My daughter takes two dance lessons per week – one ballet and one hip-hop. On Mondays it’s ballet. As another mom and I were waiting outside the door for the kids to come out, we chatted in glowing terms about this particular studio.
The dance experience has been nothing but awesome for AB. As many of you know, she has had the dance in her since before she could walk (see this video from almost seven years ago).
She took Creative Dance at this same studio when she was really little, and they just explored music and movement and the amazing feeling of fusing the two. As far as I can tell, this is the closest you get to the perfect dance experience: so much joy, and so little shame.
Some studios are the opposite – everything revolves around competition, therefore the dance is only a little bit about joy, and mostly about being synchronized and obscenely flexible and looking good in your costume and never letting the smile slip.
I hope AB will continue with dance so that she will always have those opportunities to collaborate… to express feelings and convey messages with her movement… to revel in music… to know the power of her body… to make dance profound… to feel the thrill of performing as a collective, without the pain of being pitted against others.
That’s the dream.
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I love that video! Some parts of it I’ve already seen, but some not. Everett looks as much like a dancer as Arwen! Is there a similar program available for him? Some of his moves are pretty awesome — made me think of Ozzie.