April 22 in History: In 1876, Tchaikovsky completes the composition of “Swan Lake.”

In its debut, the ballet was a flop. But, so it goes, was the film “It’s A Wonderful Life.”

Elizabeth studied ballet as a little girl and, when she was in college, met some members of the Bolshoi backstage in L.A. They all smoked Marlboros.

I cannot imagine, less the smokes, more incredible athletes than those dancers.

We once went to a 49ers game, Old-Timers’ Day, and the only veteran who wasn’t limping was Joe Montana.

The price that dancers pay, in blunted toes and bleeding toenails, torn ligaments, stress fractures in the lower vertebrae, something loud called snapping hip syndrome, in stress fractures, and in so many more injuries, rival those of NFL players.

Ballerinas are warriors.

My mother and my wife taught me this, taught me how to admire young women who dance.

My Mom had several Classical 45’s–records, yellow vinyl–and I had a big indestructible record player inside a kind of suitcase, so I’d take it out and play the yellow records when I was five or six, when we lived on Huasna Road.

I played this passage, and the Russian dance from “Nutcracker,” over and over.

And over.