Dancers test their wings for 'Butterfly'

1.00pm

Turid Revfeim hates being the Simon Cowell of kids' ballet auditions.

But last night the ballet mistress had no choice but to act the part of the American Idol judge as she chose just eight children from the 100 who turned out at the City Dance Studio to audition for the Royal New Zealand Ballet's latest production, Madame Butterfly.

"Even before the audition starts I can usually count two-thirds of them out. We know exactly what we're looking for, be it a skinny kid, a fat kid, whatever.

"At the end of the day, though, I still hate breaking it to the ones I have to send home," Ms Revfeim said.

With anxious parents waiting outside the studio door, the children, aged 6 to 10, are told of a specific way to skip, turn, hop, drop and even smile.

Within an hour Ms Revfeim has a short-list of 16, then a final list of four boys and four girls, to fill the roles of villagers and American children.

Of the chosen ones, one boy will play Madame Butterfly's son, Sorrow.

In the ballet, which opens at the Aotea Centre on Wednesday, the child is thrown into a messy custody battle between his parents.