Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Graceful as a swan!

The first thing Baby Girl said this morning was "can I put on my ballerina clothes?"
That's right folks, today was her first day of Ballet class.
She's in the class on a trial basis for the month to make sure she's ready and enjoying it before any commitments are made.
It is a very low-key operation. A woman in the neighbourhood teaches in her dining room with a pvc Barre. This, I think, is perfect for a three year-old. If she ends up loving it and honestly wants to be a ballerina when she grows up,then we'll eventually find something more professional, but for now I couldn't be happier.
She is the youngest in the class by a year so we were doing some extra practice this afternoon on the trampoline to get her caught up with the bigger girls. This morning she was having some trouble doing somersaults, so we did a few of those together. Then she said she wanted to do a demi-plie (argh, I don't know how to type accents on here!) that is actual ballet! After another minute she started saying "Demi-plie-soft-A" as she jumped and landed on her bum.
I could not figure out where the soft-A was coming from. Perhapse she meant it was soft on her "a" when she landed because she was on the trampoline but how could she possibly know to call her bum an "a"?
A while later when I realised she meant "saute" I laughed at myself for my thick-headedness and we demi-plie-sauted away. She informed me that it is necessary to land on one's hinder if doing the combination on the trampoline.
My own little ballerina girl! who would have thought?

1 comment:

Annie Jarman said...

This is a favorite post of mine, thus far. I have a soft spot for ballerinas.

"Soft A" ha ha!!