Letting Scarlett Be Herself

It is unlikely that anyone who knows me well would be caught saying that I am not stubborn. I am a Taurus by birth and by nature. I have a few fixed ideas and some of them are pretty deeply ingrained. One of those areas of life is dancing and particularly ballet.

In my experience, the girls that did ballet when I was growing up were the nastiest, cattiest bunch of creatures in the school. I do not say this lightly. This was the case at three schools on two different continents. There was something about the art that attracted those girls or perhaps the art cultivated these traits. I was never able to decide. What I did know was that no child of mine was going to be one of those stuck up little madams!

Time passed. I met and married my husband and eventually Miss Scarlett arrived and we became our little family of three. From the moment she could walk our daughter has danced and pranced. She does not walk anywhere but rather twirls and skips. It soon became clear that my child was likely to become one of those ballet girls.

We found a lovely dance school quite close to where we live and they let us know that Scarlett would have to be two and a half before she could start classes. This wait seemed like forever for Scarlett and she would ask every time she saw a little girl in her ballet clothes or had spent some time prancing in the lounge if she could start ballet yet. This weekend her wait was finally over.

On Saturday we went in to see if they had any places. They agreed to Scarlett having a trial class the following morning. She was beyond excited. She put on her tutu leggings and could not wait to meet her teacher. 

Sunday morning arrived and we took Scarlett into the dance school a little early so that she could meet her teacher and find out about everything. She went straight into the studio with her teacher and after a few minutes of watching her make friends with a couple of the other little dancers we suggested it was time for us to go. She turned to us and said a quick bye before turning back to her new friends. We loitered in the reception area for a short while before Scarlett popped her head out to demand "Why aren't you leaving yet?" We had our marching orders and spent the bulk of her class at Starbucks.

She was quiet when she came out from her class but very firm in her conviction that she would love to come back to ballet next week. She tried on her new ballet uniform and we signed her up for ten weeks. Did I mention that my petite daughter's feet are too small for the smallest slipper? She needs them tied very tightly on until her feet grow a little bigger!

Showing Grandad her new Ballet clothes

My only pictures are from instagram and for some reason they are very grainy out of that app so I am only going to inflict one upon you.

Each night after the lights are out, Scarlett lies in bed and I sit beside her on the floor and we talk about her day. Last night, I asked her what was the best part of her day. We had just listed all the things she had done including ballet class, a river cruise, a special lunch, visiting the Kite Festival and being with Grandad. She smiled to herself in the darkness and whispered  "Ballet class Mummy. I got to be a princess and a prancing pony."

This Mummy is going to have to get over herself and help Scarlett embrace all the things she can be. Although, be very sure, if I see any of those nasty ballet traits appearing, they will be dealt with swiftly and severely.