japan for some time. She danced Paquita for the YAGP, similar to Evelyn, and made it further into the finals than Ema, but failed to capture any prize in the end.

She's currently a Year 11 foreign student in John Cranko Ballet School, Germany, alongside Ema.

Beleaguered Assistant: Seems to assume this role whenever she goes out with Sakura without Mrs. Kurisu present. Given Sakura's personality, it's logical her mother sent someone along with her to rein her in. Miriam doesn't seem to mind, and she's one of the few dancers Sakura gets along with no problem.
Gorgeous Gaijin: She's a British girl living in Tokyo, for some reason. It's never explained.
One Head Taller: Even towards Kanade, who's already taller than her friends. Miriam's actually slightly taller than Mrs. Kurisu, even.
Stiff Upper Lip: As expected of a British girl. Her scolding of Ema is more in line of noblesse oblige, though it's basically the same thing Shouko's been frustrated at Ema with.
Miriam: Dancers who are gifted ought to take it more seriously!
Younger Than They Look: Miriam's quite miffed Kanade thought of her as an adult, despite being Sakura's and Shouko's age. Her height doesn't help, but a combination of her stern features and (slightly) more curvaceous body do make people think she's a few years older than she's actually is.

École Nationale Supérieure de Danse de Marseille (Marseille National Higher School of Dance)

Founded in 1992, the Marseille National Higher School of Dance is an academy associated with the Ballet National de Marseille, providing nine years of dance training. It counts Eugene Garrel, former danseur étoile (principal dancer), among its teaching staff.

This section contains characters mainly associated with the school, is currently learning there, or is introduced prominently here.

Eugene Garrel

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^{Eugene dancing in his prime in Le Corsaire}

A former danseur étoile (principal dancer) of Paris Opera Ballet, Kanade's teacher when she went to Marseille with a scholarship, as well as a judge for her various competitions since she was a child, coincidentally enough.

Cool Teacher: Perhaps the best mentor in the manga. He combines the best attributes from Nobuko (her kindness), Abby (her advanced techniques), Mrs. Kurisu (her attention to detail) and others. Kanade even inwardly preferred him than Abby, and if she isn't already infatuated enough with the British dancer, she would've stayed in Marseille. This is despite teaching most of his classes in French, which most of his students don't understand.
The Glasses Come Off: Does this a lot when faced with difficult choices, such as picking a select few from a competitive bunch. This is usually done in frustration rather than excitement. He does take them off when teaching, though.
Hunk: When he's still active. He's not bad-looking now, but he's lost some of his youthful musculatures.
Megane: He's a handsome man wearing glasses. What do you expect?

Andrea Mendoza

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Andrea in Volume 10

^{Andrea (left) in casual clothes, with Kanade}

A Venezuelan dancer who's currently enrolled in Marseille under a long-term scholarship. She's Kanade's roommate during her homestay in France.

Like Kanade, she danced Diana in the previous YAGP, taking 2nd place ahead of Sakura.

Always Someone Better: To Sakura (at least the only person she acknowledged at the time). Their YAGP results didn't matter; it's the fact she was swallowed whole by Andrea's preceeding performance so easily which became a sticking point to Sakura for some time. It's also implied she was ahead of Sakura already in the semifinals (from the reaction of the crowd, Kanade, and Shouko). Prior to this, Sakura was never heard mentioning a dancer's name to anyone else, so seriously she thought of Andrea.
Barefoot Poverty: Played extremely seriously, and an incredibly sensitive issue in Real Life, too. Her family's not extremely poor, but the political upheaval happening in her country has wiped out all pretense of normal life for her family, forcing them to scrounge about and starve for days. It's heartbreaking to see Andrea drowning in guilt for living a good life (nice house, plentiful food, caring elders, teachers, and friends, etc.) every time she contacted her family. It's gotten better since Kanade was there, but not by much.
Barbarian Long Hair: Her preferred casual hairstyle, and the one she dons when dancing contemporary.
Engrish: Her English is terrible (about as much as Kanade's French, admittedly). After Kanade introduced her to Google Translate, she's gotten a bit better in this regard.
Gratuitous French: In contrast, her French is excellent.
Gratuitous Spanish: It's her mother language, being from Venezuela. She tends to rant and shout at people with it.
Identically Powered Team: Her dancing style and physical abilties are near-identical to Kanade, a trait which everyone quickly picks up on, including the two girls. They even danced the same variation in YAGP!
Like Brother and Sister: With Kanade, eventually. Andrea has a habit of dancing her final practice in front of her family, either live or via video, as a means to both fire her up and calm her down pre-performance. The fact she does the same for Kanade one year later means she considers Kanade this.
Poor Communication Kills: Owing to their very different upbringing, language, culture, and personality, her initial days living with Kanade was filled with nothing but quarrel. Note that Kanade was even able to get along with Sakura. Maho and Chloe even noted this, but Andrea herself also focused more on her dancing than her language ability, so it's to be expected.
Ripped from the Headlines: Being from Venezuela, the ongoing political and social crisis in that country plays a large part in Andrea's moody and homesick attitude during Kanade's stay in Marseille, and a large part of the conflict between the two.

Maho Yorimoto

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Maho during YAGP

^{Maho in casual clothes}

A Japanese scholarship student who, just like Kanade, scored a short-term scholarship in Marseille. She went on to compete in the same YAGP as Kanade and the rest, but didn't crack the top 12.

