It turns out that wandering around the base of a beam bridge is a pandemic-friendly way to hang out with friends we hadn't seen in person since early March.
Is the weather chilly as hell? Then it's even better for germ-killingness!
I had further, more sinister goals in mind for this visit, as I carried Syd's precious pointe shoes in my coat pocket. Syd is highly reluctant to get them even dirtier and more frayed than they already are, which is a very fair point, but after eight months of dancing en pointe in our family room on our boring roll-up marley floor instead of the variety of stages and studios that she so much deserves, she's a little more willing to indulge her mother these days.
And, of course, there's the ever-present railroad track graffiti to keep one entertained...
And afterwards, if one hits up another couple of spots on the Southern Indiana Ice Cream Trail, the better to discover small local parks while one eats ice cream on a park bench while shivering (one park had a genuine tank AND an old-school super long metal slide of death!), you've got the perfect pandemic Sunday afternoon out of the house.
The cats barely knew what to do with themselves when we got back, they were so surprised to have had the house to themselves for five whole hours!
I know that we are all soldiering on and putting on our brave faces and thanking our lucky stars for every single piece of good fortune that we're fortunate enough to possess during this pandemic, but I just want to tell you that if your kid is legit grieving something from her pre-pandemic life, this is your safe space to complain about it right here.
Because we can all put on our brave faces and soldier through our own shit, but when your kid is suffering and you can't fix it, that is a hard load to bear, and it legitimately sucks. Fortunate as we are in all the ways that we are, watching your kid have to miss their favorite people and favorite activities out in the big, wide world is hard, and if you want to gripe about it, you can go ahead and gripe about it right here to me, because I'm hating it, too.
I'll even go first: I HATE how much my kid is missing ballet. She misses her friends, she misses her teachers, she misses the companionship of other dancers, she misses rehearsing for and performing in the spring recital (what a blow that cancellation was!), she misses the in-person instruction, she misses pointe class... essentially, she's grieving for every aspect of her favorite thing in life.
Online classes and dancing at home are poor substitutes.
And yet that's where we are, and that's what we've got, so that's what she's doing.
Thankfully, we already had a DIY ballet barre set up at home. I think most of the kids at my kid's level in her classes who didn't already have one by the time the pandemic started do have one by now, because although something like a countertop or the back of a chair works if you're relatively stationery, it doesn't help much for moves that require you to travel--and you do a lot of that in pointe class!
If you want a non-DIY portable ballet barre, I know several kids who have this one and they all seem to like it:
Or, if you've got a space to wall-mount a ballet barre, I also know people who like this one:
I had assumed that the mirror would be crucial for evaluating one's position or technique or whatever, but I've actually been hearing that other kids in her class are responding well to dancing without the wall of mirrors in their ballet studio. Such an unexpected takeaway, right?
The photo above was taken with the kid dancing on our bare laminate floor, which is pretty horrible even when it's not covered in dust and hair... not that I'd actually know for sure what the floor is like when it's not covered in dust and hair, but I've got a good imagination.
HOWEVER, it was even while I was taking those photos that I realized that if the kid really was going to be having to take pointe classes from home, and do all her practicing and dancing on pointe here, too, she could not continue to do it on this floor. It's slippery, and she looked unsteady.
I took her into my bedroom to see if dancing en pointe on the carpet would be any better, and she nearly rolled an ankle after about five seconds.
So then I bought this:
It's this exact piece of marley floor, and it's perfect for the kid and for our space. Even on sale for 40% off when I bought it (yay!), it was still quite spendy, but I've been told that we should be getting a partial refund for the kid's also quite spendy ballet tuition, and even if we weren't, the kid has to be able to continue her pointe training and she clearly cannot do so if she's in danger of hurting herself.
When the floor isn't in use, the kid rolls it up and stores it beneath the mirror. I SUPER want to buy her this storage bag, because somehow this marley floor manages to pick up and show off all the dust and fuzz and cat hair and dog hair and human hair even better than the laminate floor shining in the sunset does, but that's definitely not in the budget until that theoretical partial tuition refund is in my bank account.
