After her tireless efforts, Brampton’s very own ballerina Ariana Barillas, is playing the role of Marie in the National Ballet of Canada’s The Nutcracker at the Four Seasons Centre for Performing Arts in Toronto, from Dec. 8 to 30.

In 2017, Ariana was accepted into Canada’s National Ballet School (NBS) in Toronto, and within a year snagged the role of Marie in the performance.

“I was down in the cafeteria the day they put up the casting calls,” she said. “I had a bunch of people rushing up to me saying I got it. It was very exciting.”

Ariana, now 12 years old, began ballet dancing when she was two years old.

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Her mother, Paola Barillas, says she put her two-year-old into ballet to keep her busy but never imagined it would one day lead to her performing for the National Ballet of Canada.

When Ariana first auditioned for the National Ballet School, Paola says, she thought it was just a summer workshop.

“In the acceptance interview, we were told this summer 'workshop' was actually an audition to get into the school full time in the fall,” she said. “But after watching her dance, the school told us to seriously consider it.”

Letting her daughter leave home and board at school at the tender age of 11 years old was a difficult choice for Paola to make, she said.

Out the people who auditioned from across Canada, only 13 were accepted, and Ariana was one of them.

“When a door like this opens for your child’s life, how do you say no,” she said. “If you say no, you’re closing a door that may never open again.”