Early-Bird Cameo: She actually participated in the same YAGP Japan qualifier as Kanade, Shouko, and Ema, but only showed up properly during her time in Marseille.
Engrish: Her English is near non-existent. It's a surprise Chloe was able to converse with her just fine. Given how serious the other characters took their language lessons, it's likely Maho just didn't even bother.
Those Two Girls: Usually spends her time with Chloe.◊ Justified since the latter's about the only native English speaker who's willing to lead her around.
Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: She's a top 20 junior women ballerina from Japan. Alas, she's going up against the main characters. It's hinted her rather timid personality impacted her performance, but nothing detailed was ever discussed.
Shrinking Violet: A typical example of a young Japanese girl in a foreign environment, especially when she didn't speak a shred of English.

Chloe

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Chloe dancing Talisman

^{Chloe in casual clothes}

An Australian dancer who secured the same short-term scholarship in Marseille as Kanade and Maho. Her dance of choice for YAGP was Talisman. It's later revealed she's one of Abby's "chosen" from Australia. Like Maho, she didn't make it into the YAGP finals' top 12.

Nice Girl: Perhaps the friendliest YAGP rival of Kanade's among Abby's "chosen". Things did get a bit awkward at the semifinals, though, when both realized what's at stake.
Those Two Girls: Usually spends her time with Maho.◊ Justified since she's about the only native English speaker who's willing to lead the latter around.
Tsurime Eyes: Her most defining trait, and the character whose eyes are drawn the sharpest. She's nowhere as aggressive as this trope entails, though, being as friendly as ever.

Royal Ballet School

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Clockwise, from top left: Evelyn, Kanade, Keira, Rebecca

Formerly Vic-Wells Ballet Company, the Royal Ballet School was founded in 1946 at its current capacity. In 1955 the school secured the premises at White Lodge in Richmond Park, London, now established as the 'Lower School', a residential boarding school for children aged 11–16, combining general education and vocational ballet training. The Royal Ballet School 'Upper School' was established at the school's existing premises in Barons Court, Covent Garden, with students studying ballet on a full-time basis between the ages of 16–19.

This section contains most of the prominent characters in Royal Ballet School's White Lodge (for pre-junior and junior students) and Covent Garden (for senior students and prospective graduates), plus the Royal Ballet company itself. For Kanade's tropes, see her own entry above.

Competition Freak: Surprisingly subverted. Kanade noted while there's still a competitive undertone to the air around the school, the students are generally laid-back and accepting whenever there's somebody better. Funnily enough, this means they're usually more affected with nerves prior to performances, in contrast to the battle-hardened Kanade and Evelyn, who practically had to win everything placed in their paths just to make it into Royal Ballet.
Elaborate University High: Just like in Real Life. The school, particularly White Lodge, is huge, being King George II's former hunting ground, and filled with students good enough to not even bother going to YAGP, as Shouko puts it. This isn't because they're rich, either—in Real Life, close to 90% of the students are on financial assistance, and the rest aren't that wealthy.
Fire-Forged Friends: Kanade and her roommates in London. Things are initially rocky, but their experiences together in the competitive Royal Ballet School, and especially working together in the choreography competition, leads to them becoming much closer.
Four-Temperament Ensemble: Kanade and her roommates at White Lodge.
- Sanguine: Evelyn takes this role with her American upbringing, as she's the most upfront, cheerful, the loudest, most confrontational, and happy-go-lucky in her daily life. She goes through her day on one speed only: full throttle.
- Choleric: Rebecca is this, naturally from her wealth of experience living there, plus having actually been assigned as The Leader by the dorm manager to guide Kanade and Evelyn. She doesn't get along well with the latter (at least at first), often coming across as bossy, intrusive, and uptight. She's a mellower and more romantic example than most, though, once Kanade and Evelyn got to know her better.
- Melancholic: At White Lodge, Kanade has shifted to this role, having matured massively through YAGP and taking a more reserved stance due to the need to blend in and avoid conflict. She's sensitive, meticulous, and subdued, though not as much as Shouko. As always, she's The Heart of the group.
- Phlegmatic: At White Lodge, Keira is this. The absolute phlegmatic—at least when it's not about choreography. An extreme Shrinking Violet who can barely speak to strangers and easily overwhelmed by a large number of people. She's also the most disinterested in the competitive nature of the school, choosing to focus on herself and not actively trying to build relationships, with a major melancholic side at specific moments. While she's diligent (in contrast to Ema), she gets flustered when people question her efforts, shutting out everyone after that.

Abigail Nichols

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Abby in Volume 20

^{Abby (left) with Oliver}

"Follow me."

Abby's go-to teaching method.

Former principal ballerina of the Royal Ballet, currently semi-retired and guest-starring in various global productions. Kanade first became aware of her when she stumbled upon Abby's Coppelia online, growing to idolize her as she furthered her ballet studies. They first met face-to-face during a workshop during the previous year's YAGP (the year Sakura and Andrea competed), where Abby grew fascinated with Kanade's potential and offered to personally teach her.

