Lumpkins 2nd Ballet Class

Lumpkins (my daughter, it's a nickname, I'm not that odd) had her second ballet lesson this morning. She got on her gear and off we went on the bus to the studio. Got there and paid for a block of 6 lessons, £18 lighter we enter the studio waiting room. I sit her down and take off her street shoes, her jogging bottoms and put on her ballet pumps while she chats excitedly to her teddy about how shes going to go ballet dancing, cute!

In we go to the studio with the other girls and the teachers say hello to us and tell Lumpkins how lovely she looks in her ballet outfit while she hides behind my legs, she's still not quite sure about these dance ladies. They all go and sit on the floor to start warming up but Lumpkins is distracted by her beautiful reflection in the studio mirrors, oh so vain. Eventually she decides to grace the class with her presence and sits down to join in 'good toes, naughty toes' good toes being pointed toes and bad toes being non pointed toes. She enjoys this as she's been practicing, but all the girls loose interest fairly quickly and it's time to move on.

The teacher puts on a piece of music which I imagine was designed to get the girls listening to the music properly, it was a classical piece but every now and again it would build up and then it would 'PING!'. So all the girls had to hug their knees and get really small, and when they heard the ping they had to fling their arms and legs out. Lumpkins wasn't interested at first and wanted to admire herself some more but then she saw all the girls were having fun and soon she joined in.

Then there was circle time, everyone held hands in a circle and all the girls were instructed to have 'butterfly feet' which is is first position I believe, then they bend their knees to make a 'diamond window' aka plié. Next is frog jumps which Lumpkins really enjoyed, shouting 'RIBBIT!' and doing lovely deep froggy jumps, her teacher was very impressed. However the froggy jumps made her tired and she refused to dance until she got a snack, I tried to talk her into joining the girls in being tooth faeries (walking on tiptoes and waving their arms) but no, she just wanted to sit on my knee and whine until the class was over, which she did.

Despite the divaness at the end the teachers still said she did well and more than they expected for her age, they said she's the youngest and so she will take longer to get it properly. All the other girls have been going quite a while and soon she would be just like them. I told them she really enjoyed the last class and that she was showing me her good toes all week and they told me that's very encouraging and to keep bringing her. They would say that, they want my money, hahaha. No kidding, Lumpins loves it so I'll keep taking her. I know she picks things up quickly and if she sticks with it she could be a prima ballerina. However must not get ahead of myself, I will not turn into a pushy mum. Ever. Honest.