So here is how the kid takes ballet class now:
Actually, I guess she CAN see herself in the mirror when she dances. Maybe across the room from it is better than being a nose-length away!
She doesn't love it--honestly, she HATES it--but she has discovered that with the right instructor, she does find it useful. There are times when it really, really sucks, though, and I hate seeing the kid's disappointment and frustration when, say, she can't hear the instructor's music, or maybe the music is way too loud but the instructor's voice is super quiet so she can't turn the volume down, or that one time when we couldn't get the audio to work at all and she had to do a whole class without being able to hear a thing--for some reason we have a LOT of audio problems over here!
I also really feel for the dance teachers who have had to learn what might be an entirely new technology to them, and a new method of instruction, and figure out their own music, and find a way to give good feedback to a bunch of students using different equipment on different floors with varying qualities of webcams.
Like, dancers are ALREADY well-versed in grit and perseverance. They really don't need this whole series of challenges just to teach them life lessons!
One good thing, I guess, about the quarantines across the country is that many ballet companies and institutions are generously providing free online classes and other enrichment. It's sometimes hard to figure out the level for these, or they're most often at a beginner's level or for young children, but it can be fun to try something new, and some of the classes on offer are very unusual!
These change all the time, but here are some current favorites:
Ballet 24has mostly YouTube workouts for dancers, but also stretches and some classes.
The Ballet Coachhas YouTube classes for all levels from "little kids" to "grandma and grandpas," including some at the intermediate/advanced level.
Berkeley Ballet Theaterhosts several pay-what-you-can ballet classes through Facebook every week, and these are especially great because some of them are intermediate/advanced level.
Huntsville Ballethas tap, modern, and hip hop classes free on YouTube!
Kathryn Morganhas tons of classes and tutorials on YouTube, including pointe classes from beginner through advanced!
Lazy Dancer Tips has full ballet classes, but also strength training and workouts.
The New San Jose Balletoffers pay-what-you-can ballet classes through YouTube. There are all levels, including an adult ballet bootcamp that I might secretly try.
Pro Balletis in Russian on YouTube, so you sort of have to look at the thumbnail to see what the class is, but once it starts you can easily follow along.
The Rockettesteach a new segment of one of their routines on Instagram every week, but you can still see them after if you don't catch them live. I'm fascinated that they do most of this in heels!
Sarah Arnoldhas YouTube videos with mostly warm-ups and exercises for improving specific skills, like turnout.
All those classes are enough to keep any dancer engaged and in condition, if you remember that they don't provide any instructor feedback and so aren't a real substitute for a live class.
I particularly hate that this pandemic happened so early in the kid's pointe training, when she really needs the hands-on instruction and feedback to help her develop good habits and good form, but honestly, there's no great time in a dancer's training... or in anyone else's, either... for a pandemic to suddenly quarantine everyone away from their peers and teachers. We're just... soldiering on, game faces in place, trying not to focus on how much it all sucks.
If you've got a dancer who's training at home, too, tell me YOUR favorite tips and tricks and equipment. Maybe there's something new that I haven't thought to throw my money at yet!
P.S. Want to know what else we're doing during quarantine, like the science experiments and the art activities and the weird craft projects and the random Jane Austen tea parties? Check out my Craft Knife Facebook page!
Seriously, all fall and into the winter, when the kid wasn't doing this--
--she was thinking about it.
How do you get a homeschooling kid to think about something that's not her right-this-minute passion?
Friends, you don't. Instead you just... lean into it. That's the phrase we're using these days for just giving into what you've gotta do instead of griping about it, right?
Fortunately, there are lots of ways to sneakily sneak real-world study skills, handwork, knowledge-building, and practical life activities into a kid's Nutcracker obsession, whether she's a tiny angel bringing light back into the world, a tin soldier hardened from a lifetime of fighting in the mouse wars, a deadly assassin/Baroque-costumed child of the Creature Known Only as Mother Ginger, or a young party guest/spy attending a Christmas party and low-key planning to steal a certain magical nutcracker that turns into a real person and controls an army of ensorceled children and fights giant mice for you.
