Miss Ballerina

This year Bria decided that she wanted to try dance. We signed her up for the 5/6 yr. old combo class. When we first went in for shoe fittings she told me that she would only love ballet and jazz, but that tap would be her least favorite. I told her of Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers and Gene Kelly and I think she really needed some visuals so we will have to netflix a few of their movies for her to fully appreciate the greats. Then told her that I thought the same thing as a little girl when I was put into dance and when those taps were put on something magical happened. I LOVED the sound of them on the floor and it was music to my ears. She was still not sold on the idea.

After finally trying the tap shoes on and taking her first step in them, she wouldn't let us take them off. The magic happened. She LOVED the way they sounded and insisted that she was going to wear them all day and night (and she would too if we let her), but the nice shoe lady said that it would ruin them and she should only wear them in the dance studio. My little gal took it to heart and is very diligent at making sure her shoes (the tap shoes in particular) are taken care of. Now if we could only get her to take that special kind of care with her bedroom.

She has been doing really well and has demonstrated several stretches to the class for her teachers because of her great flexibility and strength. The funny thing is is that she had been doing the stretches they do, at home before ever going to dance, for a few years, trying to be goofy for us. Who knew that goofiness would one day pay off. :)

As a mom I feel that it is my duty to help my children find and further develop their talents, but through the years I have learned that I had to let them make the decisions on what they felt they wanted to learn. If they didn't want to do something that I thought they would be good at because they showed promise, I had to let go because ultimately in the end if they have talent and passion for it then they will flourish in ways that I never thought possible and if I pushed them knowing they weren't happy doing it then it would cause undue pressure and frustration for everyone involved. However I do try to make them see something through until it is done for the season. It sure is nice to see that she loves this and is making great progression in her new found talent. I can even tell that she has gained some pretty good muscle and balance. Who knows where this little gals talents will take us. I love this gal!