The Ace: The best dancer depicted in the manga, bar none. Despite being semi-retired, nobody can hold a candle to any performance she puts on.
The Alcoholic: Descends into drinking when depressed during the pandemic lockdown, stuck in her apartment. Abby even videocalls her students while drinking glass after glass.
Attention Whore: Actually weaponized this when she's younger. Nobuko noted Abby's an extreme Narcissist who craved and demanded attention whenever she's on stage, completely dominating any show she's in. She's mellowed out considerably since then, but still unintentionally exudes this trope, and always accidentally draws attention even when she didn't mean to.
- It flares back up after Phaethon, her first full production post-retirement, when Kanade dances better than she's supposed to, taking attention away from what should've been a very successful debut. It creates a lot of tension between the two.
- She considerably struggles during the COVID-19 pandemic, locked up in her apartment without any performance where she can consume the audience's attention and applause, because of this. She also drinks considerably more during this period.
Catchphrase: "Follow me."
Character Tic: Her giddy handwave to everyone when saying goodbye.
The Cuckoolander Was Right: Say what you want about her eccentricities and flawed teaching methods, but her eye for talent is unparalleled in the manga. The ballet industry has been breaking its back for decades trying to find great talents in the rough like her, yet she, in one year, correctly handpicked 3 out of 4 top positions in the YAGP junior women's division (Kanade, Evelyn, Brenda). All of her "chosens" received scholarships without exception. Contrast this to people who think Shouko or Ema is more talented in Kanade's year of participation (though they're undoubtedly great in their own right).
Dangerous Forbidden Technique: Copying her. Nobuko, Eugene, and Oliver repeatedly worried about the kids she cajoled into following her movements, which not only require experience, but only possible to do safely after years of training and conditioning. Doing the same acrobatics with the same standards as the No. 1 dancer would do that to you.
Eccentric Mentor: Very much so, especially in Nobuko's and Oliver's eyes. While they prioritize the basics, allowing their students as much natural growth as possible without paying too much attention on the final product, Abby rushes through things, motivated by her own various career detours and regrets, teaching only what she thinks will help them most to succeed, while skipping over the fundamentals and off-stage things such as mental development, acting and stage intelligence, etc. When even Kanade thinks she's this, you know Abby's method gets out of hand sometimes.
Even the Girls Want Her: Constantly arouses attraction from those watching her dance, particularly the female audience. Even her friend, Lea, a fellow professional dancer, isn't immune.
Foil: To her fellow teachers.
- To Nobuko and Eugene, who allows their students to take advantage of their strengths, train accordingly, and have fun regardless of the result. Abby, meanwhile, tend to force an image onto her students—one she thinks is a winning formula—while ignoring their personal interests and habits.
- To Mrs. Kurisu, who crafts specific performances to bring out the best in her students through gruelling, torturous Training from Hell. Abby bluntly tells her students to mindlessly copy her movements (given she's still perhaps the No. 1 dancer in the world), giving them shortcuts around extensive training, assuming it's best for them to expend as little energy, be fast-tracked, and go through as little difficulties as possible in their careers.
- To Oliver, her superior, though this is more in regards to their personalities and attitudes. Oliver's the textbook Stern Teacher, while Abby always tries to inject fun and enjoyment into her lessons (sometimes to the detriment of the students). He constantly forces himself to see the wider scope of the ballet industry as a whole, avoiding as much bias as possible, making him feel sometimes like a machine. Abby flaunts her bias and preferences towards students she's affectionate to, constantly breaking the rules in abject disregard to the other students not receiving her attention.
Game-Breaking Injury: Not exactly injury, per se, but her age began to get the better of her during Kanade's first year in Royal Ballet. Nobuko has already noted, a few years ago, of her increased muscle mass, which in Real Life is detrimental to flexibility and agility, and only her rigorous training and experience kept her slenderness in-check. She's also indicated this to Kanade a few times, but it's still quite a shock when she actually announced her formal retirement in front of Shouko.
Manipulative Bitch: It's not intentional (or so she claims), but her choice of words, combined with her charisma and reputation, mean a lot of immature students were roped into her desire to find "the next Abigail Nichols", which was partially inspired by Nobuko's own argument when she quit Toulouse. As of the latest arc, she succeeded... perhaps too well.
Older Than They Look: Perhaps the most extreme example. She's about the same age as Eugene, and not that much younger than Nobuko, so she should be well into her 30s, perhaps in her early 40s. Yet she looks like she's in her 20s... while occasionally acting like she's in her teens.
Only Known by Their Nickname: Everyone calls her "Abby".
Retired Badass: Formally retired about one semester in from Kanade's enrollment in Royal Ballet. She's moved on to fully producing her own ballet.
Stern Teacher: What she's become post-retirement, after she sacked both Kanade and Evelyn from their roles. Aside from Lucy, who's a fellow principal dancer like her, Abby starts uncharacteristically yelling at everyone and getting angry over every little thing, most notably being very harsh on Rebecca.
What Happened to the Mouse?: During Kanade's and Evelyn's stay in Royal Ballet, it's unknown whether Abby continued to interact and guide her other "chosens", or if she, like Kanade feared, simply threw them aside once they failed. Zixuan's appearance at the start of the former two's second year, though, means this is likely not the case.
World's Most Beautiful Woman: Portrayed as such. No matter where she goes, people always praise and become infatuated with her looks, especially when they see her dance.

Oliver Smith

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Mr. Principal

Principal of Royal Ballet School (not to be confused with "principal dancer"), and the main judge for many important competitions worldwide.

By-the-Book Cop: Very strict in everything he does, including judging others. As the manga follows Kanade's point of view, he can seem overly harsh or outright unfair at times, but it's usually quickly explained he saw the mistakes and immaturity still present in her, upon which he couldn't grant a full scholarship to in good conscience. As he puts it a few years later, giving one scholarship means taking one away from another.
Foil: To Abby, though this is more in regards to their personalities and attitudes. Oliver's the textbook Stern Teacher, while Abby always tries to inject fun and enjoyment into her lessons (sometimes to the detriment of the students). He constantly forces himself to see the wider scope of the ballet industry as a whole, avoiding as much bias as possible, making him feel sometimes like a machine. Abby flaunts her bias and preferences towards students she's affectionate to, constantly breaking the rules in abject disregard to the other students not receiving her attention.
Reasonable Authority Figure: Much more so than Abby. As the school principal, he not only has to pay attention to a select few (such as the main characters), or the general student body, but the operation of Royal Ballet as a whole. Thus, many of his decisions look callous and heartless, but he's genuinely trying to fascilitate everyone to the best of his (and the Royal Ballet coffers') ability. For instance, he did more for Kanade's mental growth as a teenager than Abby, who's solely focused on teaching her dance. While he hesitates a lot in giving Kanade an early decision on her continued scholarship, he eventually gave her one after she's proven herself enough.
Stern Teacher: When Abby is afraid of him, there's a good reason for it. He's much more benevolent when dealing with prospective students, however, often giving Kanade much-needed counsel.
Surrounded by Idiots: Makes this kind of face often around Abby, since he's the one who always cleans up after her mess.
Trademark Favorite Food: Fish. Abby recommended dozens of fish specialty restaurants the last time he's in Japan, overwhelming him.

