The Salvateenies: Caroline's First Dance Recital

Caroline has been taking a dance class this year. It meets on Tuesdays right after school and lasts for about 45 minutes. We attempted to send all three kids, but after the first day we were informed that the boys "didn't seem that interested". In fact, they'd been throwing things and running around. So they go to an hour of after-school care where they get to play on the playground or read stories while Caroline does her introduction to ballet. [When Uncle and I attended Montessori, we took a "movement" class taught by Stathi - I will never forget that name - that was very yoga/Feldenkreiss in nature...very '70s.]

The class ran for ten weeks and was set to end on the 19th of November with a short presentation during class. On the 18th of November, all three kids were sent home from school with fevers. The school has a policy that students cannot return until they have been fever-free for at least 24 hours (can you imagine? I wish we had that policy at the school I teach at!) and their temperatures kept bouncing up and down and they ended up missing the whole week.

I was disappointed that Caroline was going to miss her performance, but keeping she didn't seem to be too concerned about it. And then in the middle of school on Tuesday I got a call that the recital (and the parent-child open house evening scheduled the following night) were being postponed until after Thanksgiving because 2/3 of the class was out sick! Reprieve!

The presentation was re-scheduled for December 3rd, meaning that the kids had gone three weeks between their last class and the recital. We juggled schedules to be able to attend and showed up en masse to support our budding ballerina. There were five little girls and two little boys (and two empty "dots", presumably for absent students) in the class when we arrived and the audience consisted of five moms and Caroline's posse - Mommy, Daddy, Grandma, Uncle, and Wendy. And Boppy called in on video to watch from his desk at work. We may have gone a bit overboard!

The kids lined up to walk into the room and Caroline was so excited to see us that she ran over, missing her opportunity to be in the front row for the presentation. She is easily the shortest child in the school and she ended up in the back row behind the two tall girls.

At the very beginning of class, this was all I could see of Caroline

Then she leaned back to peek at us

The teacher, Miss Brianna, started out with some stretches and warm ups for everyone to watch, including a version of "the name game" that she said they'd played the first day of class. It seemed to involve each child saying his or her name and then making up a dance move, all of which were put together into a dance, repeating the kids' names as their move came up. Miss Brianna admitted it would be silly to do the name game now that she already knew everyone's name, but she suggested they could make up whatever new name they wanted and volunteer a move. She chose to be "Princess Creampuff" and her move was the pinch-your-nose-and-dunk-under-water part of The Swim. She then turned to the rest of the room and asked for a volunteer and Caroline's hand shot up. She grabbed her nose, no doubt in imitation of her teacher, and made a loud, squeaky sneeze noise as she doubled over. And that became Caroline's move (and her new name for the day - "SQUEAK!"). After the squeak was incorporated into the dance, another volunteer was sought and when nobody stepped forward, Caroline put her hand up again. That's my girl - making the effort to keep the lesson moving forward. Instead, Miss Brianna called on a couple of kids to add moves and when they had about five and it was clear the rest of the kids were too shy to show off for their parents, they moved on.

Caroline stretches a little differently than her classmates

Miss Brianna is funny!

Miss Brianna brought super hero capes for the boys and butterfly wings for the girls to wear in their performance. Caroline got green wings to wear.

The first "dance" was a version of the Hokey Pokey called the "Ballet Pokey". Caroline followed along pretty well and she REALLY liked the part where she got to put her head in and "shake it all about"!

Next was Ballet Shoulders, Knees, and Toes.

And then it was time for Moon River, the choreographed piece that was supposed to show us all the technique the kids had learned. At this point, the shy kids were really, really shy and just standing there smiling. Some kids were trying very hard to follow along with the teacher's movements. And Caroline was dancing.

Not to the choreography or the rhythm of the music, but to the beat of her own very peppy drummer, it seemed.

There were a couple of other games at the end, both of which involved following along in a row either point-walking or hopping and then posing at the end.