I just found out that an older manga from Japan, "Swan" is being released in America. Here's how Wikipedia summed it up:
The plot mostly follows a young girl, Masumi, as she struggles to become a ballerina. The first volume begins with Masumi sneaking backstage after a Tokyo ballet performance in order to express her admiration for the lead dancers, Sayoko and Kusakabe . However, when she meets the young stars, Masumi becomes tongue-tied and clumsily begins to dance. Sayoko graciously excuses her, and Masumi returns home slightly embarrassed. Later, Masumi receives an invitation to enter a nation-wide ballet competition. The competition is being held to discover the best ballet students in Japan, in order to invite them to an exclusive ballet school designed to improve the quality of Japanese ballet. Her impromptu dance for Sayoko and Kusakabe captured the attention of one of the contest's organizers, and so Masumi goes to Tokyo in order to compete.
Once there, Masumi encounters Sayoko and Kusakabe again - this time as competitors. However, the three become friends, along with Aoi, Kusakabe's friendly rival. Out of the eight finalists, Masumi and her three new friends are all accepted. However, Masumi is obviously the weakest of the eight. She must un-learn the bad habits she picked up at her former ballet school.
Future volumes continue Masumi's entrance into the competitive world of ballet.
~~
I have one issue that I bought (it's all in Japanese though), but I'm planning to make my way to Boarders to check out the rest of the series. Like a lot of other manga published in the 70s, the art isn't spectacular, but the story is supposed to be quite good.
