Little ballerinas

As probably most people in the class know, dance is my favourite art form.  It shouldn't be surprising then how much it warms my heart when I am able to share my appreciation for dance with children. 

I grew up doing ballet my entire life and hated every minute of class because of the high level of competition and what I saw as inequality in abilities to practice.  Most of the kids in my class took 7-13 classes a week, but my parents only had to time and money to enrol me in two, so I didn't see the point in competing when I didn't feel I stood a chance.  Now when I look back, I am glad I decided not to enter into the competition, but that I had chosen to have fun instead of just dreading class.  Thankfully, my experience didn't completely kill my love of ballet, and that is for one reason: recitals.  I absolutely loved free dance time and performing.  Everyone in the group attended the same number of practices, and I used to spend hours practicing at home in my kitchen.  I was intrinsically motivated once there was a purpose to the dance (not just the skill building exercises in most regular ballet classes).

I think that maybe the door started to open for me to teach ballet to the girls in my neighbourhood when the youth pastor of Timbers taught a six week hip hop class to a group of girls and boys of multiple ages (from my neighbourhood), which I helped out with.  During the breaks, sometimes I would do free ballet (basically lyrical) to the music playing in the background.  One of the girls began to become interested.  So, I started to teach her a few positions and I discovered that she learned quickly.  It was a great confidence booster for her and a relationship builder between us.  I also started to introduce her to classical music, which I called "ballet music."  I took her and several other children to a few different symphony performances.  I showed her and others the Lindsey Sterling music videos to show the connection between music and dance.

Then, I was ecstatic last summer when I friend told me she was starting up a ballet class for the girls in my neighbourhood.  She had already booked the Connaught Youth Centre, which was going to let her use the building for free.  I immediately offered to help her, and with the support of another friend who has no ballet experience, but is willing to help with behaviour management, we team taught the class all last year (and will hopefully start up again next year).  It was pretty special.  Judy Russel's donated ballet slippers for all of the girls and we found tutus for them as well.  We incorporated a small amount of skill building each time, some circle sharing time, and a lot of free dance time, usually an adorable game of dance  freeze tag where one person has a big flower they wave over people's heads to freeze them. We really had no idea what we were doing, with no dance teaching experience, but we had fun and we increased the girls' exposure to dance, which I think is valuable.  The girls really enjoyed their time and looked forward to dance class each week.  Same girl who watched me do ballet in the hip hop class bought herself ballet slippers at a garage sale we were both at last summer because she wanted her own ballet slippers to keep.  That warmed my heart because I knew I knew I had helped her find something she could shine in, and that something just happened to be my favourite thing in the world!