Evelyn Fox

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Evelyn in Volume 21

^{Evelyn in casual clothes}

Kanade's main rival in YAGP, not just for the main prizes, but also for being "chosen" by Abby... or so she thinks from her point of view. Evelyn's a talented American dancer from the West Coast, who subsequently become Kanade's roommate in Royal Ballet.

She scores first place in her solo junior category in YAGP and third overall in pas de deux, both dancing Paquita.

Always Someone Better: Kanade is this to her, though said person certainly doesn't think so. Kanade beat her at YAGP (though Evelyn won more prizes overall), and despite having the advantage of experience regarding character dances, it's implied she still maintains this thought well into their school year. It's emphasized even more when Kanade landed the Phaethon role ahead of her.
Amicable Exes: Implied. Her pas de deux partner and the boy she called her "ex-boyfriend" have the same character design, so if they're the same person, they likely broke up due to the long-distance relationship between America and England. She still holds him dear in her heart, though, posting his picture permanently on her personal board in her room.
Animal Motifs: Anything she owns, notably her leopard-print phone casing and zebra-print bedsheet. It's likely she would've decorated her entire room like this if Rebecca hasn't stopped her.
Betrayal by Inaction: When Kanade's sacked from her Phaethon role, instead of helping her, Evelyn merely swooped in and took the role for herself (at the behest of Abby). It's quite shocking given how much closer they've been in the year they've spent in Royal Ballet. She didn't seem to like it, but she did so nonetheless.
Black-and-White Morality: How she categorizes people she know: "good person" or "bad person". If you're the former (like Kanade and Keira), she instantly drops her guard and befriends you. If it's the latter, well...
Eagleland: A full-blooded (and hot-blooded) American.
Fangirl: A massive one for Abby, beyond even Kanade, to the point it's implied to be unhealthy. Kanade has many mentors close to Abby's level of impact in her life (Nobuko, Eugene, etc.), from whom she can draw multiple perspectives and see things beyond what Abby's set out for them. Evelyn doesn't have one, which is why Abby's retirement hit her the hardest, and she callously robbed Kanade of her role just because Abby told her to.
Genki Girl: Even more so than Kanade. Yes, you read that right.
Girl Next Door: In a manga filled with the brutal reality of competitions, beautiful friendships, and technical ballet discussions, Evelyn is just this. She's interested in boys, gossips, fashion, and life outside of ballet—a stark contrast to practically every other character, who dedicate their lives and interests for the industry alone.
Hidden Depths: Not quite "hidden". Her ambitious nature has always been front-and-centre, but her outgoing and friendly nature usually draw people's eyes away from it. For example, she's ready to abandon her curriculum and school studies just to learn with Abby unofficially (an attitude which would've surely gotten her expelled), even goading Kanade to join her despite knowing the latter's financial situation. She herself admitted to prefer winning by walk-over than enjoying the competition like Kanade. She fully embraced this more sinister side during Phaethon, taking advantage of Kanade's sacking and minor injury to take centre stage herself.
Hollywood Tone-Deaf: Hates her own voice, because she's terrible at singing. Even reciting poetry is difficult for her to endure.
Perpetual Frowner: Her face when she's training. It's not like she disliked it—it's just her natural expression.
Prone to Tears: Her state when Abby retired. Anything related to Abby, or anyone mentioning it, will instantly turn on the waterworks. Apparently, she's always been this way since she was young.
One Sided Rivalry: She's very hyped up upon meeting Kanade at the YAGP finals... only for Kanade to immediately forget her existence past the competition (the shock of winning does that to people). Even when Evelyn reminded her afterwards, Kanade still couldn't remember much sense of rivalry from that time, much to her exasperation.
Signature Move: Her flexibility, which is superior among everyone in her grade.
The Matchmaker: She keeps trying to advance Rebecca's and Matt's relationship, much to the former's embarrassment.
The Tease: Once she caught Rebecca being jealous of her closeness with Matt, Evelyn deliberately chats him up almost daily just to rile up a reaction her. Both girls quickly realize the game, but they just can't stop.
Tragic Dropout: During the COVID-19 pandemic, as the Royal Ballet shut down and shifted into online lessons, her parents pulled her out and transferred her to the American Ballet Theatre's junior company against her will. A very logical choice, given this position gives her a guarantee of graduation instead of having to battle it out every single year in Royal Ballet—plus it's way closer to home—though it's clear Evelyn hated this decision.

Rebecca

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Rebecca in Volume 24

Kanade's and Evelyn's roommate in Royal Ballet. As one of the most experienced students (and, unlike Keira, she can maintain eye contact for more than 3 seconds), she's tasked with showing them around. A British-born student of Singaporean descent, she's de facto The Leader of the group.

Has a huge crush on Matt, her classmate.

