Dance Fever
Dance Fever, originally uploaded by blondemom.
Silence envelopes us as we wait for the traffic light to turn green, not because we were both engrossed in deep thought, but because we couldn’t decide on what song to listen to and Miss C was miffed that I’d left her favorite Jimmy Buffett CD, the one with Jolly Mon, at home.
“Mommy?”
“Yes, baby?”
“Mommy, can I tell you a secret?
“Sure, what is it?”
“I want to be a famous ballerina like Angelina Ballerina when I grow up!”
My heart swells after hearing her express a heartfelt desire to become a famous ballerina just like a character in a storybook that is a bedtime favorite. We run an errand at Home Depot and afterwards, instead of heading straight to daycare to pick up Miss A, I tell Miss C we are going to stop by a local dance studio to ask about lessons.
We are greeted with the staccato noise of little girls laughing and chattering and scurrying to get ready for a 4:15 dance class.
The teacher invites us to sit on the dance studio floor to observe a group of 5 to 7-year-old girls as they practice for the spring dance recital. She sits down on the floor with us for a few minutes and tells us more about the regular classes, as well as a summer dance camp in June with a princess theme. Class begins and after the girls warm up and get all the silliness out of their systems, they practice a tap routine in front of the large mirror, a gaggle of arms and legs and pony tails.
Miss C lays her head on my lap and does not say a word for the twenty minutes or so that we observe the lesson. She is completely enamored with the whole thing.
I leave with a registration form and ask when the summer schedule will be posted on their website.
Summer dance camp in June is now a shoe in. A ballet flat, to be precise.
So do you have daughters (or nieces or cousins) who take dance? What is the ideal age to start lessons? Four or five? Miss C starts her fourth soccer season in March and expressed interest in dance last year, but I procrastinated and never got around to seriously scoping out local studios. I just hope that turning 6 in June won’t suddenly translate into her thinking ballerinas or princesses are suddenly “uncool.” The dance studio we are signing up with is also offering a summer dance camp with a High School Musical theme. That will be our backup plan, but I kind of hope she hangs on to the princess years for a little while longer.
