Viva's Ballet Class

Viva's been in a ballet/dance class for two months. And she's ready to move on. It turns out that her ballet class is not serious enough for her. Huh?! What does she know about ballet? Obviously more than we do, but how did she come by this knowledge?

Viva has been attending a ballet class at my workout club. I drop her off in her classroom and then race down the hall to the cardio workout room and put in 40 minutes and then race back and pick her up. What could be more convenient? No one had to do any extra driving.

Then Kara's friend Amrita told her that the class, though labeled ballet, wasn't really much of a ballet class. Amrita's daughter is also in the class and Amrita stayed and watched the class. The turn over in students was high and there's no barre in the classroom, so no real ballet moves were being taught. That didn't bother Kara and I much since our only agenda was for Viva to have fun. Nonetheless, Kara decided to check out other ballet classes in town.

Just a couple miles down the road is a dance school that teaches preschool ballet. Kara took Viva over for a trial class. Kara sat and watched and said it was rather boring. They spent a good portion of the class at the barre practicing plies and whatever else ballet students do at the barre. (Kara and I are clueless.)

After leaving the class, Kara quizzed Viva. "Which class do you like better?" "This one!" she replied, "We do more dancing. At the other class we play games and only do a little dancing at the end." Obviously her agenda is more serious than ours.

Kara decided to switch Viva to the new ballet class, but when double-checking costs and times she discovered that they have their recitals on Sunday. Not cool at all for us Mormons, so Kara looked into other dance schools.

I'm amazed how many dance schools are in town. Unfortunately, the two best ballet schools are mid-town. Not as convenient, but their recitals aren't on Sundays.

Kara and Viva hit the road to check out one of the schools. Viva attended a class and told her mom that she liked the first dance school better. This new school was "too hard." Kara told Viva that the new school had their recitals at the same theater as the Nutcracker Ballet. (Grandma Karen took Viva to see the Nutcracker Ballet last November.) Viva decided she'd give the new school a try.

Viva is only 4. Are we overthinking this issue? Probably...but then again, Mark's first cousin Suzanna was a ballerina. Maybe Viva acquired a dance gene from that part of the family and she really IS serious. We'll take it one semester at a time.

I asked Kara to add a note to this post because she's the one now taking Viva to ballet:

The ballet career was almost brought to screeching halt when Viva learned about the school uniforms. Apparently a mark of a *serious* program is a class uniform. No glitter and tutus and wispy skirts for serious little ballerinas. At our new school it's pink tights and pink leotards (a particular brand, no less) for the 4 and 5 year olds. They are exempt from the hair in a bun rule, that goes into effect with the 6 year old ballet class. Viva is taking it all in stride though (at first I thought it was light blue leotards - but I was wrong - good thing, as pink is MUCH cooler than blue). Here she is modeling the new look of "ballet pink" (which is a specific color, I am told):