Badass Normal: Her backstory is similar to Kanade, i.e. a neighboring studio just opened and gotten her interested in dancing. She's not as talented as her current roommates (physically compared to Kanade and Evelyn, creatively compared to Keira). However, one must note for a student who's survived this long in Royal Ballet with decent grades, she's a much◊ better dancer◊ than her standings suggested. She's also good enough for Abby to choose her to replace Kanade and Evelyn for Phaethon.
By-the-Book Cop: Not the most extreme example, and her strict behavior is because she's just been given the responsibility to lead 2 newcomers. However, her clashes with Evelyn certainly has shades of this (and Evelyn continues to tease her as this well into their school year.)
Clingy Jealous Girl: She's instantly irritated seeing Evelyn so close to Matt, her crush. Fortunately, Evelyn clears things up a few days later... by way of teasing her to death.
Rebecca: I hate you...
Everyone Can See It: Her crush on Matt. When Evelyn, who's known her for a grand total of 2 days, can tell, you know how much she likes him.
Poor Communication Kills: Slightly. She wants to be a respected leading figure, at least starting from her own room, but she sometimes takes things too fast and too hard, causing needless friction. She cares a lot about her friends, but goes about showing such affection far too carelessly.
Sidequest Sidestory: Her participation in Phaethon, after Kanade and Evelyn were replaced, coincides with a more concerted effort from her friends (particularly Evelyn) to matchmake her with Matt.
The Leader: Usually seen yelling at Evelyn as she breaks a minor rule nobody cares about, but she also looks out for Kanade and Keira's well-being, given they're rather uncomfortable in Royal Ballet at first.

Keira Luttinen

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Keira in Volume 18

Kanade's and Evelyn's roommate in Royal Ballet. An aspiring Finnish choreographer and dancer. Extremely shy.

She's the reigning 2-time winner of the Kenneth MacMillan Award (for student choreography), and shares the current award with Toby, with her creation Encounter.

Badass Bookworm: Usually seen holding a book whenever her friends are browsing on their smartphones.
Boring Invincible Hero: In the intra-school choreographic competition. She's always won a prize, even during her first year transferring over as a little kid, though her only confirmed victories are of the last 2 years. Nobody was surprised when she won (except for Keira herself every time, funnily enough).
Character Development: After the annual choreographic competition, she gains some confidence, rarely losing her calm when talking with her classmates now, as well as getting a bit more cheerful. She's still easily flustered if somoene surprises her, though.
Character Tic: Tends to sprint off while blushing when she's caught doing her Motor Mouth routine, or had an argument she knew she couldn't win.
Cloud Cuckoolander: Keira's just... weird sometimes. Even when she's in the mood for talking, her comments and tones often suddenly go off-beat, as if she's thinking in a different plane than her friends. At times, she's passionate; other times, she's in tears and shutting everyone out. She can be strict and determined when leading her choreography, while doing the very opposite in other lessons. A few years ago, she even sat under heavy snow for 5 hours, dazed while constructing choreographies in her head, while her friends were freaking out. Given she's from Finland, she's likely just fine.
Dismotivation: A mild example towards professional dancing. She's decided she'd focus on choreography for quite a few years already, so she trained and danced just barely good enough to pass. Surprisingly, she's still better than her previous 2 roommates who dropped out, hinting she's actually a better◊ dancer◊ than she lets on. Most of her appearances are her in the director position, though she's still good enough to be selected to participate in Abby's Phaethon.
Dumb Blonde: Completely inverted. She's incredibly intelligent and perceptive, though her EQ leaves something to be desired.
Engrish: When she's excited and speaking faster than usual. Not even Rebecca, who knew her the longest, can decipher what the hell she's saying. Quite surprising, given she's been in Royal Ballet for a few years. Otherwise, she's perfectly legible (when she's not whispering her words, anyway).
Exposed to the Elements: Around 3 years ago, Keira spent five hours sitting under a snowy night outside, dazed and clearly hallucinating her choreographies. While she's red in the face and was huddling her arms together, considering she's Finnish, she's likely used to the cold and wasn't in any real danger anyway.
Keira: I was about to go back!
Foil: To Kanade.
- Kanade is unbelievably talkative and energetic, while Keira can be near-catatonic when talking to strangers. Kanade makes friends easily, though she can just as easily let them go to live their lives if that's what's good for them. Keira holds on to friendships almost to an unhealthy degree, falling into depression when her previous 2 friends dropped out of school, despite other students saying those two were happier and more successful elsewhere.
- Kanade dances almost instinctively, without proper regard to what the "true" choreography is supposed to be like, interweaving her own personality and interpretation willy-nilly when she trained without supervision. Keira, more of a choreographer, insisted on performances as close to what she envisioned as possible, causing some friction when her dancers wanted more freedom.
- Both have great dynamic vision, but the way they used it is completely different. Kanade's single-target focus is much better, enabling her to study and copy even minute tendencies and acting almost identically, though this took longer. Keira's vision is much wider, able to encompass an entire room full of dancers in an instant, but she uses the data she receives into her choreography, instead of her own dance. Kanade relies on this ability to complement what she feels she herself is lacking, while Keira uses hers to maximize the strengths of others and mask their weaknesses, never doing the same to her own dancing.
Motor Mouth: When it's about mythology or choreograpy, boy, she can't stop talking. Her speech bubbles are just Wall of Text, spoken extremely quickly.
Ms. Exposition: Takes over this role from Risa during the YAGP arc.
The Lost Lenore: A non-romantic example. Her previous roommates, Sharon and Emilia, failed their annual assessment and dropped out. Since this happened not long after they danced for her, she felt some level of responbility towards this event, even though her friends kept on saying they're happier away from Royal Ballet now.
Sherlock Scan: Her speciality. She can take stock of every dancer's strengths, habits, and analyze them to the minute details in seconds, enabling her to craft choreographies incredibly suited for them. However, this ability is often noted to lack learning opportunities and challenges, since her dancers rarely learn anything new or better themselves solely by dancing her choreographies. Additionally, she can't implement the positives she sees into her own dancing anyway.
Shrinking Violet: Very, very much so. When talking to strangers or bombarded by questions, she can go near-catatonic.
Stern Teacher: Surprisingly so. Evelyn is afraid of slacking off in front of her during their choreography training.
Weak, but Skilled: Perhaps the physically weakest in her room, if not her entire grade. It's her main reason of picking up ballet. Doesn't stop her from performing well in evaluations, however.

