And Your Pointe Is......

More catch-up posts from December. 


Here are some of Mallory dancing. Her class got to perform their Christmas dance en pointe. They are thrilled they will also be able to perform en pointe for the first time in their spring recital.


:)

Dancing Keeps Them on Their Toes

I haven't blogged since way back last year.....December 15, 2009, that is. Looks like I have some catching up to do. So, I'm going to backtrack a bit here and hopefully in the next few days bring this blog into the current decade.

December was a month of dance, dance, dance for Mallory and her cousins. She and Corinne performed in the Mountain West Ballet production of The Nutcracker, so they were busy with dress rehearsals, group pictures and performances. That month they also performed Christmas dances and demonstrations at their ballet school.

It's always fun to go to their December class demonstrations and see the progress the girls have made. When Mallory and Corinne were teeny little 3- and 4-year-olds just starting out in ballet, Jan and I used to joke about whether we were getting our money's worth when we would watch them perform. But as the years have gone on, we've seen vast improvements and know that those hours spent in lessons, as well as all the money spent on leotards, tights and shoes is definitely worth it. Mallory went through a rough patch a couple of years ago where she really wanted to quit dancing. Being the mean mom I am, I told her she had to stick it out until she got on pointe.

I'm so glad I stuck to my guns and didn't let her quit.

It's been almost a year since Corinne and Mallory got their first pointe shoes. Mallory's attitude toward dance has changed dramatically since then. It's amazing to me to watch those girls get up on those toes and dance. It's so impressive to see their skills and grace.

And yes, Jan and I still occasionally threaten the girls that we're going to enroll in adult ballet lessons. Nothing strikes more fear into the heart of a teen or pre-teen than the mental image of her leotard-clad mother leaping around the ballet studio.

(Actually, that mental image kind of scares me, too....)

Anyway....my dreams of being a ballerina may never come true, but I can still enjoy watching Mallory, Corinne and Katelyn, my favorite little dancers.

:)

Got the Pointe?

Saturday was a big day for Mallory and her cousin Corinne, who have been taking ballet together since they were preschoolers. They were to be fitted for pointe shoes! Jan and I showed up with our girls at the dancewear store, giddy with anticipation. Well, maybe not giddy, but excited, nonetheless. Well, at least some of us were. Corinne was thrilled. Jan and I were pleasant. Mallory....well, not so much. She's had a love/hate relationship (mostly hate) with ballet lately, but being the mean mom that I am, I won't let her quit. I keep hoping she will get past this attitude because it hasn't always been that way. I was all excited to take fabulous pictures to remember this momentous occasion of putting on the pointe shoes for the first time.

Luckily, all you can see are Mallory's feet because she was one unhappy girl and had a big scowl on her face the entire time. GRRRR. There really wasn't a lot of room in this little dancewear store to take pictures, either. Neverthless, I dutifully recorded the images for posterity. By the way, the first three pictures are Mallory...the last one is Corinne.

Mallory seemed excited when she first found out she and the others in her dance class were going to be able to get pointe shoes. Saturday morning, however, that excitement was lost somewhere on the way to Pat's Dancewear. And to top things off, they didn't have the correct sizes for Mallory and Corinne so they had to order them. Bummer.

Oh, and by the way, Jan and I again threatened our girls with the prospect that WE are going to sign up for adult ballet. We were eying the leotards while we were at the store. When Jan pointed out one she liked, Corinne said, "Don't even joke about that, Mom."

Makes us long for the days when our kids thought we were cool!