First step: read the book:
It's plenty weird, and there's a LOT to talk about. There's a ton of plot that's completely different from any staging of the ballet that you've ever seen, so you can use it as a reference to compare to all of the further picture book and theatrical productions that you feel like watching.
Because you should read and watch as many different versions of the Nutcracker as your kid can stand! Syd has gotten progressively more interested in this as she's gotten older, and this year I swear we watched the first act and at least the overture and Mother Ginger scenes from the second act in every Nutcracker ballet available on YouTube--even the desperately amateur productions, bless their hearts. There are a lot of interesting aspects of how different productions are choreographed and staged, and once you've seen a few so that you've got a baseline of a typical Nutcracker production, the ones that have made atypical choices are really fun to find! Did you know that the Bolshoi Ballet casts an actual kid as the Nutcracker doll? There's also a production somewhere in which the mouse soldiers are small children, and some of them get killed during the battle, fall over dead onto their backs on stage, and are then dragged off stage by their fellow mice! It's BONKERS!!!
There's also a production in which the soldiers, including Fritz, LOSE THE BATTLE and are carted off stage in an actual cage. Later during the second act, when the Arabian dance begins, the dancing couple come on stage dragging Fritz by a chain that's attached to a collar around his neck! Because apparently the child soldiers who were captured were SOLD INTO SLAVERY?!?!?!?!?
See? Fascinating stuff!
I also really like these other retellings of the Nutcracker story or the Nutcracker ballet:
Most of those are picture books with beautiful art, and wonderful inspiration to draw your own magical Nutcracker scenes--or perhaps create your own picture book/stop-motion film/shoebox diorama/puppet show/live reenactment?
There are also a ton of backstage, behind-the-scenes resources that can fascinate kids. Syd's absolute favorite ballet book is this one--
--about a kid cast as Clara in the NYC production of The Nutcracker. If your kid actually dances ballet, though, you do NOT want to feed her only on books about the kids who are cast as the lead roles, because only a couple of kids a year get those roles and it's already going to suck bad enough when it's not your kid. Therefore, MY favorite backstage Nutcracker book is this one:
It's about a kid who gets the lousiest part in the whole production, feels lousy about it forever, and then doubles-down into it and learns to find its magic. It's a far more realistic version of what it's like to dance in the Nutcracker, with a healthy, wholesome message.
That being said, it is really fun to watch backstage documentaries. Most do follow the kids cast as Clara, but documentaries often give a more well-rounded picture of the production, so they're not as focused on how great it is to get the great roles. Syd and I watch all of the Royal Ballet videos:
Boston has some crazy sets, so this one is fun!
Here's a video all about the Mouse King, who should obviously be everyone's favorite character!
We also liked this series focused on Nutcracker auditions:
It's related to a bunch of other audition and ballet school and rehearsal videos that Syd also likes. There are a lot of interesting Russian ballet behind-the-scenes videos!
So you've got the story to study, you've got the dance to study... and you've got the music! If you think that the Nutcracker is not playing constantly in our house from October through December, then you... well, you are wrong, because it is playing constantly in our house from October through December. Honestly, it's playing for a good portion of August and September, too, if you count audition prep.
Syd sometimes lets me jazz it up by playing Duke Ellington's version, instead:
Kid-friendly composer studies can actually be challenging to find, because most children's studies don't include classical music. Charlotte Mason DOES, fortunately, so there are some resources around. Here's a good template for a composer study, complete with lots of free handouts, that includes Tchaikovsky.
This video is also interesting, because it takes one song and shows you the main instrument playing at each moment:
This CD doesn't tell you a ton ABOUT Tchaikovsky, but it includes a lot of his music and it's really fun!
So now your kid has studied the story, the dance, the music... but what's the weirdest part of the Nutcracker?
The NUTCRACKER!!!
Seriously, it's a ballet about a NUTCRACKER. My kid doesn't even like nuts, and yet she owns something like sixteen nutcrackers by now.
Mind you, none of them are functional, but there you go.
