Question: It's clear from the film that the Pittsburgh Conservatory of Dance is a ballet-only or ballet-heavy institution. So why would Alex, with no ballet training (sorry, but you can't "wing it" when dancing en pointe) and whose dance audition is nothing like ballet, even audition there? And why on earth would any dance company take someone whose dancing ability, great though it might be, doesn't match their style? Philadelphia and New York have plenty of dance institutions more suited to Alex's dancing style - why doesn't she go there to audition?
Question: Fee tells Mary she has two deceased sons. She tells her this before the deaths of Stuart and Hal. I don't remember any other of the Cleary children dying in the novel, what two sons is she referring to?
Answer: When Fee was very young, she had an affair with a man and became pregnant. To avoid a scandal, she was quickly married off to Paddy Cleary, a good and honest man, but someone far below Fee in social class. The eldest son (from Fee's previous relationship) never felt that he fit into the family, and both he and the second eldest son left home early on and met premature deaths. Neither character appears in the TV series, they are only mentioned. Stu and Hal are killed later in the story.
Answer: It states early in the film that Alex went to the ballet and was enchanted by it and started her love of dancing. Her girlhood dream was always to be a part of the conservatory and dance the ballet's one day. Her going to the conservatory was to LEARN that building on her knowledge. Besides, normally she wouldn't have gotten an audition with her lack of Point training, but for Nick's intervening.
Boobra