Baby Ballet

Once my sisters-in-law-to-be got pregnant and had their little boys, I started to think why would anyone want to do this. The laundry-list of effects on your body was extremely unnerving to me. Then after they're here the little guys never stop crying. And we can't hop in the car and go somewhere without a trailer-load of baby accoutrement. How could something so small require so much stuff? Besides, I'm used to the dogs where you can just put them in their kennel and head to the movies. But then I began teaching ballet this year and when I saw my little ballet class in their adorable little ballet skirts with tiny little ballet slippers my ovaries skipped a beat. I teach Pre-Ballet to 3-4 year-olds (and a 2 1/2 year-old) and Ballet 1 to 5-7 year-olds. It is hard work, but now that I see that they are actually learning it is so rewarding. Granted some of the 3-4 year-olds don't grasp everything or even want to dance sometimes, still I love to see their smiles when we do our super-girl stretch or play ballet hokey-pokey. The older ones are amazing! They are like miniature ballerinas. They are fantastic at the barre and can even do some more complicated excercises. The recital is coming up on June 6 so I've been spending a lot of time cutting music (well, Scott has at least) and choreographing their dances.

Here is the costume I chose for the babies:

They are dancing to Hop Scotch Polka by Art Mooney.

Note: the girls don't like the above costume because it's not pink.

And here is the costume I chose for the older girls:

(From the front you can see that the green looks like leaves.)
They are dancing to Waltz of the Flowers from The Classical Child At the Ballet.

It was very hard to choose, there are sooooo many cute costumes. I was having second thoughts about the white one yesterday, but Jane, the owner, said they were on their way. Too late now. Plus, I think it's good to see them in little tutus rather than a dress. Don't you?