We like this How It's Made video about the traditional nutcracker form:
And this is an interesting video on the history of the nutcracker and how it all got wrapped up in Christmas, anyway:
And, of course, you know that this would not be a kid-friendly unit in MY homeschool if it did not include a very impractical video of something over-the-top. We are NOT going to be building this giant nutcracker that can crack coconuts for us:
Instead, here are some nutcracker crafts that you CAN build while watching ballet videos or listening to Tchaikovsky!
stenciled banner.I like the idea of a nutcracker banner as holiday decor, and I'm thinking that felt (which I have a ton of) would be just as nice of a penant material as the burlap that the tutorial calls for. You can find lots of nutcracker-related stencils online (I think one that featured a timeline of Syd's participation would be really cute!), but a good art project would be teaching the kids how to make stencils and then getting them to freehand some for this banner.
real nutcracker. We do not have the equipment for this, but if I can ever access it, this is going to be one of the first projects that the kids and I make together!
popsicle stick nutcracker. If you don't have the miniature popsicle sticks that this project calls for, you can cut the larger ones to size.
nutcracker cube critter. These little dudes remind me of the LEGO brickheads, but you cut and assemble them from cardstock.
clay nutcracker and angel. This is a very accessible tutorial, but if you're an able crafter and want to use polymer clay, you can search for some very intricate and elaborate tutorials on YouTube. Or just wing it!
It's strange to think of what a small part of Syd's entire life these childhood Nutcracker seasons will be, considering what a large part of her life they take up right now. Ballet isn't really one of my own big interests, but I never regret the time that it takes, or how deeply I have to dive, myself, to help a kid dive deeper into her passions.
Anyway, now that Nutcracker is over for a few months, it's time for Syd to immerse herself into her designs for our town's big Trashion/Refashion Show. No regrets on this project, either, but just between us, I like Nutcracker more than I like fashion design!
P.S. If you like study resources and weird videos of people making giant nutcrackers and cracking coconuts with them, you'd like my Craft Knife Facebook page!
I am sometimes sad that my kids are now both too old for toys, mostly because *I* love American Girl dolls and Hot Wheels and LEGOs, too! I'd still happily sit on the rug and dress up My Little Ponies endlessly, but apparently 13- and 15-year-olds don't do that sort of thing anymore.
Whatever. I'll just wait until they both leave for college and then get all their toys back out and play with them again.
Fortunately, Syd, at least, has hobbies and interests that have taken over the time that she used to spend dressing up her Barbies and taking them on adventures. Premier among these is ballet, and as I'm getting a jump on Christmas shopping/crafting this year, here are some of my favorite ideas for gifts for the teenaged ballerina!
Bobby Pins
It's prosaic, I know, but ballerinas always need lots and lots of bobby pins, they're always losing them, and they never have enough. I promise that if you give a ballerina bobby pins, she'll be really happy! This set of bobby pins is perfect to tuck into a stocking (ahem), and I like that it's got a container so that there's at least a fighting chance that the bobby pins will mostly get put back inside it.
Mostly.
Cover-Up
Syd declares that it's nice to have something to throw over your ballet clothes so that even if you don't change completely into your street clothes, you also don't look like you're just wearing your ballet uniform. Sometimes the kids have a while between classes and it's a hassle to change back and forth, and sometimes after class Syd would rather change at home than at the studio, but she also doesn't want to walk around Kroger's in her leotard if Matt wants to stop for something.
I bought Syd her current ballet cover-up, very similar to this one, in Hawaii, where it was being sold as a bathing suit cover-up, but I've also seen ballerinas wearing stretchy, loose dresses or oversized hoodies as a cover-up.
Dance Bag
Dancers always need a good dance bag! As they grow in skill, they've got ever more gear to tote around. A good dance bag is definitely on Syd's wish list for Christmas--she's still using the drawstring bag that I made her when she was a Creative Movement kid and just needed a place to keep her tights and leotard between Saturday classes, and now that she's got classes three days and Nutcracker rehearsals two days every week, she definitely does NOT have enough room for her spare leo and tights, street clothes, dance skirt, stretch bands, hair supplies, stage makeup, water bottle, and snack, poor kid.
Syd likes bags that are ballet-centric and that don't broadcast the company's name. Bloch is a really good brand, too, and I like the fact that you can buy this dance bag in two different sizes. For bonus points, add a makeup bag and a separate bag for her hairbrush, because loose hairbrushes tear tights!
