Fairy Queen.(Brief biography)

Byline: GIA KOURLAS editor: Valerie Steiker

The sprightly ballerina Beatriz Stix-Brunell casts her spell in Christopher Wheeldon's enchanting Polyphonia.

Beatriz Stix-Brunell possesses a beautiful face, a doelike elegance, and a name that belongs in lights. At fifteen, this budding ballerina--all legs and luminous brown eyes--has already captured the imagination of choreographer Christopher Wheeldon, who has engaged her as the youngest member of Morphoses/The Wheeldon Company.

At Sadler's Wells in London and at the New York City Center this fall, Stix-Brunell will perform one of the most challenging ballets in the Wheeldon canon: the delicate, spidery ballerina role in Polyphonia. "The part is just beautiful," she says. "It's so serene and calm, with little bursts of joy. I love the contrasts."

Stix-Brunell, who was born in Miami, is no ordinary teenager--and not simply because she happily balances six days of ballet classes with the academic challenges of New York's rigorous Nightingale-Bamford School. She is bereft of any sign of gawkiness; with singular poise, she also knows what she wants. Stix-Brunell began dancing when she was seven at the School of American Ballet. "It was completely my decision," she says, laughing. "Being able to dance to great music and to flow into every movement just took me immediately."