Ballet and The Barre

The girls started Ballet together on Saturday.

Elly had been lamenting the fact her older sister started Ballet when she was three and as Elly is now four, there has obviously been some sort of gross injustice done. 

In hindsight, overlooking her enrolment at three was not quite as bad as me forgetting to buy her a ballet wrap and skirt for her first class...

But I guess that's just the usual 'second child' stuff! With my forgetfulness lately, she's lucky to even have a leotard!

Elly was more than ready to start Ballet and marched us all there;

Classes are held in a school hall down the road from us...

She was full of excitement and enthusiasm. I think it's pretty fair to say that what Elly lacks in skill, she makes up for in over-confidence.

As in, I don't think she followed a single instruction the teacher gave her (flexing her toes when told to point them, galloping when she should have been skipping, etc) and yet, when the teacher announced at the end, that the class had done well and that the lesson had been 'quite tricky'... Elly put her hands on her hips and announced, 'Well, it wasn't tricky for ME!' . Which of course is right, because she did her own thing the entire time!

I must say, my favourite part of the class was when all the little girls were standing in front of the barre. Elly turned around, grabbed the barre with both hands and swung her feet up off the ground. This move was very sternly reprimanded by the teacher; 'Ballerina's never hang on the barre' and something to the effect of 'I never want to see you do that again'. To which Elly hung her head in shame, turned around, grabbed the barre with both hands and restrained herself by only raising one leg, thus not technically 'hanging on the barre'.

Oh dear....It's going to be an interesting term. Good luck, Miss Jessica!