While traveling from her farm to ballet classes in Pittsburgh, Elizabeth native April Ball harbored a fascination with Europe.

She and her brother, Simon, worked hard in the dance studio, taking their award-winning talents to the International Ballet Competition in Jackson, Miss., then to Hungary and the Rudolf Nureyev Competition, where she got her first taste of a true European chocolate.

But both Balls opted for careers with Boston Ballet, where they rose to the rank of principal dancers. Simon then went to Houston Ballet, while his sister opted to work with New York City Ballet icon Suzanne Farrell.

Then the offer came to join Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo. I caught up with her three years ago in Cleveland, where the company was presenting a sparkling contemporary interpretation of "Sleeping Beauty." Ball had recently joined the company and was learning European choreographic sensation Jean-Christophe Maillot's theatrical style and an abundance of major new roles.

She was also living in France -- Monte Carlo is so expensive that the company members can't afford to live there -- and having trouble believing that it all was real.

Now Ball is coming back with Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo in Maillot's "Cinderella," sponsored by the Pittsburgh Dance Council and Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre at the Benedum Center this weekend. Here she will dance the role of the mother/fairy godmother, considered a major role in the production.

This time, she picked up the phone and softly began speaking in French and it took a few minutes to ascertain that this was indeed the same all-American dancer from Elizabeth.

But it was one and the same, enjoying a new lifestyle. Right away, Ball announced that she had married a Frenchman, Jean-Emmanuel, who is a DJ in Nice, where she now lives. It's "a bit of a commute" for the ballerina, but nothing that she can't handle in the sunny south of France.

Now considering herself French, Ball cherishes the "quality of life, things that people talk about when they come to France or Italy. In Europe, they don't rush around so much -- they take time to enjoy things."

When Ball first arrived, she complained that everything was closed on Sunday. "Now having lived here, I completely understand, because the streets are quiet," she says. "People spend time with their families."

C'est la vie.