Lizzy the Ballerina

Lizzy recently started taking ballet lessons. She loves to dance so we figured it would be a good outlet for her. The first week she didn't have a clue what she was doing, and mostly just did her own type of dances, which included throwing herself rather dramatically across the floor, and then yelling to me from across the room, "did you see, mom, that was pretty good huh!" After that I wasn't too sure if ballet was going to be a good match for Lizzy after all, it requires quite a bit of discipline and concentration, and she's 4, but so are all the other kids, so it seems to work. This teacher is incredible at getting kids to fall inline...she seems to have the perfect blend of warmth and high expectations for the girls, and they respond very well to her. After the first week Lizzy learned quickly not to talk during class, and to save her more "interpretative" dance styles for after class. To my surprise she didn't seem to have a problem with that, and has enthusiastically returned to class each week. She tries hard to please the teacher, who gives high praise for it. It's only a 30 minute class, but Lizzy is quite tired by the end, and comes home and likes to crash on the couch for a while.

In a few weeks her class is doing a little dance recital in conjunction with the older girls' classes. I can't guarantee that she'll get all the steps right, but she'll look pretty darn cute trying!