Their Whole Lives

I was driving a few weeks ago and stopped to talk to a neighbor.  I said, "I'm just going to pick up some of my girls from ballet."  The neighbor came back with, "Yep, you're going to pick up your daughters from something they'll never use again in their whole lives."  Do you ever wish you had a biting comeback for moments like this?  Me too.  Instead I said, "Yeah."

It's fine that I was speechless.  My dad taught me never to argue with a fact.  Since there are no facts here, only opinions, I will amend that advice to, "Never argue with someone who is acting like a doodly poop."  And I will let my photos speak for me...

Discipline 

(these are the Level Two classes I teach)

Order

Expression

Humor...Ruby's dance clothes hanging out the window to dry on the way to class.

The realization of goals.  Ruby suffered through knee pain and overcame surgery, one class at a time, five times a week, building her strength until she was able to leap again.  This is her last class before recital.  

She did it!

Time to bond.  Thursdays, I dropped off Ari and Emma at 4:50, then waited with Xanthe for Golda to get out at 5:05.  Then we dropped Xanthe off at her studio.  Xanthe and I had some good little talks during our 15 minutes.  That's where we talked about how she found her old glasses and they really do help her see!

Mothers and daughters.  Ari and I both have class Saturday morning.  During our 15 minutes between when we open the studio and when my class starts, we talk.  We took this picture to be goofy.  It is a replica of a picture I treasure from 1987 of my friend Sarah Scheuller and I as the Mad Hatter and March Hare in the recital.  Speaking of which, might I mention how ballet class fosters lifelong friendships.

Learning from great teachers.  Clytie has been a mentor to me since the time
I was four years old.  She is a mentor and an example to my children, as are
HER children and grandchildren who teach us.  Perhaps the most important aspect of any
discipline is the influence of the teacher.  Scott and I are fortunate not to have to raise our
daughters without the influence of these great women.

Sisters getting along!

Grace and beauty.  Look at these beautiful young women.  These are the mothers of the future.

I am thankful they will have something to teach their children about appreciating beauty.

Xanthe loves ballet because of her older sisters.  Xanthe was staging her dance and she did a little tendu.  Golda, standing beside me in the wings, whispered to me nervously, "Point!  Point!"  Xanthe's little foot stretched into a point and Golda gave a sigh of relief.  "She did it," Golda said.  Ballet gives them a concrete   venue for the love they have for each other, and a time and place to express it.

The Seagull dance has become a classic.  It is so achingly beautiful, more so this year because Golda and Ruby were in it last year, and now they are older.  It is poignant to mark the progression.  I think of them together each Wednesday night, learning this dance and others with their dear friends and their incredible teacher, Sarah, and my heart melts.  The girls, in all honesty, took a lot of heat for having to leave Young Women's activities a little bit early to make it to this class.  It was a sacrifice, but our family felt they could do both.  I would never give up an opportunity to have Sarah Robinette's influence in my children's lives.

Xanthe had so much help getting ready, she probably had ten layers of hairspray and ten layers of lipstick on.

Xanthe's first recital was a few days after we got home from China.  She rode on my hip during staging, a little 13-pound 13-month-old.  In four years of ballet, she has missed one class.  One.  She lives for it.  From her first days with our family, dance has given her a tangible example of how she belongs.  "My mom goes to ballet.  My sisters go to ballet.  I go to ballet.  I look different from them, but I am just like them."

 Seagulls, Golda and Ruby in the front.

 Cousins

 Best friends, just like their moms were.  Their moms walked to ballet after school four days a week.  They missed Days of Our Lives every day but Friday, but they gained a friendship though success and disaster, class after class, recital after recital.

 This is me.  This is so me.  This, I love.  And I'm sure I couldn't overstate the importance of all those seven-minute drives to the ballet studio and the confidences shared as a daughter and I sat together.  This is what my mom did for me.  This is what I do for my children.

Sideways girls

When people we love come to see us perform, we know they love us, they are proud of us, and they care about us.  And we love them too!

 Their mothers have been friends since kindergarten.

 Xanthe and Esmae love each other.  I have no doubt they knew each other in the pre-existence.  They remind me of that saying, "God made us cousins because our moms couldn't handle us as sisters."  :)  Coco can, though!

 These girls know each other pretty darn well!

 Ari, Ellison and Morgan.  

They don't have a lot of time to" play," but they do see each other
several times a week in modern, jazz and ballet.  Their friendships are solid.

Responsibility.  Ari has managed all three of her costumes and all the accessories, plus chaperoning two classes of little kids.  Her poor teacher Kenzie about had a heart attack when Ari was AWOL right before the Crocodile dance.  With 30 seconds to spare, Ari appeared from a costume change, calm and unruffled, ready to walk right onto the stage and be a crocodile.  She couldn't believe we were worried!

Something they'll never use again their whole lives?

I'm sorry, I don't know what you're talking about.