ballet

Last weekend was the girls' ballet recital.  Friday afternoon was dress rehearsal.  The girls took their turns on the stage while I stood in the "mom zone", filming at the edge of the stage.  Lovely pattered around, exploring and making friends.  She especially loved playing on the steps to the far side of the stage.

And Saturday was the performance.  The show's theme was "Peter Pan" and loosely followed the storyline with the appearance of characters.  Ladybug's class performed just before intermission, after we had arrived in Neverland.  She was a skunk, and easily the cutest skunk ever.  Their costumes were black and white, with puffy tutus, lacy ruffles on the shoulders and a giant red bow just above her "tail". Their dance was adorable, more of a character production piece than ballet.  So they danced, shaking their tails and acting out the song.  She did fantastic! She didn't do all of the steps and was usually watching her classmates to follow behind them.  But she was grinning and happy and always bouncing to the beat.  Butterfly performed several numbers later, after intermission.  (The nice part about that was she got to watch the first half, including her sister.  Then they traded at intermission.)  She was part of the Tiger Lily dance, dressed as an Indian maiden.  Their costumes were a sparkly tan color, accented with glittering red and bright teal, complete with fringe under the arms and a headband with a feather in their hair.  She was amazing.  Her toes were perfectly pointed, her moves were deliberately and gracefully performed.  The dance was not particularly hard or technical but she was still impressive and looked like she was having the time of her life.  She's been practicing at home and begging nearly everyday for three weeks to it to be time for the recital.

Afterwards, we gave them roses (which Butterfly latched onto proudly, looking down at them serenly as if posing for a picture) and ballerina barbies.  Then we went to Cafe Rio to celebrate, went shopping to pick out a special souvenir (Ladybug picked out a TinkerBell necklace and Butterfly picked out pink Mickey earrings, thanks Grammy!) and ran errands.

One of the instructors at the school encouraged me to consider having Butterfly audition for a competition team, in addition to her ballet class.  I suspected they say that to all the parents but took it as a compliment.  However, I asked her teacher what class she recommends for Butterfly to take next year and I was surprised by the sincerity and conviction in her response, saying she has "exceptional ballet feet", that she is "particularly good for her age".  She urged me to keep her in ballet, plus have her try another class too, such as jazz or tap to "continue developing her talent".  I asked her what she thought of the competition team,considering how young she is and she thought it was a great idea, saying that especially with her personality, she would really enjoy it.  So after trying to find out more about the time commitment, costs, etc. we've decided to attend the audition.  She went to the audition workshop yesterday and learned a ballet combination as well as a jazz combination (which she kept calling "the boxing one", not that it looks anything like boxing, but I think she's just got that word stuck in her head from my teaching classes).  The ballet piece was to the Little Mermaid and the jazz piece was Minnie Mouse, both fun dances with great instructors.  I really liked that she got to see and compare the two styles of dance.  I'm trying hard to make sure it's what she wants to do, letting it be her choice.  So after she got to see and compare, she told me that she loves each of them and was thrilled when I told her she can do both.  She did great in the workshop, learning the ballet one quickly, with her perfectly pointed toes.  She seemed a little frustrated during the jazz combination, perhaps she was getting tired or didn't like how fast it was at first.  But she was happy when they performed them at the end of the class.  And today she told me again how much she loved the dancing and happily went to auditions this evening.  I didn't get to watch very much since I was outside with sisters.  They performed the numbers several times, in different groups of dancers and from what I did see, she seemed to be having fun and making friends.  Her teachers are so cute and amazingly patient and animated for the young kids.  We find out the official team list in a few days and will see what happens.  Maybe the teachers will suggest she just takes classes for another year without the added competition team.  Or maybe she will be the newest (and youngest) member of "The Sparkles".

As for Ladybug, she had fun in her Creative Movement class but we've decided not to continue into the ballet classes.  She likes playing and moving but didn't like rehearsing.  She might do better with something like gymnastics or soccer, something that is a little more high energy.  So for next year, we chose her preschool program carefully.  We love the school that Butterfly attended, having chose it because we felt it was the most academically challenging for her bright mind.  But for Ladybug, she's got so much energy and curiosity that we feel like she will benefit more from a different program, which is actually part of the dance studio.  They will do most of the same academics, but include a tumbling class or a karate class each day.  Plus we opted for the third day a week which is entirely art and music.  I think this will be a better experience for her, letting her energy be an asset, rather than a distraction as she learns.  Plus she will get to try karate and gymnastics, which may be a better fit than dance.  And because the preschool is part of the dance studio, she will still get to perform in the winter and spring recitals (with her preschool class, instead of a dance class).

Of course, this is all planning for fall, three months away and they seem to be growing and changing so fast that we may have a whole new plan by then.  (knock on wood)