Emma Claire's 1st Ballet Class

Today was the long awaited day. We have started offering ballet at the school where I work and Emma Claire has been dying to go. The girl loves 'Barbie in the Nutcracker' and other dancing movies so she is always dancing around the house saying 'look at my Ballet!'. She even has convinced Benjamin to be the Nutcracker a time or two. : ) So, today when I got her from her class and told her it was time to go to Ballet she was beside herself. She even went and told her teacher, Ms. Amy and the director of the program, Ms. Eva, that they needed to come see her do her ballet and bring their cameras because they needed to take a picture of her. This was the most excited I had seen her about something.

Here she is sporting her Ballet clothes we brought from home that RaRa had got her.

All of these sweet girls are 3 and 4 year olds.

Emma Claire actually did really well during class. She did exactly as she was was told and most of the time did it the right way. I just think she was a little confused on what Ballet really was. During class she kept telling Mrs. Meredith that this was not ballet and when were we going to start doing real ballet. Then she would start spinning around and really dancing. This girl was wanting to do a little more 'free style'! : )

Notice that she has a strap on one shoe and not one on the other shoe... It broke off and I told her if she enjoyed Ballet then we would get her a new pair.

I'm not sure if she was actually trying to do some form of ballet or a piggy back ride.

Showing Ms. Meredith what she had learned in class today. I was actually really shocked. Meredith asked her to show her a ________ (I don't know what it is called ; ) and she did it without any help!

Emma Claire and her first Ballet teacher Mrs. Meredith.

Emma Claire had a great time dancing with her friends in ballet! BUT, on the way home I said "Emma Claire did you have fun in Ballet Class". She said, "Yes I had fun, but I want to try something else." So proud of her for so many reasons. One is that she had a great time and had a great time with her friends, but knew that this just wasn't her thing. She didn't fall into the 'peer pressure' of wanting to take ballet just because all her friends were in the class. She was able to recognize that this just wasn't something for her. Sweet girl, we'll have to find her a Jazz or Free Style type class so she can move her hips a little more. : )

Click here to watch some videos of her in action.

Video 1

Video 2

Video 3
Video 4