Vasilisa Tolstaya

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Vasilisa (right) with Ms. White

The main ballet teacher in charge of Kanade's grade. Usually accompanied by long-time accompanist, Ms. White.

Cool Old Lady: Very hip and friendly.
Foil: To Nobuko, though it's solely about teaching materials rather than personality and beliefs (they're quite similar in that regard). Vasilisa's strictly teaching the current Royal Ballet style, while Nobuko taught a blend of Russian and French techniques from her prime.
Gratuitous English: Having lived in England for so long, she's accustomed to British sayings and idioms, often shouting, "Lovely!" (which embarrassed Evelyn all the time).
Large Ham: In contrast to Nobuko. Despite her age, she's very energetic, chipper, and happy-go-lucky, while still pounding techniques into her student. She's even seen shouting at Oliver for his opinion, though he seemed used to it.
One Degree of Separation: She's actually Nobuko's senior in Toulouse when she's guest-starring in her prime, giving her the exact same advice Nobuko has preached to Kanade many times. Kanade mentioning this made Nobuko smile.

Nanami Izawa

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A Japanese student in Royal Ballet, Grade 11. Kanade and she first met during the former's first official day as a student, looking for a spare studio, before bumping into each other.

All the Other Reindeer: Nanami is a classic victim of this. She's a good dancer (you have to to last this long in Royal Ballet), but her aloof nature, especially with her western classmates, meant she has trouble building any real friendship. This is hinted as a real problem she's going to have to face, since teamwork in a corps de ballet is one of the major points to be tested, and why she's not confident she can last any longer in Royal Ballet.
Apologizes a Lot: As part of her communication difficulties. She's not confident in her English or her interpersonal skills (unlike Kanade), so when her friends (most prominently Joshua) begin calling her out, not always out of hostility, her typical reaction is just a quiet, "I'm sorry..." instead of trying to make things work by honestly discussing things (which western cultures usually prefer).
Expy: Of Risa. Not only are their facial features similar (their hairstyles being their main differentiators), but the reason of her defeat in the choreographic competition, and her souring relationship with her partner and choreographer, is eerily similar. Nanami's far too worried about other things than dancing during the show, leading to acting mistakes which proves to be her downfall. Unlike the time with Risa, Kanade immediately recognizes the problem and confronts her with it.
Green-Eyed Monster: She is jealous of Kanade's ease in making friends and blending in. She realized it's too late for her to change, but too timid to actually do so, unlike Kanade.
Power Trio: Her team in the choreographic competition, consisting of her pas de deux partner Arthur and choreographer Joshua. She's not on good terms with the latter, though for good reasons. While she's on the bottom of the totem pole in her team, the boys respect her dancing abilities greatly. In fact, they would've won if Nanami just bothered to dance seriously, beating Keira and Toby, instead of being needlessly worried of her standings in the school.
Senpai Kouhai: A literal one with Kanade, and a surprisingly first solid example in the manga, where characters from a wide age range interact with each other as if they're the same age (such as Kanade and Miriam, who's almost 2 years apart).

Matt

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Kanade's classmate and Rebecca's crush. An American student.

Eagleland: An irony for Rebecca. He gets along well with Evelyn (making Rebecca jealous), and his personality is very similar to her. Rebecca can't even talk with Matt without getting reduced to a blushing mess, then immediately bickers with Evelyn right after.
Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Evelyn. As fellow Americans, they get along great with each other, but (without Rebecca's knowledge) they're strictly friends. Evelyn frequently teases Rebecca with this fact.
Nice Guy: The reason Rebecca falls for him, and why Evelyn likes hanging around him. He's friendly to the newcomers, and nobody has anything bad to say against him.
Oblivious to Love: Probably the densest character in the manga, given how obvious Rebecca's crush on him is.
- After heavy hints from both Rebecca and his friends, plus being paired by Keira for their Year 11 choregraphic competition in a romantic pas de deux, he finally reciprocated her feelings.
The Leader: Similarly to Rebecca, he's this for his male classmates.

Leo & Gabriella

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Leo (left) & Gabriella (right)

Kanade's classmates. Currently dating.◊

But Not Too Foreign: Subverted with Leo. He's a full-blooded Japanese, but has been living in England for so long he has misconceptions of Japanese current culture.
Leo: Don't Japanese put soy sauce on their curries?
Kanade: They don't!
Only Known by Their Nickname: Everyone addresses Gabriella as "Gaby", even her boyfriend.
Secret Relationship: Not really a "secret", but they're just not advertising it at the moment, since it complicated their school life. Soon, though...
Sickeningly Sweethearts: They frequently display their affection◊ during the second semester. Rebecca is both disgusted and intensely jealous of them.
Star-Crossed Lovers: Not about their social status, but the COVID-19 pandemic forciby separated them, since Gabriella was pulled out by her parents to further her study in her native Italy. Nothing regarding the future of their relationship is mentioned yet.
Those Two Guys: Leo was initially seen hanging out with Matt, but as the storyline around the latter and Rebecca progresses, he spends more time with his girlfriend, Gabriella.

Sharon & Emilia

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Sharon (top) and Emilia, dancing Keira's choreography

Keira's and Rebecca's former roommates, whom Kanade and Evelyn replaced.

