Kendra and the ballet

If anyone's interested, for the month of July, Julia and I are reading a chapter of Proverbs a day. I can't wait to get into a good habit again.

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Ballet is an interesting thing with little girls.

And with big girls.

Didn't we all want to be ballerinas? I think some of us want to live vicariously through our children :)

I did ballet for 14 years and only stopped when I went away to university.

I personally loved it for a few reasons - being in the limelight at performance time :), the discipline of working towards a goal (no surprise!) and the fact that it taught me to persevere, to push through the pain, etc.

What I didn't love is that if you're at all talented in the later years (not the primary school level), it consumes your life. Mind you, I imagine these days (I'm feeling very old lately because I keep talking like this - "in my day"), ballet is a lot more competitive in the early stages.

I had class about three times a week and during the holidays, I was usually at ballet every day. When I danced for the PE youth ballet, we danced from 8:00 to 5:00 every single day, and in the evenings too on performance days. That's a whole month of sore, bleeding toes, extreme fatigue, tired muscles but also that amazing adrenaline when it's SHOWTIME!

I remember taking a taxi (ah, the good old days) to Main Street and running up that hill to the Opera House (I always run up hills to minimise the muscle pain). We basically lived in that place.

I didn't have a life outside of The Dance. I would have to be excused from stuff at school a lot of the time (because I had to be somewhere to dance), like all extra-murals. I can't remember how it worked out but for one or two years I got to participate in Quiz (yes, real nerdy, but I'm good under pressure and I was top of the class always, so it suited me).

ANYWAY, that's a very long way of saying I am SO OKAY with Kendra not wanting to do ballet. Because these days we have to ferry our kids around. In my day (there I go again), I walked 10 minutes to get to ballet.



They brought the brochures home when they started school last year and she wanted to join up. So I signed her up, paid a fortune for her to learn basically nonsense (but I'll admit my standards are high) and outfit her. She refused to do exams or shows or anything so I didn't push.

I'd just paid the last term's fees when she told me she didn't want to continue. I said that was fine but she had to finish the year because I'd just paid. She did.

Kendra has told me she only likes the dressing up, not the dance (which KILLS ME!). What is ballet if not for the dance? (I'm at heart a classically trained dancer so I've always enjoyed the process more than the costumes and glittery stuff.)

This year, I checked with her again just to make sure. You know how fickle the little ones can be! K was very clear (and cross)when she told me, "I TOLD YOU I don't want to do ballet anymore". Okay then.

So I told the teacher and that was that. I fully intended to let her dress up so I could take photos (just so I could have a bit of a memory of her dancing for last year) but I totally forgot UNTIL one day when I was at morning gym and I saw AMAZING light in the studio.

That very Sunday, I made a BIG DEAL of our special date so after lunch, K and I went to have a little photoshoot.



People, I took 412 photos! I'm down to 192 and 59 of them are starred (super good).

D doesn't want me to put a whole lot on the internet so I won't, and I'm also watermarking these so they don't get stolen.

I think they're very special. I love the colour ones and I LOVE the black and whites - so full of emotion, at least I think so.

I made a mini brag book for her of my favourites (with some of that scrapbook paper you gave me, Laura), and printed some extra for framing.

So I'm happy - I have my memories of the year Kendra danced.

Maybe she'll take it up again? Maybe she won't? All fine with me.

(I must admit, after this shoot, I was just a tiny bit sad, because she has great form and good lines for ballet. She did some turns on one leg and even though the bent leg was a bit "off", the rest of her body was "perfect")

Were you a girl who did ballet? If yes, how long?
Do your kids do ballet?