Regardless, it's hilariously funny and awfully cute.
They begin class by walking through this tiny toddler size door that sits by itself on one end of the room. This week the cute little African-American girl in the pink was very concerned with the door and spent most of class opening and closing it. Last week it was Tenley and another little girl who had a silent war going: Tenley would close the door, and as soon as this little one saw it was closed she would open it. Repeat.
Their ballet mistress tries to teach them to stand up straight and look ahead by telling them to imagine an animal in any color they want, and to put it on their head. Then she reminds them to keep their chins up so their animal doesen't fall off. This week they had no sooner put them on their heads than Tenley turned to the little girl standing next to her and said "yours fell off."
They do try to get them to do some elementary dance stretches like the "butterfly" where you put the soles of your feet together and bounce your knees. Tenley just sat indian style and picked at her finger nails. The little girl in the blue tu-tu to the left of the picture refused to do anything with the class-she just kind of wandered around and twirled...and she certainly wasn't going to hold anyone's hand.
The ballet mistress was trying to get them all to stand in a straight line facing the mirrors. For 2 year olds, this is a straight line. Then she was tring to get them to hop on one foot. Most of them just stood there looking stunned, and then they would start jumping up and down with both feet as though they were trying to kill roaches.
One of Ten's favourite parts of the class: the scarves. Last week she pushed kids out of the way to get a pink scarf. This week she decided to hang back & be polite and ended up with a white one. You should have seen the look on her face when she was given the last scarf and it was white "you want me to use this??"
The cutie in the pale blue with the pink scarf to Tenley's right in the picture was also adopted from the Hunan province of China just a month and a half after we got Ten! So cool to have another Red Thread girl in the class!
Eventually Ten got over her disappointment with the white scarf and happily waved it around and mugged for daddy & the camera.
Tenley got obsessed with ballet after she saw 5 seconds of it in a PBS ad after an episode of Sesame Street. She lucked out in getting to take this class: the ballet school offered it through the city, and it was only supposed to be for 3-4 year olds...but the city misprinted it and said 2-3 year olds, and the ballet school was flooded with 2 year olds wanting to do ballet...so they honored the mistake.
So far she seems to really like it, we'll see if she continues to show interest. And I think it might be time for me to bust out my old ballet slippers & practice with her at home!
But I still want to know who thought it was a good idea to make the 2-3 year olds uniform pink shoes, pink tights, and a white leotard. Who puts a toddler in white?!
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