The Lost Lenore: Keira felt responsible for their failure to advance, given they've sacrificed much to join her choreographic team and win her a prize. She's repeatedly told this wasn't the case, but she refused to move on even months after their expulsion.
Those Two Girls: Given their appearance was mostly grouped together, they're naturally this.
Tragic Dropout: They failed their Grade 9 annual assessment and were forced to drop out. This is a direct example of what Oliver has been worrying about, as their places were directly taken by two scholarship students. Giving one means taking away from another, indeed.
We Hardly Knew Ye: They have no speaking scenes, and we only know their story from second-hand accounts and flashbacks. We don't even know what Emilia looked like without makeup, while there's only one shot◊ of Sharon available.
Weight Woe: Played for Drama. Stress, academic pressure, and discomfort in a foreign environment led to Sharon excessively dieting, despite the school's cafeteria meals already designed around girls like her, to the detriment of her health and performance. It's hinted this was what caused her failure to advance.
What Could Have Been: Sharon was highly-regarded by her classmates, using the exact adjectives usually associated with Kanade. It's just to show how mentally strong our main character is just to avoid the same fate.

Tobias Fischer

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Kanade's classmate, and Keira's main rival in the annual choreographic competition. He's salty he's short.

He's the current winner of the Kenneth MacMillan award, sharing the honours with Keira, with his creation Triangle.

Only Known by Their Nickname: Everyone calls him "Toby".
The Rival: To Keira. It's more amicable than most, since both are more focused in dealing with the problems their dancers are facing respectively as a group than focusing on each other. In fact, Kanade interacts with him more than Keira.
Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: When standing alongside his dancers, some of whom are girls from senior classes. Even Kanade is almost One Head Taller than him, with him only reaching past her chin.
True Art Is Incomprehensible: A subversion compared to Tamaki's entry above. His choreographic entry, Triangle, is as abstract as it comes, but a combination of better dancers and a more experienced Kanade (as Audience Surrogate) meant his dancers can properly convey the techniques and effects he wants.

Robert Buchanan

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The Royal Ballet's resident choreographer. He's the teacher Keira and Toby look up to the most.

All Your Powers Combined: His signature style is the merging of Ashton and MacMillan (his predecessors), plus his own original compositions.
Expy: Obviously of Wayne McGregor, his Real Life counterpart.
Cool Teacher: For Keira and Toby, he has far more impact on their education than their actual ballet teachers. Despite his position and stature, he's more than ready to drop everything to help aspiring students with their choreography.

Li Zixuan

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Zixuan dancing Jeanne

^{Zixuan in casual clothes}

A Chinese dancer whom Kanade first encountered in YAGP. As one of Abby's "chosen" from China, she's one of Kanade's rivals for a spot of Royal Ballet's year-long scholarship. She danced Jeanne from Flames of Paris as her choice.

Asian Airhead: Very much so. While it's usually Played for Laughs because it all ended well, Zixuan's absent-mindedness would've cost her terribly along the way if not for a lot of luck.
Asian and Nerdy: Academically gifted enough to skip a year straight to Covent Garden, since she wants to join Kanade on a par rather than wait and enroll in White Lodge. Note that this is along the British curriculum, which is already hard enough for a Chinese girl who doesn't speak English very well. Interestingly, she's the only character shown to do so, despite Shouko clearly having the same ability.
The Bus Came Back: After parting ways post-YAGP, Zixuan suddenly shows up at White Lodge right when Kanade was leaving for her holiday. It turned out there's a minor Time Skip during the scholarship announcement, when Zixuan indeed got a short-term scholarship (similar to Kanade's in Marseille). She's a full-time student at the start of Kanade's second year.
Engrish: Better than most, but her grammar is still quite terrible.
Friendly Rivalry: Hits it off with Kanade almost instantly, though she cried terribly out of frustration from watching Kanade dance while she's sidelined with her injury.
Game-Breaking Injury: Zixuan sprained her foot down some stairs just a week before YAGP. While she performed admirably, it's very apparent (for everyone, not her) she's limping while walking, causing her coach to forcibly pull her out from the competition.
Manchild: Gender-inverted example. She's very immature despite being older than Kanade. It really tells when our resident One of the Kids gets reduced to a babysitting role whenever Zixuan is around.
Large Ham: Her natural state.
No Indoor Voice: No matter if it's Chinese or English, her most basic speaking tone is a yell. Even her whisper is as loud as people normally talking!
Signature Move: Zixuan's long, travelling insteps and her incredibly fast footwork. It's a skill which burdens her ankles the most, which caused Kanade to wince every time she saw her dance.
You Are Number 6: Kanade has trouble remembering Zixuan's name, constantly addressing her as "No. 117" (her number at YAGP). A few months later, she seemed to have remembered—ironically, it's Zixuan who've forgotten Kanade's name.

Isabel Jimenez & Jonas Steiner

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The pair during Phaethon's rehearsal

Two of the most prominent soloists in the Royal Ballet company, and the leading up-and-coming dancers. Kanade first danced with them in the school's annual Nutcracker (Isabel as Clara, Jonas as Mouse King), before rejoining them in Abby's Phaethon.

Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Jonas to Isabel, who's his pas de deux partner in Phaethon. She barely reaches up to his chest, and not even half his width. Their struggles during practice partially stems from him constantly getting surprised at how light and small she is, tripping them both up during lifts. Their image above flatters her height due to perspective.
Keet: Jonas is very energetic and all-smiles. Even towards younger students who made mistakes, he's nothing but supportive.
Nice Girl: From what we've seen so far from Isabel. However, one doesn't get into her position by playing nice.
Nice Guy: Jonas is always seen with a megawatt smile, which he uses to encourage others around him.
Number Two: Isabel is one to Abby. It's a more professional relationship than a personal one, as the two aren't seen interacting a lot or have a genuine friendship, but Jimenez is the highest-ranked female dancer shown after Abby, which makes her a natural choice to lead when the latter's not available or have retired, as of the latest chapter. Even Abby chose her to lead Phaethon later.
Older Than They Look: Isabel's in her mid-20s, yet looks younger than Kanade, who's the youngest in her class by a good margin. Her petite build◊ does help.
Senpai Kouhai: Forms a rudimentary relationship with Kanade during Phaethon.

