You Can't Take The Ballet Out Of The Girl

We are lucky here in this little town of ours to have a multitude of fun, and free, things to do with our children.  One of these activities is a free ballet class for young girls.  Tessie has shown interest in this for ages and we have made several attempts at it.  Being the princess that she is, ballet class seems a natural and perfect place for her.  However, she is also a very free spirit and thus far it has proven hard for her to abide by the grace and discipline that ballet, even toddler ballet, requires. 

The first time I took her to ballet was a complete disaster.  There were a lot of other girls there, most of them older than Tes.  We only lasted about 20 minutes, Tessie couldn’t follow any directions, Christian was screaming, and I had to run into the midst of fifteen tutu clad ballerinas to pull out mine, kicking and screaming.

The second time we attempted ballet class went slightly better.  We got about halfway through class and Tes was having fun when she spotted herself in the wall of mirrors.  All ballerina decorum disappeared and my free spirit started shaking her little booty all over the room.  I couldn’t help laughing but that pretty much killed the rest of ballet class.  She didn’t want to do anything else the teacher asked and finally ended up in my lap in tears.  I once again left with two screaming children. 

Since then I have been avoiding ballet class.  I was perfectly happy with the idea that Tes would never be a ballerina, but she kept bringing it back up.  She pranced around the house all day in tutus, made up dances to every song she heard, and rented The Nutcracker at least four times in several months.  It was pretty clear I could take the girl out of ballet class but I couldn’t take the ballet out of the girl.  Yesterday she announced she was ready to go back to ballet.  After she promised to listen to the teacher and stay in class till the end I agreed we would try it again. 

So today Tessie put on a tutu and I put her hair in a high bun.  We walked into ballet class and she immediately started dancing around the room.  I was a little worried we were going to have a repeat performance, but then her teacher walked in and called the girls together.  From that moment on Tes was glued to her ballet teacher’s every word.  She followed every direction and did every step.  She had a look of absolute joy on her face the entire time, and I couldn’t help but echo it.  I was witnessing Tessie in her element.  It was amazing.  As it turns out, our timing was off with ballet but it is exactly what Tes should be doing.  Watching her dance around with the other pint sized ballerinas was incredible and absolutely beautiful.