first day of ballet

 

Simone has been looking forward to this day for a whole year.

She would cry when Natalia would get to go to dance class, and she couldn't go. I'd have to dress her in tights and a leotard every Tuesday too. That would cheer her up a little bit.

I bought her the teeny tiniest ballet slippers on the planet for her birthday in March.

She was a little shy at the beginning of class, and the tears almost came. Then she got down on her knees in the circle with the other girls. She looked back at me a few times, but I knew she'd be just fine.

I peeked in the class about 10 minutes later and witnesses the cutest plies and tendus I may have ever seen! She was loving it!

Her class was on Tuesday and every morning since she asks, "Do I have ballet class today?"

I wish I could say yes!



Natalia also started again Tuesday. She has improved so much over the summer! She is a determined little thing. Unfortunately she's in not very flexible--just like her mother. We have to work so hard...I know, I've been there....to get our splits, etc. This summer she got her center splits, touched her toes to her head, her right heel stretch. She is on Junior Team this year, and is working really hard with the bigger girls.

I started back again on Tuesday too! Three times to the studio in one day. I am going to do my Grade 2 ( & maybe 3) teacher's class and taking a lyrical class. I haven't danced all summer, and it feels so good to be back. I have to admit that doing the wash and hanging three different sizes of pink tights to dry makes me giddy. I love that they love it.

Another dance note: our studio moved into a new building. I have been asked to design several wall arrangements with my dance photographs! I am doing a new, big session tomorrow for the main display. I am so so so excited!


One of the young girls I photograph all the time had no clue I danced there too. She was teasing, and wanted to stick around to see me dance! The next day she was talking to Natalia, and asked her if she had ever seen me dance. Natalia said, "I see her dance all the time."

"Especially in the kitchen," I added.

"We dance there together," Natalia said with a smile.

I dream of a big kitchen, but not to cook in. Oh, I will cook too, but dance while I do so. Sometimes I wonder if I would purposely leave a great big empty spot (no table) so we could dance a little easier in my future dream kitchen. I have kicked our table, tripped over bar stools, and knocked my ceiling fan with my hand- it is a very small space we  have now. I'm quite certain my neighbors have seen three spinning, jumping, lifting girls on days when I have neglected to close the blinds. I don't really care. That is where we dance. (That is where I got the name for this blog.) I regret many of the decisions I made as a teenager, but none more than not taking ballet lessons seriously. I didn't start loving ballet until I was in college. I hate feeling like I missed out, and I think that is why I enjoy it so much now. I am 33 years old, and this year I will get a pair of pointe shoes. I am determined, and I don't care if my feet hate it!  I don't feel as though I've settled on my stage choice or my audience, meaning my two daughters. Those two little sweethearts clapping their hands for me are better than any standing ovation.