We Built an In-Home Ballet Studio for our Young Ballerina

The genesis of this project/home remodel was the PVC pipe ballet barre that Matt and the older kid made for the younger kid for Christmas last year. I suggested it as a present because I thought that she would love it, and she did, but...

...apparently, if you give a ballerina a ballet barre, she'll ask for a full-length, wall-mounted mirror to go with it.

It took me a few months to casually suss out the logistics, but finally, in consultation with the younger kid and Matt, we decided that--well, remember those wall-mounted shelves that Matt made?

I'd insisted that the shelves shouldn't go all the way to the adjacent wall because we have yet another door to the outside there (we have FIVE doors to the outside in our strange, not-really-that-large house) and I thought it would be weird if the door knocked into the shelves when it opened.

Well, it turns out that if you actually don't care about that at all, you've given yourself another full six feet of wall to work with!

BUT you're going to have to empty those shelves--

--unscrew them from the floor and wall, and move them.

They're maybe a teensy bit wobbly now, but don't tell Matt.

I was excited about emptying the shelves, because that's where we keep board games, puzzles, and floor toys, and now that I've got these great, big girls, I expected that I'd be able to get rid of just absolute loads of games and toys. After all, these big girls don't still play Secret Garden and Professor Noggin, do they?

They do.

They don't still want Lincoln Logs and Kapla blocks and marble runs readily accessible, do they?

They do.

They're not still interested in building race car tracks and zipping their Darda cars through them, are they?

Actually, they're not, they say, and so I have it on my to-do list to ebay that giant Rubbermaid bin full of Darda tracks, but even those got one last huzzah:

We bought two of these 60"x36" mirrors, and with much terror and uncertainty about the quality of our walls, Matt mounted them in our brand-new swath of wall space:

He's got my stash cushion foam there to pad the mirrors while we were fiddling with them. I really should use up the rest of that cushion foam and free up some closet space, but then what would we do if we wanted to mount more giant mirrors?

 

When they were mounted, all we had to do was move the kid's ballet barre in front of it, and she's all set!

It's a great place to pester Jones, the world's crankiest kitten:

And it's also a good spot for some impromptu ballet practice, because of course technique class and jazz class aren't nearly enough dancing for one Saturday!

I'd like to add some framed prints and signed programs to the kid's studio area, but I'm hesitant to put anything above the mirror that could even remotely be nudged off of the wall by pounding ballerina feet, and there's not enough room on either side of the mirror, darn it.

Perhaps a couple of posters could go above the mirror, or a stenciled quote...

Let me know if you think of something suitable!

Movement and Grace: Scenes from the Ballet Classroom

Syd has been dancing ballet since the age of four. It's one of the governing passions of her life. It's the only extracurricular, other than Girl Scouts and our volunteer work, that she chooses. She loves ballet, and I love watching her dance.

Indulge me in the matter of a few photos, then. Syd's ballet program only invites parents into their classroom for one week every semester. I agree with this policy (me!!! Who NEVER agrees with anyone else's rules!!!) because Syd, at least, finds the presence of parents, in particular her own, super distracting and does not enjoy Parent Observation Week, but for me, it's the only week each semester that I get to watch my kid in class--AND take photos and videos of her!

You're luckier than my friends and family, in that here I'm only going to #mombrag with the rare photos that I could catch of Syd without her peers identifiable in the frame, an especially challenging strategy in that I highly suspect that Syd chooses her placement during Parent Observation Week to be as far from her Mom's giant camera as possible.

As if there aren't three other Moms with giant cameras sitting right next to me. She's not the only embarrassed kid, I assure you!

This is one of Syd's ballet teachers this year. She was her sole ballet instructor last year, and Syd and I were absolutely thrilled that she got her again this year, too. Honestly, out of all of the ballet teachers that Syd has ever had in this program, both faculty and college ballet majors, this college student is the best teacher that Syd has ever studied under. She is the best teacher, in any subject, that I have ever seen. She's extremely demanding but still encouraging, she motivates the kids, is quick to correct and to praise, gives each of them tons of attention, tells them stories about her own ballet experiences, and teaches them the choreography that she's learning for her own performances. She hands down leotards that she thinks might fit them. Sometimes she even does their hair. She advocated with the head of the program to cancel pre-pointe class on Halloween so that the children will have time to trick-or-treat. Every time she interacts with the children, it's easy to observe what a gifted teacher she is, and how invested she is in the kids' growth and well-being, and how she enjoys their company and really sees them for who they are as individuals. She is exactly the mentor and role model that you would want for your tween girl in the world of ballet.

