Twinkle Toes

From the day this child took her first steps, she began to dance.  She has never walked.  When I call her in to the kitchen, she skips and leaps down the hall, twirling all the way.  I put her in her first ballet class at age 2, and she's had twinkle toes ever since. 

She has poise and gracefulness that I've never possessed.   Even if she never takes another dance class, she has already learned things that will help her throughout her life.

Fifth Position

Have you ever tried this? I did once and cramped up immediately!  She does this stuff for hours.

In her class, they use beautiful french words like demi- plie' and grand jete'.  She's had to educate me on their meanings, because the only other language mom knows is Spanish.  I just love to put my ear to the classroom door and hear the beautiful french words softly spoken by the instructor while classical music plays in the background.  It all sounds so foreign and whimsical to the untrained ear. 

Her favorite part of class is the portion where they get to express themselves in "free dance". She loves to leap and twirl to the music.

Preparing for a grand  jete'

It never ceases to amaze me how a toothless girl can go from a rough and tumble cow-hand, to a slugger on the baseball field, and then put on her ballet slippers and perform an elegant dance to beautiful music as if she were designed to move gracefully from the womb.  This little girl has an ongoing dance with music running through her head every waking hour. I catch her humming the tune while she goes about her day,  and her feet slide happily in step with the music in her mind.