The city met the girl without anticipation. Flying on a plane for the first time in her life, Madonna headed to New York. The reason for such a risky decision was her will to become a ballet-dancer. Having finished the high school, Madonna entered the dance department of the University Of Michigan, but quit her studies in 1977. However, the girl knew how to amuse herself – she attended ballet classes, got only A-marks at school and was a member of the local cheerleader team.
In such surroundings in the suburbs of Detroit the childhood of the future star passed. The second marriage resulted in two more children, bringing their total number to eight. Madonna's mother died in 1963, and widowed father married again. According to the genealogical tree of the family, Madonna is a remote relative of Camilla Parker Bowls, the Duchess of Cornwall. Madonna Louise Ciccone, who became Ciccone Ritchie in 2000, was born in Bay City into a many children family of an Italian immigrant and an American woman of French-Canadian descent.
