By Leda Schubert
Illustrated by Robert Andrew Parker

The spotlight flashes through the crowds under the Big Top. Countless clowns climb out of a tiny car. Gymnasts form a gravity-defying pyramid. Trapeze artists fly high above the spectators. And then in all three rings, fifty elephants, their feet on each other's backs, their crowns glittering, their tutus fluttering, dance with fifty ballerinas. Their steps choreographed by George Balanchine, their polka written by Igor Stravinsky. How did it happen?

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