Other Characters

Kanade's parents

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Sanae (left) and Kazuya (right)

The Alcoholic: Both love their can of beers after a hard day's work.
Dads Can't Cook: Subverted. Both of them can, as a result of both having to work and take turns doing the cooking. He's the one who first taught Kanade how to cook, even.
Hands-Off Parenting: In regards to ballet. They have little interest in studying it even as Kanade is turning professional, and thus are little help in assisting her to make decisions. All they want is for Kanade to have fun and be safe. Kanade's work ethic and money-conscious nature are self-learnt.
Strong Family Resemblance: Subverted. Kanade equally inherits her features from both of them (though not her personality).
Working-Class Hero: Similar to Ema, but because they don't have to feed and send 2 children to higher education, they're relatively more well-off. For example, Kanade's the first among her circle of school friends to have a top-of-the-line smartphone, plus owning a family car (which is harder than you may think in Japan, where public transportation's usually the preferred option). They both work and share household duties, so they can afford to fulfil Kanade's passion for ballet classes (she takes as many as she can physically go to). They're also massively helped by Risa, who never charges anything for Kanade's handmade and high-end costumes.

Shouko's parents

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Action Dad: He's a former national weightlifter, and clearly maintained his muscles up to this day.
Anti-Smother Love Talk: Shouko's mother threw this at her husband's face, plus a The Reason You Suck speech, when he's annoyingly (and stupidly) stubborn on his decision banning Shouko from dancing.
Dark and Troubled Past: As a competitive weightlifter, Shouko's father not only injured himself due to overtraining, but found out his opponents, whom he's exerting himself to beat, were actually using PEDs, causing him to lose faith in the competitive sports scene. He took this out on Shouko when she, too, wanted to go professional, fearing she'd face the same troubles and eventual despair he did.
Don't Tell Mama: Gender-inverted example. Shouko's mother clearly supported her dancing, and worked with her to go behind her father's back and drive her to lessons.
Fantasy-Forbidding Father: Shouko's father, for reasons explained in this list.
Go to Your Room!: Inverted. Shouko locked herself in as a boycott attempt to protest her father's banning her from ballet dancing. It didn't last long, with Kanade and her mother quickly breaking her out.
My Beloved Smother: Male example, at least early on. Shouko's father clearly had set a rigid path for Shouko to follow, which just as clearly excluded being a professional ballet dancer. When Shouko disagreed, he did everything he could to cut her off from ballet, since he assumed she'd suffer the same way he did at the end of his career. He never considered her passion, merely things he thought would be good for her. They made up after a while, though, and he became one of her best supporters other than Kanade.
Parental Hypocrisy: Part of The Reason You Suck speech her mother gave to her father.
Strong Family Resemblance: Shouko's mother is very similar to her, and her younger self◊ was practically identical to Shouko. During the pandemic lockdown, she cut her hair short to shoulder-length.
Spoiled Sweet: Not that Shouko wasn't allowed much early on (apart from ballet), but after he agreed to Shouko pursuing her dream to go professional, he spared no expense, up to and including building her a brand new basement as her private ballet studio and training room, plus buying her as many tickets to well-known shows as she wanted. Of course, he's equally hard on the expectations he's laying down on Shouko, but it's relatively mild compared to the money he's investing in her.

Ema's family

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Her father and mother, sans Eito

Annoying Younger Sibling: Eito thinks Ema is this. Ema thinks Eito is this. Take your pick.
Strong Family Resemblance: Mostly between Ema and Eito.◊ They inherit most of their looks from their mother, though not their Youthful Freckles.
Working-Class Hero: They're (relatively) the poorest among the main characters' family. Their monetary problems mainly come from the fact ballet is expensive, despite advances being made on this front by various associations and sponsors, so they can't simply support Ema without scholarship or making grave sacrifices along the way. Eito even assumed his college fund would go to Ema's study in Germany, such was the tightness of their budget. Otherwise, they're living quite comfortably, and even if their house was small for 4 people, they're well-off enough to have a baby grand in the living room, plus pay Ema's ballet tuition and language classes all this time (again, expensive, especially when she's going to Kurisu Ballet Studio which is clearly high-end) and send Eito to university.

Erika Matoba

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Erika in a pas de deux

A senior female dancer from Japan, who participated in the same YAGP as Sakura, winning 1st place. She's currently enrolling in Zurich Dance Academy, Germany.

Hero Killer: Beat both Andrea and Sakura in the same competition—two dancers Kanade always considers better than her. Regardless of Sakura's fall on-stage, it's implied she's falling behind in the judges' evaluation already to Andrea anyway, meaning the highest she could've gotten was 3rd place. Erika trounced them both.
Hero of Another Story: Given how much trouble Asians go through to even participate in an international competition, her journey to the top of YAGP was certainly this.
Jack of All Trades: From what we've seen. Kanade, despite being nearly 4 years younger, is already better than her in some aspects and with certain choreographies. Akito noted Erika's physical strength and stage presence are inferior to Kanade. Still doesn't take away from her general mastery and richer experience, though.

Lev Ilichev (Nobuko's father)

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A defeted ballet dancer from the then-Soviet Union, similar to his older contemporary, Rudolf Nureyev.

Deceased Parents Are the Best: It's implied he's passed away a few years before the start of the story.
Generation Xerox: Both he and Nobuko would leave their birth countries (Soviet Union and Japan, respectively) to dance and train in France.
One Degree of Separation: Subverted. Despite hailing from the same country and experiencing roughly the same life, he didn't have any known conneciton to Nureyev (much to Kanade's shock).
Strong Family Resemblance: Subverted. Nobuko's features and build are much sterner (and, ironically, more masculine) than him.

Characters / La Magnifique Grande Scène

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