May 31 2010
First Ballet
Our little girl went to her first ballet this weekend. I loved ballet when I was a kid, so this was a special moment for me. I was a bit teary-eyed when it started. It just hit me…I am with my baby…at her first ballet!
Lucy has recently started liking ballet, dancing around wearing her tutu, pretending she is Angelina Ballerina. So when the chance came to see a kid-centered ballet we took it.
The ballet we saw was the Ugly Duckling, featuring as many students as possible from the local ballet school, costumed as ducks, swans, flowers, cats, dogs, and chickens. The baby swan stole the show.
Madame behaved very well, applauding in all the right places, staying in her seat the whole time, and watching enraptured for much of it. Not bad for a 3 year old.
When I was a little girl I was obsessed with ballet, and remember asking my mom for ballet lessons…and her saying, ‘not ’til you’re 5′ (or was it 7? either way it seemed a long ways away.) And boy I held her to it!
I remember changing into my ballet clothes in the station wagon as my mom drove me to ballet from school. I remember watching the older girls in the advanced class taking pointe lessons, and dreaming of the day that would be me. I remember the wonder of seeing some of those same girls performing in the LA Ballet’s Nutcracker.
I don’t want or hope for madame to become a professional ballerina, that would be a hard life (low pay, constant aches and bruises and little time for anything else).
But I am happy that she likes ballet, and will be happy to see her studying it, and to take her to many more performances. And I can’t wait for the day when she will be the student up on stage for the first time taking her bows.
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