Also, my kid is the best stretcher in class. Just saying.

Excuse how grainy and blurry my photos are. You would think that a ballet studio would be well-lit, wouldn't you? Well, I'm here to tell you that it most certainly is NOT.

Jazz is a new class offering this year. Syd does not prefer it, and likely wouldn't choose to go if I didn't encourage her to, but I LOVE it. They dance to music that has a drumbeat! And guitar! And a melody with words! And I usually know the words! Because it's usually Weezer!

Ballet at this time of year is even more exciting, because we are well into rehearsals for the university's yearly production of The Nutcracker. Syd will be dancing the role of a party guest this year, and although she's pretty bummed to be cast as a male character for the second year in a row, meaning that she has to wear pants and a wig instead of a beautiful dress and her long hair styled into ringlets, the silver lining is that I don't have to learn how to use a curling iron yet, and my well-practiced performance bun is a thing of beauty and majesty.

And even if she's not dancing the part that she most wants, she's still dancing--on the big stage, to the music of a live orchestra, in front of hundreds of people, and with her friends. It's the thing that she most loves to do, and whether I'm backstage or in the audience, I'll get to do what I love most, too, which is watch her being happy.

The Ballerina in Her Classroom

As you will likely have guessed if you've known me for at least a year, we are deep into Nutcracker season, with the curtain rising in just nine days for my little Mother Ginger boy.

Every year, I tell you that the experience is overwhelming, and then the next year Syd is offered an even more demanding role, and the experience becomes that much more overwhelming. Soldiers rehearsed twice a week, but Mother Ginger's children rehearse every single flipping day--sometimes twice a day! I am a chauffeur, and a babysitter of young ones on their breaks, and I have a bad cold to show for it. Syd, of course, thrives, loving every minute of it, her only wish to dance even more (and perhaps to be a Mother Ginger girl instead of a boy, but we mustn't dwell on casting decisions past, for there madness lies).

The Mother Ginger scene, though, is my second favorite in all of the Nutcracker (nothing can beat the battle!). I also think it's interesting how every choreographer creates a different version of the dance to the exact same music.

Here, for instance, is Balanchine's version:



This epic performance is a hip hop version!



Along with rehearsals, of course the pre-college ballet program's dancers are expected to keep up with their regular dance classes, and for a treat Syd's teacher (who, despite being only a sophomore in the university, I think, is the absolute best ballet teacher that my child has ever had. The children all adore her, and Syd has never improved so quickly as under her tutelage) the other day invited us parents into the typically no-parents-allowed studio space to watch our children's class.

I am about to show you too many photos of that class, but don't worry--I have a hundred more that I'm not sharing!

I don't know where the kid gets her grace and poise from, but it is not from me or her father. Her sister, too, runs into every doorway that she passes. How wonderful, then, to have found a program where she can develop her natural talent into a deeper skill, one that challenges her and helps her develop perseverance and dedication.

Nevertheless, I am DEEPLY looking forward to the post-Nutcracker winter break!

The Ballerina, on Her Eleventh Birthday

As far as I can tell, this is the first picture that I ever took of Syd dancing ballet:



She is four years old, and her teacher is helping her leap over the alligator pit.

Even then, she had excellent form.

Over the years, she first wore the pink uniform of the youngest dancers (they've since changed that level's color to white, and thank goodness that was after our time, because I cannot even fathom having to keep a three-, four-, and five-year-old's leotard WHITE for an entire school year...)--

Spring 2012

--and then graduated to the blue uniform of the beginning ballet student--

Spring 2015

--and as of this year, wears the much more sophisticated black uniform of the intermediate ballet student:





Except for during this year's spring recital, when everyone wore white:



The spring ballet recital always conveniently takes place near Syd's birthday and Mother's Day, so it makes for a handy occasion to take some decent photos of the lot of us when our hair is brushed and we're not wearing clothes with paint stains or muddy knees:





Watching the relationship between these two is my absolute favorite thing about parenting sisters. Never remembering a time without the other, they're best friends, near constant companions, and supporting their relationship so that they'll always have each other even when they don't have Matt or me, is one of my most important jobs:



It's a job that comes with some pretty great perks, fortunately, because there's nothing that could ever be better than these two kids:





Even when their father can't manage to get a decent shot of the three of us all looking decent, sigh.

