CrazyBusy - My Little Ballerinas

CrazyBusy

Feb. 28, 2008

My Little Ballerinas

We promised Gracie sometime last year that after the first of the year (THIS year) she could start ballet up again. Well, here we are at the end of February and we finally got her back in! It's been about a year and a half since she last did ballet and now she has a little sister who wants to be a ballerina just like her.

So we enrolled both of the girls in a local ballet class. Millie has been counting down the days till her first class, which was supposed to be yesterday. She was all pumped up and ready to go! Gracie really, really wanted to go and watch Millie, even though her class is on Thursdays. I told her if she got ALL of her school work done before it was time to go, she could go with us. She worked SO hard yesterday and got everything done! She was so excited!

So off we went. I had the girls stop so I could get a picture of them in front of the studio and then..... and then... we saw the sign taped to the locked door. Ballet was cancelled that day. The girls were SO bummed, but especially Gracie! She was on the verge of tears.

I called their ballet teacher today to see if it was possible if Millie could sit in on Gracie's class. I said if it didn't work out- if she was naughty or disruptive or couldn't keep up- she could just sit with me. Miss Sylvia is a sweet, gracious lady and said she could certainly sit in with Gracie!

This was Millie's first ballet class EVER and I was so proud of her! She kept up so well- she kept a close eye on Gracie and did EVERYTHING she did. She kept up for the entire hour and not a single problem with her. She really did great. I'm beginning to think she's going to be bored in the 4 & 5 year old class. When Gracie was in that class, a lot of the time was spent containing the children and disciplining them. We shall see. (it would sure be nice just to have to take them to ONE class per week... :)

So here's Millie, sitting 1/2" away from Gracie so she see how to do things properly (BTW, I do NOT use flash during ballet so as not to disturb the dancers- plus I hate flash anyway. hee-hee!):

You can see that Millie was sitting dangerously too close to Gracie as Gracie attempts to do her arabesque and nearly decapitates Millie. BTW, I cannot, unfortunately, take credit for those LONG SKINNY legs- those legs come from her father whose legs make up most of his 6 foot 4 inch height:

At the barre, first position, plie (how's that? any ballerinas out there? did I get that right? this type of thing was SO NOT ME when I was younger.... never did anything but track, soccer and basketball):

I don't know what it is about this one, but I really love it. I shot this one looking into the mirrors on one of the walls. I think I just like how Millie and Gracie are both trying so hard to copy their teacher.... and I think I also love how her teacher is on her own little section of mirror- she's in a class of her own.

And I liked that one in B&W too:

Millie got some good air here. They were doing chasse arabesques across the room.

There were at least 10 children in the girls' class today, two of which were boys. But just to show the age range Millie joined today:

Yeah, I think she's going to do fine in the 4 & 5 y/o class.

There has been SO much more I've wanted to blog about! We have been SO incredibly busy! We totally just re-did the girls room- tore down wallpaper, painted on a primer, repainted and redecorated and their room looks SO cute! I will post pictures soon! We will also be re-doing the children's bathroom and touching up the boys' room next weekend. Monday is Alek's birthday and his party. We have homeschool co-op and a field trip planned tomorrow.... just waiting for life to slow down a little. And then there's the tag from Liz a long while back I need (and WANT) to get to... and a couple of other things going on here... soon. Hopefully, soon. Pictures are SO much easier to blog than typing out thoughts and things. (for me anyway)

Until next time... :)

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Comments

Feb. 29, 2008 - Flash Question

Posted by Kirstin

Your girls look adorable Alyssa. Question? If you do not use a flash inside, what setting do you use especially when they're moving to not get a blurry shot?

I have been very lazy in really learning how to work my camera on anything other than automatic (I have a Nikon D50). I know I"ll love it even more when I really know how to use it.