Fun Leotards
In some dance schools, there is exactly one leotard, and only exactly one leotard, that is permitted for class. In other dance schools, you can wear whatever you want. Syd's dance school leans toward the former, but isn't quite there. There's definitely one exact leotard--black, halter top--that the girls know they're supposed to wear, but in the average class any black leotard is acceptable, and a lot of the girls really like to change up the boring uniform by wearing black leotards with interesting features or small pops of color.
In-Home Ballet Studio
Matt and I definitely went overboard building this in-home ballet studio for Syd, but it started off simply, with just that PVC pipe ballet barre, and that's a quick, easy, cheap project that comes apart and therefore stores well. To ramp it up, add a single wall mirror. To go beyond what we did, add a stereo and some inspirational posters.
Inside Jokes and Puns
The ballerinas I know love to share little inside jokes and ballet puns with each other--when you're part of something so specialized, part of the fun is taking advantage of the specialized language and enjoying the community of a secret code!
Ballerinas need to keep their muscles really, really warm, and leg warmers are a great way to do it. Syd really likes the Bodywrappers brand (we buy their tights!), and she likes the fact that these Bodywrappers leg warmers are so long.
Misty Copeland Stuff
All the ballerinas I know are super into Misty Copeland--there are a LOT of Misty Copeland-themed inspirational memes going around the teen ballerina Instagram accounts, I'll just say. I really like the fact that her bio has a young reader's edition, as well as a regular edition for older kids, and there's a picture book about her for the little ones, too!
Notebook
In the past, Syd's ballet teachers have had the kids write out their choreography, or jot down dance terms, etc. It happens often enough that it's handy to have a notebook and pencil in one's dance bag, especially if it's a cute one like this one that also has a cardboard cover, so that when she finds it in the very bottom of the bag under her jazz outfit and last week's leftover snack, it's at least not crumpled beyond recognition.
Performance Souvenirs
The Nutcracker is so far the only really big production that Syd's danced in, but she loves it so much that she always loves getting keepsakes related to it, and I imagine it's much the same with most ballerinas and their favorite productions. I like the idea of this LEGO Nutcracker because it's both a keepsake AND something that she can take apart and store away when it's not on display.
Socks
Are all teen girls super into socks these days, or is it just my teen girl? Well, and her friends, because there are some kids over right now with Syd, and I've definitely seen some novelty socks running past on other feet.
So in my humble opinion, most teen girls these days would be super thrilled about socks, and a ballet kid would be extra super SUPER thrilled about ballet socks like these!
Stretch Bands
Syd's afraid of her studio-issued stretch band because the very first time she used it outside of class, it snapped her in the face and really hurt her! Nevertheless, ballerinas have to use them, so they might as well have some in their favorite colors.
Travel Games
There are a lot of long waits during performance season. It's great for the kids because they get SO much time with their ballerina friends, but also they have to stay somewhat contained and quiet-ish and can't mess up their hair, etc., so the activities that they can do together are limited. Travel games keep them from all just zoning out on their phones, and for some reason--maybe because the waits are so long and the options for entertainment are so limited--the kids tend to LOVE them. Every Nutcracker season that Syd has danced in has been consumed with group addictions to games like Uno and Spot It, quick and easy games that as few or as many people can play as necessary, games that everyone already knows the rules to, games that move fast so you can drop them the second you hear your stage call and still feel like you accomplished something.
Spot It is especially fun, I've gathered, because there are so many different varieties to the sets. If a kid brings in a new set with a different theme, all the kids act as if it's a totally new game and get excited all over again.
Warm-up Booties
Here's another thing that ballerinas always could use another pair of: warm-up booties! These are really useful, because ballerinas have to keep their feet warm and studios in the winter are freezing, but they're also super cute and comfy. I don't know a single dancer who isn't obsessed with these exact warm-up booties.
Do YOU have a dancer who loves something specific, or have you given a ballerina a gift that was a major hit? If so, please tell me about it in the Comments below, because I SUPER want to know about it!