The Nutcracker 2016: Mommy's Little Soldier

Syd earned a promotion this year at her Nutcracker audition. No longer an angel, bringing light back to the world, this year she joined the ranks of the tin soldiers who fight in the Nutcracker Prince's army in the battle against the mice.

Not only did this mean more stage time, but it's also a more interesting role, with varied choreography and an actual plot to uphold and interaction with the adult dancers. It was a lot more responsibility, but a really fun role for a kid.

Never one to slack off in her preparation, Syd soon developed a background for her character, who she decided is a hardened veteran of many battles against the mice:



Just between us, the soldier's costume is also MUCH cuter than the angel costume, even with its wings and halo. Soldiers wear navy shirts, white pants with suspenders, black spandex leggings that they pull up over their pants to look like boots, navy jackets with gold details, and cardboard hats with straps under the chin and shiny silver starbursts on the front:

during the fitting in the costume shop

and in the dressing room, waiting for the call! I'm about to fix her leggings so they match.

I also took a more active role this year. Last year, there was a sexual assault case concerning the college student dancers and one of their dance instructors that occurred during Nutcracker rehearsals, and although it didn't go anywhere near the world of the child dancers, it opened my eyes to the vulnerable position of children in the performance industry, relinquished by their parents for hours at a time, weeks at a time, during rehearsals. Whatever else I know about myself, I know for sure that I can keep track of multiple kids for as long as I need to, and get them ready to go and where they need to be exactly when they need to be there, so whenever I wasn't at fencing or watching the show, myself, I volunteered backstage with the soldiers, knew where all of them were at all times, forced them all to go pee before their call time, hairsprayed all of their fly-aways into perfectly neat soldier buns, fixed all of their little jackets so that the gold stripes lined up just so, refused to let them sit down after they'd put on their white trousers, let the most nervous among them dry off her clammy hands on my T-shirt seconds before showtime, and, surprisingly, really, really, really enjoyed myself quite a lot. I have no desire to dance onstage, myself, but I can see why Syd likes it!

Will and I share fencing, so volunteering backstage is my chance to share Syd's world, and enjoy it with her.

Ballet dancers have a lot of crap! You've got your costume, your hair stuff, your street clothes, tons of food, a book or two, and card games. Lots of card games. There were MANY Uno and Spot It! tournaments during the long waits backstage, fulfilling the stereotype of soldiers and their card games.

Here Syd is, reading Wonder for the billionth time. This is also my only good photo of her soldier bun, which is just like the angel bun, only it has to be on the smack top of one's head.

 But what do you think the little dancers like doing most of all?

Watching the livestream of the show! It always began about 35 minutes before our own call time, and as soon as the curtain opened, all the soldiers would crowd around to watch. And yes, they danced along, because they're just that adorable.

 One of the cutest parts of the show, however--and there are MANY cute parts--is that during intermission, some of the costumed children are chosen to mill around the lobby for photo ops. I prepped my soldiers by telling them that it was going to be like being Mickey Mouse at Disney World, and it was seriously adorable to watch people mobbing them for photos:

Syd, of course, had a wonderful time, danced her heart out, enjoyed the hours of downtime spent with her friends, liked having me there, and got so much of value from the experience. And I have to say that I, too, had a wonderful time. I loved watching Syd dance her heart out from the darkness, just a few feet away (while keeping a weather eye out for that one curtain that had a lot of potential to clock a soldier in the top of the head as it fell). I took pleasure in watching her play around with her friends and eavesdropping on all of their kid conversations. I could not have been more thrilled to finally get to see her up close in her costume and take pictures to my heart's content, even if they were on my crappy camera phone. I came home absolutely exhausted from the stress and the human interaction and all the running around every single night, but that chance to spend time with Syd in her world?

Totally worth it.